We've been involved in a DNA project, in northern England, with the University of Leicester,
trying to get the genetic profile of northern England, looking for Viking ancestry, and
as part of that work we've been getting control data from here in, in Norway and one of the
persons helping us recruit volunteers was a man called Sigurd Aase.
And when we were over here three years ago, getting, organising the collection of samples
with Sigurd, it turns out that he's a very wealthy businessman and a very strong Viking
fan. But he was also in the process of, of paying for the construction of this magnificent
Viking vessel.
There was a small matter when it came to us. We had to get a volunteer team of oarsman
to bring it into harbour, and, and so, working with the local media in the northwest we recruited
a body of volunteer oarsman, supplemented I'm pleased to say by a healthy gang of individuals
from the, the East Midlands.
And row!
It's good fun, its timing. You've got to keep your eye on the people in front, otherwise
you get a nasty oar in the back, which is quite painful.
Pretty difficult actually, which for the number of people who are catching crabs and going
arse over tit, is quite a few. Look over there.
It looks absolutely spectacular. The craftsmanship is impressive, especially because it's clinker
built, and just the details that they've added to the bow and the stern.
Stunned really, its huge and, and, and pretty. It's, it's a beautiful piece of wood and I
just love it, I think it's great.
Someone has obviously done a lot of research on this, it's been well worth doing, and it's
brought the past into the modern age, which is great.
I've been wanting to come aboard a Viking ship for the last 40 years, and I've...
What was your reaction today?
Absolute bliss; this is amazing!
It's like being given a Ferrari, really, you know. It's just the most amazing project,
I can't, I can't believe. It's typical of Norway. I mean you don't get in the UK anyone
building anything like this. Everybody gets a shot on the biggest toy in the world.
I'm Giles Kristian, I write Viking novels, well that was my, first series was a Viking
series, and somebody passed me a website link that was, when Steve first was talking about
the idea of getting crew to volunteer to come and row a Viking ship. I was actually in Norway
at the time, my mother's Norwegian, and I spent a lot of time growing up here, in the
Fjords and always imagining Viking ships and Viking stories. So when my friend Phil told
me there was somebody looking for volunteers to come and row a Viking ship I just couldn't
believe my luck and I signed up immediately.
We need the experience, we've never really rowed the ship before. We need a lot more
people than the crew, the sailing crew, to do the rowing for us. And it was an ideal
opportunity to, to put the two together. So we're actually using them to help us find
out more about how the ship handles when it's being rowed, how we adjust the benches that
they're sitting on so that we'll, we'll know what to do when we do eventually set sail
and go into the world.
There's this realisation they weren't all bloodthirsty people, they had a sense of craft,
great skill about them. A gang of, of thugs wouldn't be able to produce something beautiful
like, like this in the Viking age. So I think that appreciation that, of our links in terms
of our past and also admiration of how craft-like these people were, has made them very much
cool and the, the people to look at, and I, I think that even scientists like myself appreciate that.