Norstead

Traveling to St. Anthony’s and L’Anse aux Meadows is like traveling back in time. We left the sparsely settled northwestern coast of Newfoundland and drove though a landscape that was pure arctic tundra. No trees and barrens as far as the eye could see until the massive mountains reared up on the horizon. We drove mile after mile and there were no villages and very few cars or trucks on the road. We really felt like we were traveling to the end of the earth.

Our campground just outside of St. Anthony’s is a typical, nothing to write home about, RV campground. As I may have said before, we don’t care that much because we are hardly ever at the campground. We typically get home about 8 or 9 pm, eat, shower, blog and go to sleep. But this one was particularly disappointing because when we checked the phone we saw the dreaded words, “No Service.” That also means that there is no wifi service. I tried to email everyone last night what the situation is, but this morning I saw that the email was not delivered. Again, because of “No Service”.

After unhitching we drove the 20 miles to the Viking living history museum called Norstead. This is not the National Historic Site L’Anse aux Meadows, with the actual remains of the Viking habitation, but a replica of a Viking Village. We chose to come here first because it was getting late in the afternoon and we would have just enough time to tour the Village and then stay for a storytelling program that began at 6 pm.

A view of the Village on the path down from the Admission Office. The prominent building is the Boat House.

From the Village, the view out to sea.

Viking garden.

Viking sheep.

The back wall of the Boat House. Notice a rune stone at the far right.

This is Bjorn. He is the Chief of the Village and was able to tell us all about this Viking ship, the 

Snorri. Funded by Land's End, a project conceived by author W. Hodding Carter, the boat, a knarr, was built by Rod Stevens on Hermit Island, Maine.  A crew was able to sail the Snorri from Greenland to L'Anse aux Meadows in 87 days in 1998.

Interior of the Snorri.

Viking wood pile. Notice the wooden mallet use for splitting the wood.

A Viking chicken coop.  There are two chickens inside, but they would not come out for a picture.

Norstead is meant to be a Viking Village and Port of Trade, not the historic site at L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site. This room, in the Chief's Hall, was the trading room where business was transacted.

On one of the tables are some Viking games.

Viking Chief Frederick in the main living room.

The Chief's bed in the main room - notice the throne chairs in the background.

Weaving in the Chief's Hall.

The exterior of the Chief's Hall. A truly "living roof".

The Village Church and the blacksmith's shop.

Inside of the Church. In 1000 AD, the Norsemen "voted" to become Christian.

The smithy demonstrating the use of the double bellows.

The rune stone at the back of the Boat house. The letters do not show up on the picture.

Another, much bigger, rune stone. This one says "Thank You" and was a gift of visiting Scandinavians.

Viking folklorist and story teller, Mike Sexton, was in costume and looks just like you would imagine a Viking would look.  When we checked-in to tour the Village we also bought tickets for the evening performance.  It turns out we were the only people at the performance. I thought that would be awkward, but Mike gave a performance as if he had a full house. He was terrific!

Mike Sexton, our terrific storyteller. The performance was in the Church and milk, a traditional Viking drink, was served.

Mike drew his stories from the Norse Sagas, part history and part myth, written in Old Norse during the 13th and 14th centuries.