Re: Kensington runestone in the Scandinavian press


"Tom McDonald" <tmcdonald2672@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i meddelandet
news:0jNqe.1216$eL5.196@xxxxxxxxxxx
> cgjt wrote:

snip

> >
> > Well, this may not be Norse but sure once used by the Norse during
> > their trips to the East.
> >
> > http://www.qnet.fi/rus-project/Monoxyla.html
> >
> > And regarding the time to build one I may quote from;
> >
> > http://www.abo.fi/skargarden/2003-3/ruukel.htm
> >
> > '' I byn Tõramaa bodde de berömda äspingsmakarbröderna
> > Aleksander och Jüri Olev, som ofta tingades till andra gårdar för att
> > bygga äsping och som under goda år hann med 30 stycken, alla
> > enligt sitt kännspaka vackra snitt. Bröderna Olevs äspingar var
> > berömda för sin lätthet.''
> >
> > Shortly, it say that two skilled brothers made 30 boats during a good
year.
> >
> > So with and axe to fell the tree, an adze to dig out the trunk, a drill
and
> > fire and water a few men can have a boat within a week or two.
>
> The idea of expedient small river craft makes sense to me.
> However, if we are talking about area around the Nelson and Hayes
> Rivers, I wonder what would be available to make them.

se below

> From the
> story on the stone, they did not dismantle their ship.

A few planks from a deck cargo would hardly be like
dismantling a ship.

Also, wich I think is important, the story on the stone is
14 days travel from this island,
not 14 days travel from this stone. If the stone has been
moved around, well, who can tell wich island being
mentioned and the location of it.

> Populus tremuloides aspen
>
> Images of P. tremuloides:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/ayswt
>

snip

> One needs to keep in mind that the form of the trees found that
> far north is likely to be quite stunted, and therefore one
> probably ought not judge the available wood from the larger, more
> southern versions of the trees.
>
> None of these trees, IMHO, would have been likely sources of
> material for dugout canoes due to the relatively large size
> needed for such canoes.

I do agree. A well grown 30 foot tree trunk about 3-4 feets in
diameter would be the best.

> I have helped make, and have paddled,
> dugouts, and they are much trickier to make than merely burning
> and/or carving out all the bits that aren't a canoe.
>
> The 'canoe birch' or paper birch might have worked to make
> canoes, if the Norse knew how to make the frames, harvest the
> bark, sew the bark together and then on to the frame, and pitch
> the seams. However, IMHO, the likely size of the paper birch
> available would be too small to make very good canoe material.
> The quality of the bark for canoe-making depends a great deal on
> the span of bark without knots or branches. Stunted trees, ISTM,
> would not be very useful on that basis.
>
> In addition, harvesting the bark is not something that can be
> done easily (as would be necessary, one might imagine, for
> beginners such as the Norse)

Beginners ?? I dont understand. A pack of fat bishops or
spoiled tax collectors , OK, but what prevent presence
of a carpenter that know how to build a small boat
or experienced sailors that know how to swing an axe?
Bark was used in Scandinavia on many places for
various pupouses during a wide time span.

> at just any time of year. In the
> cold weather, it breaks easily; in summer, it holds very tightly
> to the wood and tends to tear when trying to work the wooden spud
> under it to 'skin' it. Only in the spring, when the sap is
> running, is it relatively easy to remove the bark.
>
> Here is a link to studies of northern hemisphere climate studies
> for the last 1000 years, including a graph showing temperatures
> adduced by various studies. Older studies are in blue; newer
> studies are in red. Studies in the last ca. century and a half
> are in black:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/cgzvn
>
> From the graph, it appears that the 1906 study of northern
> limits of forest trees is likely to show trees somewhat north of
> their 14th century limits. IOW, using the 1906 map to estimate
> the kinds of trees available to notional Norse small boat makers
> is being very, very generous.
>

There is that possibility that they had small boats onboard a
a few seagoing vessles. Or that they got some canoes from
friendly natives.


> --
> Tom McDonald
> http://ahwhatdoiknow.blogspot.com/

JerryT



.

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