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New Nordic Viking Food

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New Nordic Viking Food 2013.

New Nordic Food was a concept launched in 2003 when Danish Cooks and Food-writers got together and wrote a manifesto in order to create a New Nordic Kitchen. The manifesto stressed purity, freshness, respect for the seasons and locally – Nordic – sourced ingredients. One object was to promote the rejuvenating of local producers and traditional production methods. As is wellknown, one result was the creation of the restaurant Noma which has been ranked as the world’s best restaurant three years in a row. Another result was a study of what happens to the obesity of people, who adopt a diet based on these principles, the New Nordic Diet. The results of this scientific study was remarkable: While the ordinary dieters lost 1.6 kilo on average inside 12 weeks, the Nordic Dieters lost 3.1 kilos in the same period. Highly recommendable! –

New Nordic Viking Food 2013

Finally, a third spin-off – New Nordic Viking Food – was launched last year, when cultural historians at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde teemed up with culinary historian and archaeologist Bi Skaarup and a local restaurant Snekken, located at the harbour next door.

The object was to develop a new food–concept inspired by the Vikings.

A few of the inspirational features are

  • Ketchup produced on the basis of wild rose hips
  • Grain and root vegetables instead of potatoes
  • Canola, hemp or flaxen oil instead of olive oil
  • Juniper, wild garlic and thyme as tasters
  • Meat and fish smoked on fires lit on oak, juniper and nettles
  • Bread made with sourdough
  • Meat or fish wrapped in sorrel, tang or other leafy local plants
  • Honey instead of sugar
  • Sweetener from birches or fruity sirups
  • Syrups made from honey plus dandelion, garden angelicas, nuts
  • Vinegar from beer, apples and pears
  • Aqua Vitae tasted with Hawthorne

– and lots of beer

So-far a cooking book is only being discussed…

A Modern Viking Meal:
Get the recipes for Salt Beef, Glazed Rootbeets and a plain Sourdough-Bread..

A Modern Viking Meal

gary-waidson-©-viking-foodGet the recipes for Salt Beef, Glazed Rootbeets and a plain Sourdough-Bread..

Inspired by the work at The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde in Denmark, Culinary Historian Bi Skaarup and the restaurant near-by: Snekken

Salt Beef

Prepare a brine of 2 litres of water, 200 gr salt, 75 – 100 gr of honey and add junipers, wild garlic, thyme, fresh ginger and some dried rose hips. You can go wherever you fancy with the flavourings. Bring the mixture to boil and let it cool. Take half a brisket (the boned belly from an ox) and place it in a heavy-duty re-sealable freezer bag and ladle the brine over it. Reseal and place in the refrigerator for at least 10 days (turning it around once every day). To use it, open the bag and clean the meat for excessive brine under cold running water (don’t overdo this as the meat will then turn “hard”). Place in a pot filled with cold water and set to boil – preferably on an open fire – and cook it slowly for at least 2 – 4 hours until really tender (when a skewer may be passed through with alarmingly little resistance). To the water may be added sliced onions, carrots, kale and wild herbs like nettles, thyme and wild garlic. Be sure the meet is covered during boiling (add extra water if necessary).

Tip: don’t discard the soup in which you have boiled the beef. It is great to use next day for boiling a lot of roots and serve as soup with sourdough bread.

Glazed Rootbeets

Two onions and 300 gr rootbeets are peeled and chopped (1cm3). Braised until half tender, 2 dl white wine (or a mixture of apple vinegar and water to taste) is added together with 3 dl chicken fond. Cook until liquid is reduced by half and taste with salt, pepper and honey.

Sourdough-bread

Starter

Mix 150 gr white flour, 75 gr whole grain flour and 75 gr rye flour with 9 dl of water from the tap plus a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of honey (1 dl flour to 2 dl water). Whip it carefully and let it stand in a glass container on the kitchen-table for app 10 days. Keep a lid on but only partially, as the mixture needs to breathe. Carefully stir at least once a day. About 10 days afterwards the mixture should be bobbling and smell like homebrewed dark beer.

