Odds and Ends

Question:  What does the word "Ferthing" mean in Norway? Answer:  It means "Traveling", not the name of an ancient coin or an abstract measurement of land.   Notice in the illustration at right that the letter "thorn" is  used for the letters th. In Sweden the word Farden is used for "traveling".

The "Faering" was a small, highly maneuverable class of Viking ship. The Old English poem Beowulf describes the funeral of Scyld, the founder of the first Danish dynasty. He is set adrift in his "faer". The word's first element, faer- (or far-), was also used in the Viking personal names Farulf, Farmann, and Farthegn.

Vikings never wore horns on their helmets.  In the depiction at right, however, you can see that horned helmets were used for religious ceremonies, but this was long before the advent of the Viking Age.

The only complete Viking Age helmet discovered so far is called the Gjermundbu helmet (so-called for the Norwegian farm on which it was found).  The helmet was actually 200 years older than the Viking chieftain with whom it was interred, suggesting that it was an heirloom.  It was made about the same time that Farthegn ruled the island of Karmoy (ca 600). Previous Page......Next Page