by Lyonel Perabo | May 2, 2017 | BIVROST Stories
According to ancient Norse tales, the first meeting between Norwegians and Scots took place in the Viking-Age, at the time when the legendary king Harald hårfagre (“fairhair”) sent a fleet against North-Sea pirates. Back then, in the late 9th-century, numerous Vikings...
by Lyonel Perabo | Feb 8, 2017 | BIVROST Stories
While both Viking Age and 21st century Norwegians loved nothing more than a good drink, public and official attitudes towards the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages were not always so relaxed. Indeed, in the 19th and early 20th century the country was...
by Lyonel Perabo | Feb 8, 2017 | BIVROST Stories
Finally in 1919, following decades of political and cultural battles that bitterly split the country, the Norwegian people voted in majority to uphold a temporary parliament resolution passed in 1916 banning the production and sale of alcohol. The long process of...
by Lyonel Perabo | Jan 27, 2017 | BIVROST Stories
Ragnarok, “the doom of the Gods”, is possibly the best-known of all the Norse mythological events described in ancient poetry and prose. First-mentioned in the epic poem Voluspå (“the prophecy of the seeress”), probably composed around the year 1000, the poem...
by Lyonel Perabo | Apr 30, 2016 | BIVROST Stories
A little-known episode in the history of modern skiing took place in the Arctic city of Tromsø when, in 1843, the world’s first skiing competition took place… It is known that already in pre-Historic times the peoples of the Arctic used skis for...