Bread

Mix half of the starter (conserve the rest in the refrigerator) with 5 ½ -6 dl water and 10 gr fresh yeast, 200 gr coarse wholegrain flour (as course as you can get it) 700 gr sifted flour and 1 tablespoon salt. Use the Kitchen Aid for about 10 min. Then place the dough in an oiled container in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Turn the dough out on the table, cut one third away for next batch and keep in the refrigerator. The dough is then split into two, and formed into loaves. Left to raise again for 1 – 2 hours, the reset a bit and bake in a very hot oven. Set it to 250° C and place a pan in the bottom with. When the loaves on the baking sheet are loaded, tip a dl water into the pan in the bottom (the steam is what makes the bread deliciously crusty). Bake for 5 min and then turn the heat down to 230° C and bake for 25 min. Fabulous while fresh from the oven, but try to reserve some and toast it the next day.

READ MORE

Ny Nordisk Vikingemad. Hvad er det? Brandbook published by The Viking Museum in Roskilde 2012. (In Danish only)

 

 

Viking Ships near Roskilde © Stefan G. Rasmussen

Vikings are Coming

“The Viking World – Cultures in Contact” is the title of a major exhibition on the Vikings mounted at three different locations in Northern Europe.

Roskilde Six during excavation © Viking Ship Museum
Roskilde Six during excavation © Viking Ship Museum

June 2013 the exhibition in Copenhagen will open, moving on to British Museum in 2014 to end up in Berlin later that year.

Central to the exhibition will be what in the 21st century is the politically correct theme of “Cultural Meetings”, stressing the cultural diffusion and syncretism said to characterize the world of the Vikings.

While the Vikings were originally looked upon as heathen pirates by the contemporary clerical chroniclers, a view, which was peddled by historians up until the 20th century, the 1970s witnessed a new understanding of the Scandinavian people as primarily successful (and peaceful) merchants. This view was supported by the large excavations of the emporiums of Birka in Sweden, Haithabu in Schleswig, Kaupang in Norway, York in England and Dublin in Ireland. At the same time the understanding of the war-faring technologies was placed somewhat on hold. Today scholars seem to acknowledge that war, trade and migration are but different aspects of a major cultural amalgamation going on in the crucible of Northern Europe 800 – 1100 but having repercussions in a global context (at least reaching from Byzantium to Newfoundland.

Central to this process was a mixture of cultural meetings taking place in the form of sustained migratory movements, business ventures, the establishment of political and diplomatic relations though marriages and the exchange of hostages plus warlike expeditions and conquests. The goal of the exhibition is to disseminate new findings and new research on the Vikings, their cultural networks and connections to both close and distant neighbors in the period from the mid-eighth century to 11 century.

Central to all this was the distinctive maritime technologies and competences witnessed by “The Viking Ship”. This ship represented mobility and military strength, as well as power and wealth. Not only are the ships witnesses to the Viking’s extensive knowledge of shipbuilding and navigation; it was also a powerful symbol of the maritime connection beyond death.

Accordingly the focal point of the exhibition will be the world’s largest known Viking ship, the so-called wreck 6. Originally a 37 meters long warship its wreck was unearthed in Roskilde harbor in 1997. The exhibition is built up around the 20% of the ship that is still preserved, and placed on a full-scale replica in aluminum.

The exhibition is organized around four main themes – expansion and warfare, power and aristocracy, cultural contacts and exchanges and faith and rituals; but each of these aspects identify the many facets associated with the ship in its role as a transport warship, symbol of power, trading vessels and finally the wreck, as metaphor of death and afterlife.

About the Exhibition:

Vikings in the World – Cultures in Contact

 

Notre-Dame de Paris © Stephane Compoint Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris celebrates its 850 Anniversary

Notre-Dame de Paris celebrates its 850-year anniversary in 2013

The vaults in Notre-Dame de Paris photographed by © Stephane Compoint 2012
The vaults in Notre-Dame de Paris photographed by © Stephane Compoint 2012

Next year, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris expects more than 20 million visitors, celebrating the anniversary of this beautiful church. The first stone was laid in the presence of the Pope, Alexander III, in 1163. It took about a hundred years to finish the impressive edifice.

