Past family information Viking

All vacationers in the Viking Age have access to modern facilities in Lejre Land of Legends’ backstage area during their stay. The Multihouse has showers and changing rooms as well as modern toilets with drag and drop.

• Wood chopping: All wood chopping takes place in the stalls at the chopping site. Remember the chopping instructions with legs spread and the axe in a straight line above your head. An adult must be present unless you have agreed otherwise.
• Cutting: Sit down before taking your knife out of the sheath and put it back in the sheath before standing up. Agree with the facilitator where it is appropriate to sit and cut.
• Smoking: Smoking is allowed behind the Multihouse. In case of drought, smoking may be completely prohibited. The staff at Lejre Land of Legends do not smoke around children and other guests.
• Scalding water: When you collect scalding water for washing dishes at the Multihouse, the bucket is only half-filled with water. The water from the hot tap is 70°. Take two people to fetch the water, use a carrying stick and walk calmly with the bucket between you. The carrying stick is in the kitchen chest in the Forest House.
  Be careful when scalding your dishes.
• Open fire: Outdoor fires may only be lit in the designated fire pits. Other use of open fires is only allowed with an instructor or by appointment. During a drought period there may be special restrictions.
• For burns: Use cold water for at least half an hour. An open burn or a burn that is larger than the person’s hand must be checked by a doctor after cooling, also if the burn forms a ring around a finger, arm or leg.
• In case of fire: Make efforts to extinguish the fire before it grows large. Use fire blanket / fire extinguisher – remember to remove the splint.
• In case of fire in the shepherd’s hut: Everyone out of the house. Remember that the door faces inwards in the shepherd’s house. Count the people. The Viking tents are alerted and emptied. Count the people. Meeting point: The square in front of the Welcome Center. Run to the phone and alert the fire brigade. Call 112 from the emergency phone in the kitchenette in the Multihouse. Remember to open the gate at the entrance so the fire brigade can enter. Make room for the fire trucks.
• Fire in person: Use the fire blanket. Lay the person down. Put the fire blanket on from the head downwards. Never the other way around! The flames will hit the head.
• Illness: The nearest doctor is in Lejre. Outside opening hours, call the emergency medical service. Better to go once too often than once too little.
• Medical transportation: Lejre Land of Legends has a contract with Falck to transport our visitors in case of illness or accident. Our subscription number is 0634391.

Safety equipment:

• The cookhouse, also called the forest house, has a set of fire equipment. There are fire blankets and a foam extinguisher.
• In the Forest House, the first aid kit is located above the north door.
• In the Kitchen tent, the first aid kit and fire blanket are in the kitchen chest. There is also a fire extinguisher.
• In the Forge, the extinguisher hangs behind the post.
• You can have the first aid kits refilled by asking the staff.
• Hirdshuset also has a set of fire equipment in each room.
• In the Multihouse, in the kitchen, there is a first aid kit and a red phone to call 112 from. Outside the kitchen door is a foam extinguisher.

THERE ARE FIRST AID KITS, FIRE BLANKETS AND FOAM EXTINGUISHERS IN VARIOUS PLACES IN FREDSBJERG.

Dis, comes from the West Old Norse dis meaning ‘dis, female deity’.

Fritha (Frida), from the West Old Norse frithr meaning ‘love, peace’.

Gudfrith (Gudfred), the first part comes from West Old Norse gud meaning ‘deity or divine being’ and the second part comes from West Old Norse frithr meaning ‘love, peace’.

Gunhildr (Gunhild), the first part comes from the West Old Norse gunnr which means ‘fight or battle’. The second part comes from the West Old Norse hildr, which means ‘battle’.

Gunnur (Gunvor) comes from the West Old Norse gunnr, which means ‘fight or battle’.

Biorn (Bjørn), from the Old Norse bernurr meaning ‘bear’.

Bøsi (Bose), comes from bause meaning ‘great man, proud, haughty person’.

Gudmund, the first part comes from the West Old Norse gud meaning ‘deity or divine being’. The second part comes from the Old Norse mundur, which means ‘protector’.

Harald, the first part comes from heri which means ‘hare’. The second part comes from the West Old Norse -valdr, which means ‘falcon’.

Lidsvaldar, the first part comes from the West Old Norse -valdar meaning ‘retinue, crew’. The second part comes from valdar meaning ‘ruler or chief’.

Svend, from sveinn meaning ‘young man’.

Toke, short form of Thorkil. The first part comes from the West Old Norse thor meaning ‘thunder and lightning’. The second part comes from the West Old Norse ketil, meaning helmet and protector. Toke is the male name most frequently carved in runes in the Viking Age.

Tryggvi comes from tryggr meaning ‘faithful, reliable’.

Vermund comes from verja meaning ‘guardian or protector’.

Wilhelm, originally a West Germanic name that comes from vili, meaning ‘will or desire

Al- has several origins, Germanic ala or alla meaning ‘all or whole’, Old Norse alu meaning ‘guardian, protection and happiness’ and West Norse alfr meaning ‘elf, a kind of underground being’.

As- comes from the West Old Norse áss meaning ‘pagan god’.

Gud- comes from the West Old Norse gud meaning ‘deity or divine being’.

Gunn- comes from the West Old Norse gunnr meaning ‘fight or battle’.

Ger- comes from the West Old Norse geirr meaning ‘spear’.

Ragn- has several origins including the Gothic ragin meaning ‘council’ and the West Old Norse rogn or regin meaning ‘powers or divine powers’.

Sig- comes from the West Old Norse sigr meaning ‘victory’.

