Viking Loot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beSvyN62Jig A video of the making of one. Very long work to make the serrated edge then fold it over the existing spearpoint then flattening it to create the broader head and cool pattern. https://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?/topic/30844-viking-age-wolf-tooth-spears-the-collected-thread/ Great forum with LOTS of spears and pages of info

made 8-1000 ad 171 swords have been named/decided were Uthberts Secret of it's creation lost for 1000 years How swords have been made and of what materials 9:30 steel, made from crushed iron ore melt to separate rock from iron add carbon from coal or charcoal to harden metal into steel  Impurities such as slag make steel brittle a nonmetalic part of the ore, making it bristle the fires weren't hot enough to melt fully the iron 11:00 metals are melted at temps over 3000 degrees gets rid of slag and allows carbon to be mixed in more evenly 11:15 carbon could only be mixed in incidentally, mainly from the coal of the fire Slag was hammered out (not effective enough) Uthbert had 3x as much carbon and little slag to none Crucible steel 16:40 blackstmiths held at good esteem because of their skill 18:20 bone, burnt bone can be used (even from ancestors or from a bear) , add together with charcoal to create an excellent carbon Using bone from ancestor or bear...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands A young Faroese person is normally handed down a set of children's Faroese clothes that have passed from generation to generation. Children are confirmed at age 14, and normally start to collect the pieces to make an adult outfit, which is considered as a rite of passage. Traditionally the aim would have been to complete the outfit by the time a young person was ready to marry and wear the clothes at the ceremony—though it is mainly only men who do this now. Each piece is intricately hand-knitted, dyed, woven, or embroidered to the specifications of the wearer. For example, the man's waistcoat is put together by hand in bright blue, red, or black fine wool. The front is then intricately embroidered with colourful silk threads, often by a female relative. The motifs are often local Faroese flowers or herbs. After this, a row of Faroese-made solid silver buttons are sewn on the outfit. Women wear embroidered silk, cotton, or...

FREYA “Freyja and the Necklace” by James Doyle Penrose (1890) http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/freya/ Freya ( Old Norse   Freyja , “Lady”) is one of the preeminent goddesses in Norse mythology. She’s a member of the  Vanir  tribe of deities, but became an honorary member of the  Aesir  gods after the  Aesir-Vanir War . Her father is  Njord . Her mother is unknown, but could be  Nerthus .  Freyr  is her brother. Her husband, named  Odr  in late  Old Norse literature , is certainly none other than  Odin , and, accordingly, Freya is ultimately identical with Odin’s wife  Frigg (see below for a discussion of this). Freya is famous for her fondness of love, fertility, beauty, and fine material possessions – and, because of these predilections, she’s considered to be something of the “party girl” of the Aesir. In one of the  Eddic  poems, for example,  Lo...

http://norse-mythology.org/concepts/death-and-the-afterlife/ DEATH AND THE AFTERLIFE The Vikings’ religion never contained any formal doctrines concerning what happens to someone when he or she dies. In the words of historian H.R. Ellis Davidson, “ There is no consistent picture in Norse literary tradition of the fate of the dead,” [1]  and “to oversimplify the position would be to falsify it.” [2]  The rational order that people today often naively insist on finding in Viking portrayals of the dead simply isn’t there in the sources. Nevertheless, the picture presented to us by archaeology and the  Old Norse  literary  sources  isn’t complete chaos. There  are  discernible patterns in the way the Norse conceived of death and the afterlife, even though those patterns don’t hold absolutely, and the details of what one source tells us are almost invariably contradicted by another source. The Land(s) of the Dead Spiritual parts of the ...

Rebirth http://norse-mythology.org/concepts/death-and-the-afterlife/ Some sources also speak of the dead being reborn in one of their descendants, although never in someone outside of their family line. Here as well, the sources are unclear as to how exactly this would happen, but oftentimes the dead person is reincarnated in someone who is named after him or her. [7] It’s sometimes impossible to distinguish between deceased human  ancestors  and  elves  in Old Norse literature, to the point that it wouldn’t be amiss to speak of a part of the dead human becoming an elf in some cases. One example of this comes from  The Saga of Olaf the Holy , one of the first Christian kings of Norway. Olaf and a servant ride past the burial mound of the king’s ancestor and namesake, who is now called by the name of  Óláfr Geirstaðaálfr  – literally “Olaf, the Elf of Geirstad,” a title that clearly implies the currently elfin state of the king’s forefather. Th...