Viking women didn’t carry swords–a free woman carried a knife, used primarily for eating. But they did know how to use one, and in a pinch would borrow a brother’s sword and go galloping off for vengence.

You may still be able to find Vikings at the SCA, and you can certainly still get a sword at one of their shindigs, and often axes too (the one shown is a “bearded” ax), but many reenactors will look for a sword that is not “battle ready”, that is, not sharpened.

There are many stories told of sword displays collapsing, or a sword accidentally falling, sometimes even near a child, and thank the gods, no one was hurt–because the swords weren’t battle ready.

And once the horns and the mead come out, and your posse starts fumbling and dropping things, you will be more than glad if they don’t have any sharp items on their persons.

As you can see, my sword is not battle ready, and never will be.

And now for something completely different. This looping video of the Viking Kittens always cracks me up. And it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to understand the lyrics to this song.  If you’re still in a bad mood after watching it, check out the 404 party on this  404 message page.

(BTW, the real Vikings didn’t wear horns–only the Hollywood ones did.)

Very interesting graphics of Odin’s eight legged horse Sleipnir appear on Gotland picture stones. (This post continues a discussion inspired by thread at LH; previous posts  here and here) .

One of these Sleipnirs was reported to be too difficult to enlarge in the original that I posted. (A Sleipnir that looks like a piece of grilled cheese?!?) Here is another, (the small one on the right, as usual, click to enlarge), with two more detailed cropped pictures derived from the first (below) , but I suspect the limits have been reached with this particular photograph.  The stone is identified as from Tangelgårde in the north of Gotland.

Several of these stones are described by Gwyn Jones in A History of the Vikings |Amazon|.  Jones identifies the stones as Ardre VIII, Lärbro I, Klinte Hunninge I |Google Books excerpt from Jones describing Sleipnir on Gotland stones|. It’s not clear whether the third stone in the list has any Sleipnir images, probably not or he would have said so, but he says all three stones are ones with widely available photographs.

Here is the stone Jones calls Lärbro I, which has irregularities that look so much like the Tangelgårde stone that it must be the same one.

On Sleipnir’s back is supposed to be a dead man.  I’m trying to see what is on Sleipnir’s nose–a feedbag? Surely nothing so pedestrian. A raven–maybe Huginn or Muninn? A flaw in the stone? Horns, like Aundumla, the cow at the beginning of time?   The other horse should give a good guideline for how the artist liked to portray horse noses. Other horses, actually. There is a horse in the frame below and one in the frame above–with wings.  Might this be the Wild Hunt? That activity was associated with Odin, last time I checked.

Here’s a nice image of the Tängvide Stone with the contemporary red paint added. And an image of the Ardre VIII stone.  These are the two stones identified in Wikipedia as having Sleipner’s image. Here is an online version of the third stone, the  Lärbro I/Tangelgårde stone.

Sleipnir.

For Kron’s daughter over at LH. (Click picture to see larger.) Whenever I want to check the weather in Norway I just peek at the Norwegian webcams.

There are a number of sources for images of medieval Scandinavian horses, but fewer for Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged horse. Sleipnir was the offspring of Loki and the stallion Svaðilfari. In response to a comment on a LH thread, here is a sampling of Nordic medieval horse images, both four-legged and eight-legged.
(click for larger image)

Row 1:

From Cultural Atlas of the Viking World, ed. James Graham-Campbell:

1. Sleipnir, 8th c. picture stone, Gotland

2. Sleipnir and another horse on a Gotland stone.

3. Fat horse and rider on Migration era bracteate from Sweden

Row 2:

4. Fragment of Queen’s tapestry with horses from Oseberg blue clay burial, maybe Queen Asa.

5. Sleipnir, 8th-9th century Gotland Stone

6. Horses on reconstruction of Oseberg tapestry

Row 3:

7. Sigurd’s horse Grani carries Fafnir’s treasure on his back

8. Horses? dragons? unicorns? whalebone plaque from Scotland

9. Beast in Ringerike style, (considered to be best example of this style) Ginni and Toki’s tomb, St. Paul’s in London

Row 4:

The Viking, Bertil Algren, et al.

10. Horse-drawn passenger wagon illustration from Oseberg tapestry fragment.

11. Bayeux tapestry, Horses in Battle of Hastings

12. Bayeux tapestry, Duke William’s Norman cavalry

(Bayeux tapestry from this group out of order at end of list)

Row 5:

13. Oseberg tapestry fragment closeup, horse cart

14. Dangeld money payment in silver coins

15. Creature? Swedish bronze weathervane from Swedish ship prow

Row 6:

16. Sleipnir from Gotland picture stone

17. Horse shaped silver gilt ornament, one of a pair, originally made as a pair of broaches, from Birka woman’s grave

From The Vikings, Johannes Brondsted

18. Sleipnir on  Gotland tombstone; horses on Dynna, Norway runic stone

Row 7:

19. Horse with coiled joints on Ramsund rock in Sweden

From The Vikings, O. Madsen

20. Horses in Viking boats, “Queen Matilda” tapestry, Bayeux

21. “Early Viking Warriors” (on horses)

Row 8:

22. “The famous Viking Knut fighting the king of England” (horse line drawings)

23. “Trinket, Sweden 9th century” (figure on horse)

24. Stele for engraved stone from  Haggeby, Uppland, horses with either curled tongues or singing with moons on their heads (left), and Motifs from stone found in Gotland (lower right)

Row 9:

From  The World of the Norsemen, Eric Oxenstierna

25. Horse (four legs) on pictoral stone from Klinte, Gotland

out of order:

26. Bayeux tapestry, Norman horses in color (from The Viking, Bertil Algren, et al.)