A Mystic Journey: Viking Days at Mystic Seaport Museum, Connecticut (Part Three)
Some might say “this ship has already sailed”, when it comes to my coverage of our adventure at Viking Days at Mystic Seaport Museum, Connecticut, but those people do not include all my followers who looked most forward of all to my coverage of the Draken Harald Harfagre: the largest Viking ship built in modern times. We stood in line for nearly an hour in hot sun (which is saying something, here in New England; it’s rarely that hot!), so while I apologize for my unavoidable lateness (due to family tragedy and health concerns), there is zero way that I’m not going to complete my coverage of our adventure with this post!
The Draken Harald Harfagre (Dragon Harald Fair-Hair) is the largest Viking ship to have been built in modern times, and is a seaworthy vessel, sailing out of Haugesund, Norway, following the routes across the Northern Atlantic which the Vikings sailed to reach Iceland, Greenland, and North America. She is the “brainchild” of entrepreneur Sigurd Aase, who describes her as:
…The outcome of my daydreams. I believe that everyone should be given the chance to realize at least one of their daydreams. It doesn’t matter whether it’s big or small.
His stated goal for her construction? To explore the world and embrace the Viking Spirit:
The modern Viking is an individual who pursues an idea, takes on challenges, and looks for adventure. A modern Viking looks beyond the horizon and finds new solutions to old problems–those creative enough to think outside the box.
Those are sentiments I know many of us can get behind; I certainly do!
Stem to stern, she is 115 feet long, with a beam of 26 feet, and a mast height of 79 feet. She is square-rigged (her sail measures 260 square meters), and her top speed is 14 knots (16 miles per hour; which is faster than it sounds, over open water). She can be rowed by up to 100 oarsmen: she is equipped with 25 pairs of oars, requiring two wo/men per oar. Her hull is oak, and her original mast was douglas fir (not sure what it is now, as that original mast broke in half during a storm off the coast of Scotland in 2016, and had to be replaced with a new tree). Her sail is silk, and her rigging is hemp (historical riggings were traditionally crafted of rope made from walrus hide; they were unable to ethically source enough walrus hide to create her riggings, and yes, they checked!). Shallow in the draft (8 feet, 2 inches), and with unsecured decking, she is able to travel in much shallower water than a typical schooner or tallship, just like her Viking ancestors, while also being perfectly capable of enduring a beating during storms at sea (well, unless her mast snaps…).
She is also richly decorated, bearing the traditional dragon-prow which most moderns have come to readily associate with Viking ships, as well as numerous carvings and decorations based on archaeological finds. These include the runes Algiz, Tiwaz, Raidho, carved into the cavity behind the dragon’s head, as well as great statues of Huginn and Muninn in the captain’s portion of the ship. How does one know which raven is which? Huginn (Thoughts) sits atop a post carved with an image of Sleipnir, Odin’s horse (representing how quickly thoughts “travel”), while Muninn (Memory) sits atop a matching post, carved with the Valknot (to represent hamingja: legacy, or reputation).
She set out from her homeport in Norway in 2016, and toured the Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and North America (including the Great Lakes), before coming to winter at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. That “over-wintering” lasted a bit longer than planned, and now, in 2018, she prepares to set sail again for yet another tour, which will eventually lead her back to Mystic Seaport. She is scheduled to re-embark on July 9, 2018, and you can visit this page for updates on whether she will be visiting a port near you!
So how did visiting this event shape my practice as a vitki, and/or my work as an author?
It is no secret to most that I have always loved the sea. In fact, the most treasured memory of my childhood involves a day spent sailing with my Father. As fulltrui of Freyja (a dedicant), I have quickly grown close to the rest of Her family, including Her Father, Njordr. Njordr is not a typical “God of the Sea”, like Poseidon or Neptune (that’s more Aegir’s “gig”); rather, He is a God of ships, and sailing, and merchants, and adventurers. He is a God who looks fondly upon those who, like Sigurd Aase, look to the horizon and try to solve old problems in new ways. He is also a God associated heavily with fridhr (peace; maintaining hospitality and the other rules of a “rightful” society), and with peace-keeping. I lovingly call Him the “Van-Father”, and He has become to me what Odin is to many others in the Heathen community.
Standing on the deck of a beautiful ship, surrounded by “historical tourists” in what would be considered extreme heat for a New England summer, I found myself profoundly cranky. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about the seaworthiness of the Draken, and about her history at sea, full of tales of storms off the coast of Scotland, and the dangers of potentially freezing to death while attempting to use her makeshift restroom in the middle of the night on the North Atlantic. However, Viking history was not his forte, and I found myself needing to be reminded that what I had come to see her for was not what everyone came for (thank you, Suzanne, for assisting me in that reminding!). So I wandered a bit apart from the rest of the group, and I experienced the Draken in my own way, with the Van-Father, Njordr.
The wind kissed my face as I stood there in the prow, and it was as though I soaked up the hamingja of the ship herself through the soles of my feet. I could feel the water beneath her, caressing the curve of her shallow draft now, like a lover. But I could also feel the ache of her deckboards as they must’ve strained against crashing waves off the coast of Scotland; feel her pain at the splitting of her mast. And from all of this, a very important message:
I will endure.
And so I shall…
I found myself remembering a devotional poem which I composed to honor Njordr; a poem which is now available in my book, Blessings of Fire and Ice: A Norse Witch Devotional:
Njordr,
Lift me up
From these troubled waters,
And help me find a place
On which to stand.
Teach me the faith
Of the sailor,
Tossed upon the
Stormy sea;
Teach me not to
Fear the horizon,
But to have faith
In what I cannot see.
For wealth comes not
To the faint of heart,
And we are all but
Fishermen,
Casting nets
We hope to find
Filled with bounty
From life’s sea.
May you likewise be lifted from troubled waters by the Van-Father. May you be blessed with peace. May you ever look towards the horizon, faith-filled, and may your nets always be full!
