While reading a book about Swedish history, I stumbled over the expression "Streitaxtleute". So I looked it up, heh P: Lets educate ourselves:



Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe culture

The Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe culture, or the Boat Axe culture, appeared ca. 2800 BC and is known from about 3000 graves from Skåne to Uppland and Trøndelag. While amateur historian Herman Lindquist has referred to this as the "Age of crushed skulls" there is no indication that this was an especially violent time, and most of the "crushing" happened post-mortem in the ground. The "battle-axes" were primarily a status object. There are strong continuities in stone craft traditions, and very little evidence of any type of full-scale migration, least of all a violent one. The old ways were discontinued as the corresponding cultures on the continent changed, and the farmers living in Scandinavia took part in those changes since they belonged to the same network. Settlements on small, separate farmsteads without any defensive protection is also a strong argument against the people living there being aggressors. Recently also the mixture of this culture with Barbed Wire Beaker culture elements from the west that reached until Sweden in the Late Neolithic, probably ultimately derived from the same Corded Ware stock, has come into the picture.

About 3000 battle axes have been found, in sites distributed over all of Scandinavia, but they are sparse in Norrland and northern Norway. Less than 100 settlements are known, and their remains are negligible as they are located on continually used farmland, and have consequently been plowed away. Einar Østmo reports sites inside the Arctic Circle in the Lofoten Islands, and as far north as the present city of Tromsø.

It was based on the same agricultural practices as the previous Funnelbeaker culture, but the appearance of metal changed the social system. This is marked by the fact that the Funnelbeaker culture had collective megalithic graves with a great deal of sacrifices to the graves, but the Battle Axe culture has individual graves with individual sacrifices.

A new aspect was given to the culture in 1993, when a death house in Turinge, in Södermanland was excavated. Along the once heavily timbered walls were found the remains of about twenty clay vessels, six work axes and a battle axe, which all came from the last period of the culture. There were also the cremated remains of at least six people. This is the earliest find of cremation in Scandinavia and it shows close contacts with Central Europe.

In the context of the entry of Germanic into the region, Einar Østmo emphasizes that the Atlantic and North Sea coastal regions of Scandinavia, and the circum-Baltic areas were united by a vigorous maritime economy, permitting a far wider geographical spread and a closer cultural unity than interior continental cultures could attain. He points to the widely disseminated number of rock carvings assigned to this era, which display "thousands" of ships. To sea-faring cultures like this one, the sea is a highway and not a divider.

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And from there I ended at The Nordic Bronze Age....there are so many interesting things, I don't even know where to start reading, ugh.

Eine halbe Milliarde aus Oslo; Norwegen stützt Island

Norwegen will dem von der internationalen Finanzkrise akut bedrohten Island mit zusätzlichen Krediten helfen. Wie die Nationalbank in Oslo mitteilte, sollen der isländischen Zentralbank umgerechnet 500 Mio. Euro über einen Zeitraum von vier bis fünf Jahren zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Außerdem wird die Laufzeit eines bereits vereinbarten Kredites mit demselben Betrag um ein Jahr auf Ende 2009 verlängert.

Island ist nach dem faktischen Zusammenbruch der drei größten Banken akut auf Finanzhilfe von außen angewiesen. Aus Washington wird in dieser Woche die Bewilligung eines Kredites des Internationalen Währungsfonds über 2,1 Mrd. Dollar (1,55 Mrd. Euro) erwartet. Norwegens Außenminister Jonas Gahr Støre sagte bei einem Besuch in Reykjavik, die Krise auf Island sei "von Menschen gemacht". Dennoch müssten gerade die nordischen Nachbarn und Partnerländer jetzt schnelle Hilfe leisten.

Gahr hatte die anderen nordeuropäischen Länder wegen mangelnder Bereitschaft dazu in der letzten Woche kritisiert. Von isländischer Seite wird der unmittelbare Kreditbedarf zur Stabilisierung des heimischen Finanzsektors auf vier Milliarden Dollar beziffert.

Die 300.000 Einwohner zählende Insel im Nordatlantik ist wie kein anderes europäisches Land in den Finanzstrudel geraten. Der Staat hat bereits beim Internationalen Währungsfonds, bei seinen nordischen Nachbarn, in Russland und bei der EU um finanzielle Hilfen gebeten.


Quelle: n-tv.de, 3. Nov 08

Discuss the importance of fish for the Norwegian economy since the late middle ages.

That's right. This was my exam topic :|

Fish.

Etterdi at Norges rike nu så forringet er både av makt og formue, og Norges rikes innbyggere ikke alene formå at underholde dem en herre og konge...da skal det herefter være og blive under Danmarks krone, liksom et av de adnre lande, Jylland, Fyn eller Sjælland er, og herefter ikke være eller hete intet kongerike for seg, men et ledemot av Danmarks rike og under Danmarks krone til evig tid.

