Big rocks, everywhere
Published: Tue, 06/09/15
Two new pictures this morning. You can see them at http://www.iceandfire.org/sweden15.html just scroll to the bottom and there are pictures of two rocks. Not rune stones, just big lumps of stone. The one labelled as being in a private garden is actually in Roland’s property. It is huge and just sits there on the west side of his garden where it will probably have sat for at least 10,000 years. The other rock was somewhere in the woods. Again it has probably been right where it is now since some glacier carried it from who knows where and finally dumped it’s burden as the ice melted.
There isn’t anything remarkable about either of these lumps of rock, you see ones like them everywhere in Sweden. Most fields have little islands dotted around the cultivated land. The island will have some rocks and maybe a couple of birch trees. If these collections of stone and tree were landscape art then they would win awards for creativity. In fact they are just where the farmers have had to work around large boulders and have piled up the smaller stones to make ploughing possible.
Rune stones may connect us back to people who lived 1000 years ago. The glacier deposited rocks are monuments to huge events of glaciation which only ended around 11,000 years BC. The weight of the ice seems to have pressed the land down so that a lot of what is now Southern Sweden was below sea level for another few thousand years. The land has been gradually rising ever since so that the area around Upsala has only been dry land for about 7 thousand years.
Elements of the mythology certainly make more sense when you experience the landscape of Scandinavia and its relatively recent history. The edge of a glacier must have seemed like the boundary of the land of the jotens or frost giants. As the glaciers receded the huge rocks left behind must have suggested beings of superhuman strength able to move great weights. The Voluspa (the first poem in the Poetic Edda) talks of a new world rising from the ocean (stanza 59), something that is still happening today.
We are intending to hold future training events in Sweden. Venetia and I certainly want to get back there. There is no reason why people from the UK should not come as well, you can fly by low cost airline for a very reasonable price. Will keep you posted on that.
In the meantime we have our own link with the past coming to Somerset next month. The Hafskjold Stav tradition links us back to pre-Viking age Europe. Ivar is the only person who has a direct connection to Stav and is thus able to really make sense of it. The camp is only a month away and you are still welcome to come. However if you really cannot make it in person you can still support the event and receive recordings of the talks and training Ivar gives on DVD. Booking or just supporting the event can be done via http://www.stavcamp.org
regards
Graham