Roskilde Viking Ship Museum

Roskilde is a town on the west coast of Sjælland, the island that Copenhagen is on. It's quite old; people have been living there since the Viking era. One of the reasons it's been around so long is it's location at the end of a 40km long fjord. It's not the majestic geological formation one the word 'fjord' usually conjures up, but it's attractive nonetheless.

Behold, the fjord.

This allowed the residents easy access to the ocean and their many trading routes, while also providing security from attackers. In order to reach Roskilde, invaders would have to make it all the way down this fjord, which was, shall we say, well guarded. There were canals along it's length that held boats. With them, the Danes were able to cut off the enemy fleets' retreat back out to the open ocean.

They also had a sunken blockade in the middle of the fjord, made of old ships that they scuttled. Of course, the local Danes knew exactly where is was and hod to navigate around it, but invaders did not. The ships on display at the Roskilde Museum are the ones that made up the blockade. They are particularly interesting because they are examples of five different kinds of vessels: an ocean-going trading ship (16m), a coastal trading ship (14m), a fishing ship (11m), and two longships, small (17m) and large (30m). Unlike the ships on display at the Oslo Viking ship museum (see my past entry on that here), these were not burial ships, but ones that were actually used in daily life. So without further ado, pictures of ships.

What's amazing is that these ships were excavated in just four months.

And assembled.

From thousands of pieces.

Bonus: dead seagull. Weirdly picturesque.