"Because Norway now is so poor, both politically and economically and the people of Norway cannot hold a king. Therefore - hereafter they will be subject to the king of Denmark, just as the other provinces; Jylland, Fyn and Sjælland, and hereafter neither be nor in name be a separate kingdom, but a "ledemot" (a leg/colony/province) of Denmark and the Danish king for ever more."

The til evig tid hurts a lot. This is so fucking sad, man.

I found this article by Lars. S. Vikør quite interesting. It's taken from the book "The Nordic languages", chapter 4 121-135, Ovus Press, Oslo 2001. (Yeah, I made the effort to type it all up; if that isn't a show of true love I don't know what is.)
It might give someone who stumbles over this journal inspiration and a better look into how the two Scandinavian dickheads from Metalocalpyse communicate when the others don't look, perhaps even may clear up some questions :3 I especially love the part where Swedish is the language that is most likely adopted, huahaha. That would stroke Skwisgaar's ego so much...

Note: It's long. And contains graphics. A map can be found HERE in case you need one.

( The Scandinavian Semi-Communication )

I shall include here communication strategies employed by Scandinavians to enhance comprehension and understanding among each other as I found it quite interesting and perhaps helpful for later references.

( Six Communication Strategies )

Since I have two more hours to spare on waiting for my train back to Bergen, I thought I could go to the next best Internet Cafè and actually update my lj with something that is not a meme or just random emo babbling. :0

First of: Contrary to what I said, Norway is a dark and cold place. Yesterday, when I traveled with the train and left the security that is Hordaland county behind me, I saw thick snow everywhere in the countryside and after nightfall it gets so fucking dark...aside from the small, small TINY villages that don't make a big difference...oh boi D: And it's just the beginning of November, huuuh~
Aside from that, it's sunny outside and no snow. But damn if it isn't cold.

So, Oslo. Hm. Looks like a mix of Bonn and Berlin. Just missing the bullet holes from WW2 in the older buildings xD Lots of construction sites here, too. If you thought using public traffic in Berlin was expensive, go to Bergen. If you think it's expensive in Bergen, go to Oslo ._. srsly, 34NOK for one ride (1h)? Das ist Wucher! Spastis. D:<
And who ever hired the architect for Oslo, was an idiot. Or the architect. Depends, really. Either way they probably didn't pay him enough to actually put more thought into the design apart from it being fancy and complicated. Those staircases are horrible...and during the night you don't see where you are walking. It's confusing, some of those buildings. Using black stone for staircases, great :/

As for the embassy,...I expected a great hall. With white marble, pillars and gold lined handlebars for the stairs to the second floor where more offices are situated. But instead I entered a small room that had the character of a doctor's practice. Das und 'n deutsches Amt. :| I love my country, uh huh. Deutsche Kleinlichkeit und sowas. Die alten Zicken ey. Nag nag nag
Ich will doch nur einen neuen Reisepass ;_; mich deswegen gleich anzubitchen, wenn ich ma kurz wieder raus muss...was kann ich dafuer, dass der doofe Photorgaph keine richtigen Passbilder machen kann. Und was sollte das ueberhaupt von wegen "Sie muessen Ihren Rucksack draussen stehen lassen, das stand alles auf unserer Internetseite." Ja in Arial 4 ganz unten am Rand beim Impressum oder was? Ey draussen stehen lassen, vor der Botschaft...als wenn das n Unterschied macht ob vor oder hinter dem Gitter.

I was also very tempted to take the train to Lillehammer xD It would have just been a 2hrs drive from here and the train comes sooo much earlier. Costs less, too... But I can't do that, even if I wanted to (how I want!)...so instead I went here and there and had a look at the stores, but I cannot venture too far from the main station. [Random Info: I had a little orgasm when I saw the sign for the highway road to Stockholm]
I found a cool photography book about "True Norwegian Black Metal", very pretty but too heavy and too expensive,...still...I want! That and Guitar Hero ;_; I shouldn't have given into temptation and entered that game shop. They had a guitar for Guitar Hero in the shape of an XPlorer. OH MAN orz
(There was also a shop called Kondomeriet xD und da gabs Dildos etc zu kaufen. Lol. Und der Laden war sperrangelweit geøffnet, wie son ganz normaler Souvenirladen, ick fasset nich'.)

Also: even though I said there are no bums in Bergen, there are certainly some in Oslo. Which is not such a big surprise, considering the city accommodates ~500thousand ppl. Man, and this internet cafè just costs too much, grrr. 60NOK for one hour.

:< I want to draw now...