Complete with a new viewing platform, improved lighting, a renovated organ and – in a while – eight new bells, the Cathedral is looking all spick and span for the celebrations of the upcoming year. The lighting system is already in place, but the bells are still poured in Normandy at the bell-maker Cornille Havard. Overall, the Cathedral has raised €6.5 million from private donors to finance the ongoing projects.
The celebrations took off on December 12th, with the Parisian Cardinal-Archbishop Andrè Vingt-Trois celebrating mass at an evening service in the presence of ministers and a large crowd of other specially invited honoraries. Nearly 2000 took part in the event, which took place in front of the Cathedral.

Cover Grace dune cathedrale Notre-DameAt the same time, an interdisciplinary scientific symposium is taking place in Collège des Bernadins, where the focus is not so much on the building itself but on the religious life at the Cathedral through 850 years. The program may be viewed here.

A heavy coffee-table book  – 27 x 37 cm, 504 pages, 600 images and 2 kilos – has been published in connection with the anniversary. The book covers the history of construction from the 12th century up until now, and it tells the story of the building as a set piece for significant events in French history. The book is published in the series “La Grace d’une Cathédrale” by La Nuée Bleue Editions. The proceedings from the scientific symposium will be published later this year.

Stéphane Compoint

In connection with the anniversary the magazine Pelerin has hired the photographer Stéphane Compoint to take photos with his special technique. He uses a camera mounted on a balloon filled with helium, which he directs from below. A presentation of how this is done may be seen at the site of Pelerins. The photos may be enjoyed as part an E-pilgrimage taking seven days and inviting the pilgrim every day to enjoy and reflect upon the special sites of Notre Dame de Paris.

Sign up to receive the daily email with the E-pilgrimage aka photo-safari by Stéphane Compoint here 

FEATURED PHOTO:

© Stéphane Compoint

READ MORE:

Read more about the Celebrations at Notre Dame de Paris 2013

READ ALSO:

Notre Dame de Paris. La Grace d’une Cathedrale.
Ed. by Dany Sandron, Jean-Pierre Cartier and Gerard Pélletier.
Paris, La NuéeBleue Editions 2012.

READ MORE:

Notre-Dame de Paris

Medievalists and Heritage Specialists Caution Against Rushing to Rebuild Notre-Dame

Notre-Dame Reopens in a Few Weeks

Medieval Sculpture from Notre-Dame de Paris at Cluny

Manuscripts from Notre-Dame de Paris.

History of Italian Archives

AR.C.H.I.ves – A comparative history of archives 
in late medieval and early modern Italy

Most historians work in archives, but generally have not made archives their primary object of research. While we tend to be preoccupied by documentary loss, what is striking is the sheer amount of paperwork preserved over the centuries. We need to study the reasons for this preservation.

The project’s general aim is to study the history of the archives and of the chanceries that oversaw their production storage and organization in late medieval and early modern Italy from the late twelfth century to the opening of the Archivi di Stato that – after the ancient states’ dissolution – preserved documents as tools for scholarship rather than administration.

Italian states were at the forefront of the institutionalization of documentary preservation on a large scale, and the country as a whole has an extraordinary rich and diverse archival patrimony. Because of its fragmented political history, concentrating on Italy means having access to the archives of a wide variety of regimes; archives, which lend themselves to comparison, even though Italian archives often seem disorderly to scholars who have no local knowledge. However, this project builds precisely on the basis of the plurality of Italy’s archives, and on their overwhelming closeness to the pre-modern institutions that created them. The proposed research intends to approach their history in a doubly comparative framework, by focusing on a series of seven case studies of chanceries disseminated across Italy: Venice, Modena, Florence, the Vatican, Milan, Naples, and Palermo; and by comparing Italian chanceries with those of other European and non-European states and cities, chiefly by organizing and encouraging exchanges between scholars working in different countries.

Secondly, while histories of archives are generally inscribed in the framework of institutional history, the proposed research wishes to test the chanceries’ interactions within a wider social and cultural context, by focusing on six interconnected themes:

1)      the political role of archives, and the efforts devoted by governments to their development;

2)      their organization, subdivisions, and referencing systems;

3)      the materiality of record-keeping;

4)      the social characteristics of the staff, their education and selection;

5)      the archives’ place in society, including their access and (mis)use;

6)      their use by historians.