Thor- comes from the West Old Norse god name Thor originally meaning ‘thunder, lightning’.

Øy- comes from the Old Norse awio meaning ‘happiness, gift’.

–arr has several origins, harjarr meaning ‘army’ or ‘commanders, warriors’, warjarr meaning ‘he who refuses or protects’ and gæirrrr meaning ‘spear’.

–bjørn, from the Old Norse bernurr meaning ‘bear’.

–ger, comes from the West Old Norse geirr meaning ‘spear’.

–laugr, probably the same as the Gothic liugan meaning ‘to make a sacred vow, to marry’.

–mundr, comes from the Old Norse mundur meaning ‘protector’.

–sten, from the West Old Norse steinn meaning ‘stone’.

–ulf, from the West Old Norse ulfr meaning ‘wolf’.

–valdar, from valdr meaning ‘ruler or chief’.

–bord, from bjerg and the West Old Norse bjarga, meaning ‘rescue or help’.

–dis, from West Old Norse dis, meaning ‘dis, female deity’.

–fred, from the West Old Norse frithr, meaning ‘love, peace’.

–hildr, from the West Old Norse hildr, meaning ‘battle’.

–guild, probably the same as the Gothic liugan, which means ‘to make a sacred vow, to marry’.

–vi, may come from the Germanic wihaz meaning ‘a priest’ or from the West Old Norse vig meaning ‘fight’.

–øy, comes from the Old Norse awio meaning ‘happiness, gift’.

The Viking Age spans from the early 700s to the mid-1000s in the Christian era. The term Viking Age only exists in Scandinavia. Other countries refer to the period as the Late Iron Age or Early Middle Ages.

The Vikings came from all over Scandinavia, the area that today consists of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The language was Old Norse, and the writing was carved with short-quill runes.

Lejre Land of Legends’ Viking area reflects the early Viking Age with finds and source material from the 5th-9th centuries, where the area in Gl. lejre, located about 2 km from Lejre Land of Legends, with remains of mighty royal halls, burial mounds

as a center of power and culture. The Viking Age was a time of upheaval, when people gradually abandoned the old gods as knowledge of the White Christ became widespread. Society went from a chieftain society to a society with an emerging state. We see this centralization in state formation in written as well as archaeological and numismatic (coin) sources. The construction of royal farms and cult centers such as Lejre and Tissø, which the king could visit on his travels around the country, the construction of ring forts, ramparts and other defenses and the minting of coins are examples of this state formation.

It showed the power of the king.

The king’s function was first and foremost to lead military actions and cult festivals, but also to provide protection in the kingdom, as well as to be the head of the kingdom externally. The king’s interests were looked after by kingsmen, who were local magnates who, among other things, secured him income from cities and markets. The king also had herdsmen as his personal entourage and household. They were attached to the royal farms, which were responsible for the care of the area. At the forefront was the brewer, who broke the daily bread for the household. The household, which consisted of both shepherds and the household, did not receive wages as such, but shelter, food, protection and gifts. Gift exchange was relationship-building.

Society at the time was highly stratified. At the top were the king and the great chiefs – the aristocracy. Free peasants and noblemen formed a middle tier. Landless agricultural laborers were below them, and the lowest were the slaves. Craftsmen may often have been unfree, but there is little concrete knowledge about their status. The family was the basic community, but there were also other communities (Old Danish: félag) with mutual obligations that could take its place. Such a community could be the ownership of a ship, or it could be a band of warriors or a trade association.

Marriage was an alliance between equals and their families. Sources suggest that women had free relationships, except when it came to freedwomen and slaves. Women had independent status, the housewife was the key bearer and could exercise independent authority, but their central tasks were in the home, keeping house and raising children.

In pagan times, they could also perform ritual acts, but that possibility disappeared with Christianity, which gradually reduced women’s room for maneuver. Children had their own special life frame together with adults, where they were part of the daily work as little people in women’s skirts in the home around the hearth, and when they grew older with daily duties and chores inside and outside the home. Children didn’t always stay at home with their parents and relatives. They were fostered on other farms and places to learn how to navigate the world.

Vikings were known and feared almost all over the world as men of violence and berserkers. However, they were also known for their trading behavior, settlements and voyages of discovery. They traveled west and south and sailed the rivers eastward to the Byzantine Empire. There were skilled shipbuilders, sailors and navigators. Viking ships were the thoroughbred horses of the sea that carried the Vikings on their distant trade routes with goods such as furs, amber, slate for grinding stones, rock fish, timber, tar, feathers and down.

Encountering the world was the Vikings’ will, and if you wanted to get along in a foreign world, you needed a set of rules for good behavior like Emma Gad’s “Takt og Tone”. Such a set of rules can be found in a long poem called Hávamál from the Edda. Hávamál is the “Speech of the High One” – from Odin himself.

Where roads met, trading or loading berths were laid out where smaller ships could be pulled up and trade could take place. The first trading cities were founded with a well-organized trading system. The most famous trading towns in the Nordic region are Hedeby, Ribe, Kaupang in Norway and Birka in Sweden, Viborg, Odense and Aarhus. Anglo-Saxon sources and landscape laws, such as the Jutlandic Law, the Icelandic “Grey Goose” and the Norwegian Gulatingslov, which has its roots in Viking customary law, testify that the perilous journey on water and on land for merchants and rich traders was remedied with law and order.

We pick you up at the gate. Accommodation, information and guided tour, changing into Viking costumes and lunch prepared for you by the Vikings.

The daily program begins.

The Vikings from Fredsbjerg will prepare lunch and recap the week’s experiences, say goodbye and thank you, see you again and have a safe journey.