As implied in the choice of these themes, the project is deliberately interdisciplinary, and aims at the mutually beneficial exchange between social, political, and cultural historians, historians of art, and archivists.

The research team
The project has a deliberately long timeframe, it tackles a large variety of sources, and it needs to combine local knowledge with a wider vision. In order to tackle these challenges the project will employ a research team trained in different disciplinary skills, formed of five people:

▪        The Principal Investigator, Dr Filippo de Vivo, who will also be responsible for supervising the team’s work as a whole.

▪        Two post-doctoral research assistants, Dr Andrea Guidi, a specialist of the Florentine Chancery, and Dr Alessandro Silvestri, a specialist of the Aragonese Chancery of Palermo.

▪        Two PhD students who will research specific themes on the basis of one or two case studies alone. Mr Fabio Antonini will work on the theme of Archives and the writing of history, especially the use of archival sources by late medieval and early modern antiquarians and historians, with special reference to the Venetian case. Mr Giacomo Giudici works under the joint supervision of Dr de Vivo and Professor Evelyn Welch (QMUL) on the theme of “Paper and place”: the physical and material aspects of documentary evidence, such as the architecture and furnishings of the repositories, or the decoration and making of the records, with special reference to the cases of Milan and Venice.

There will be regular workshops with invited international participants, where team members will be able to present their findings before discussants. A final conference will conclude the project and it is expected that selected papers from the conference and the workshops will be published in a volume edited jointly by the PI and the PDRAs.

A first workshop on “Recent tendencies in the history of archives, documentary production and organization” has been planned for the 12th of December 2012.

The project is funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant

SOURCE:

AR.C.H.I.ves

Recent tendencies in the history of archives, document production and organization. Conference on Wednesday, the 12th of December 2012, Birkbeck, University of London, 2-6pm. Dreyfus Room, 26 Russell Square (TBC)
Conference program

 

Medieval Settlement Research

The Medieval Settlement Research Group

The Medieval Settlement Research Group (MSRG) is a long established, widely recognised and open multi-disciplinary group that facilitates collaboration between archaeologists, historians, geographers and other interested parties.

The Group is dedicated to developing understanding of rural landscapes and settlements including villages, hamlets and farmsteads between the 5th and 16th centuries AD. For information about membership, conferences, grants and other activities, please see the MSRG website.

The MSRG’s journal, Medieval Settlement Research (MSR), is published each year in the autumn. The journal is an internationally recognised publication, containing peer-reviewed research papers, fieldwork reports and news, reviews and an annual bibliography. Although the Group’s interests are concentrated on British and Irish medieval landscapes between the 5th and 16th centuries AD, it actively encourages wider chronological and pan-European perspectives. Medieval Settlement Research therefore welcomes papers on Britain, Ireland and Europe that help us to improve our understanding of medieval settlements and landscapes from the level of individual sites to the international scale.

A digitisation project is currently near completion and back issues of the MSR and its predecessor the MSRG Annual Report are now available to users free of charge via the Archaeology Data Service (ADS). Other bibliographic details of past content can be found on the British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB).

Back issues of the Annual Report (1986-2007) and Medieval Settlement Research journal (2008-2010) are now available online from the ADS

Viking and Crusader Swords Sold at Steep Prices

The Crusadersword captured from Mamluk Arsenal in Alexandria gave £163.250 edge to Bonhams Arms and Armour sale. Viking swords sold for up to six times the evaluation

A rare medieval sword taken from the Mamluk Arsenal at Alexandria was the top item in Bonhams sale of Antique Arms and Armour on November 28th in London. The sword, estimated to sell for £40,000 to £60,000, was eventually bought for £163,250 after stiff competition in a sale that made a total of £1m with 90% sold.

The medieval Crusader Italian-made sword was given as a gift to the Mamluk rulers of Alexandria by the Christian ruler of Cyprus and Jerusalem, King Peter I as part of a gift sealing a treaty.

King Peter I, the King of Cyprus and Jerusalem, launched the last Crusade in 1362 against the Muslim Mamluk Empire in the region. A fleet set out from Cyprus and proved victorious, taking the city of Alexandria with immense amounts of plunder returned to Cyprus, including this sword. Such was the treasure and weapons taken from the captured city that many of the overloaded ships had to jettison cargo.

David Williams, Head of Bonhams Antique Arms and Armour Department, says: “The fascination of this sword is that it has survived some six centuries having been gifted by a Christian King to a Muslim ruler and kept in the famed Alexandrian armoury and then taken by force by Crusaders and returned to Europe. It is a remarkable survivor of the Crusader period.”

The sword has a flat tapering double-edged blade 92.5 cm. long and overall with the hilt 115.7cm. The weapon bears an inscription that reads: ‘Hubs Khazain al-Silah bi thughri al-Iskandariyya ayyam al-Sayfi Faris al […d.]’, ‘Donation to the armoury in the frontier city of Alexandria in the days of al-Sayfi Faris al- [Muhammadi]. Amir Faris was an inspector in 840H, corresponding to 1436-7 AD. Only three other swords appear to be recorded inscribed in the name of the Amir Faris. One in a private charitable foundation, another in Leeds Castle, Kent and the other in the Military Museum at Istanbul.

A stunning array of death-dealing swords from the Medieval period and earlier, including Viking weapons, formed the main thrust of Bonhams sale of Antique Arms and Armour on November 28th in Knightsbridge.

David Williams, Director of Arms and Armour at Bonhams, comments: “Many of these rare and remarkable weapons would have been used in battle. The scarring and damage goes some way to confirm this, though the years have also taken their toll.”

Among the collection of swords in the sale from the distinguished Danish collector the late E.A. Christensen, there were some seven Viking swords dating from the 9th and tenth centuries when the Vikings were invading the British Isles on a regular basis.

Lot 55, a Viking sword similar to one found in Ireland and estimated at £4,000 to £5,000, sold for a whopping £30,000.

A rare Viking sword from the 9th Century, found in 1887 in the mouth of the River Thieles, in Switzerland, (lot 57), estimated to sell for £6,000 to £8,000, made £27,500.

Lot 54, found in the River Meuse in Belgium estimated to sell for £3,500 to £4,500 made £10,625.

The Viking Age spanned the late 8th to 11th centuries.

The Viking destruction of Lindisfarne was reported by a Northumbrian scholar who wrote: “Never before has such an atrocity been seen”. More than any other single event, the attack on Lindisfarne cast a shadow on the perception of the Vikings for the next twelve centuries.

For more information please contact www.bonhams.com

 

Chronographia of Ioannes Malalas

Byzantine History of the World to be Studied and Made Accessible
Tübingen Historian, Professor Mischa Meier, heads new 12-year project examining the Chronographia of  Ioannes Malalas (490 -578 AD). He  wrote his Chronographia in Greek in the 6th century. In recent years, researchers have come to believe he was an official in the provincial administration of the Eastern Roman Empire. In that position, Malalas appears to have had access to important archives – which was important for the final books in the chronology, which dealt with the contemporary history.

Read more at University of Tübingen 

New book on Royal Seals of the Árpád Dynasty

New book on Royal Seals of the Árpád Dynasty
28.11.2012
A new book, written by Imre Takács on Royal Seals of the Árpád Dynasty was presented today at the Hungarian National Archives. The book is the first part of a new series, titled Corpus Sigillorum Hungariae Mediaevalis. The series aims to provide catalogue of Hungarian medieval seals – including royal seals, aristocratic seals as well as seals of towns, religious institutions and other organizations. The first volume is dedicated to seals issued by Hungarian kings of the Árpád Dynasty (1000-1301), and includes a total of 48 entries.
Read more at Medieval Hungary

 

 
New book on Royal Seals of the Árpád Dynasty
28.11.2012
A new book, written by Imre Takács on Royal Seals of the Árpád Dynasty was presented today at the Hungarian National Archives. The book is the first part of a new series, titled Corpus Sigillorum Hungariae Mediaevalis. The series aims to provide catalogue of Hungarian medieval seals – including royal seals, aristocratic seals as well as seals of towns, religious institutions and other organizations. The first volume is dedicated to seals issued by Hungarian kings of the Árpád Dynasty (1000-1301), and includes a total of 48 entries.
Read more at Medieval Hungary