Animal sacrifice is, however, not on the syllabus

September 3, 2015 2:00 AM

A college near Oslo is offering students a one-year course in traditional Viking skills and crafts. The students learn how wood and metal crafts, including sword forging, as well as skills such as roof thatching and traditional bread baking. The school is part of the Norwegian folkehøgskule, or “folk college”, system, in which many students spend a year between school and university learning life skills at a local college.
posted by acb (18 comments total)

I know so many non-Norwegians who would love to do this course. One already made her own chain mail shirt, and wrote a thesis on the word "outlaw" (from the Norse) in Old English.

Hey - maybe she could teach there!
posted by jb at 2:25 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee Wood Carving 101.
posted by Fizz at 4:50 AM on September 3, 2015 [5 favorites]

Great to see Norsemen discovering their roots. I wonder, when the school gets popular, if they could set up a seminary for Asatrù priests!
posted by theorique at 5:10 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Not sure if real, or a trick to get me in the Wicker Man.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:17 AM on September 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

What a terrific blend of cultural appreciation and apprenticeship. Thanks, acb.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:17 AM on September 3, 2015

This sounds like a really fun program! I'm actually doing a similar thing where I learn the various skills and crafts of a medieval monk by spending a year at a small monastery just off the coast of England and...oh, wait...
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:19 AM on September 3, 2015 [13 favorites]

"College! That's where I'm a Viking!"
posted by Floydd at 6:24 AM on September 3, 2015 [13 favorites]

I wish I'd taken a course in forging swords in college, instead of COBOL.
posted by Foosnark at 6:36 AM on September 3, 2015 [5 favorites]

I've been looking at grad schools.

I... Think I have to revise my plans, somewhat.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 6:50 AM on September 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

This is probably going to benefit them more in the "real world" than traditional college courses. Am I jealous? Yes. Yes, I am.
posted by Eicats at 7:11 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

As with any sort of building civilization program/seminar/course I would love, love, love to take it provided they, in advance, in writing, promise that I will not have to touch poop.
posted by Ryvar at 7:42 AM on September 3, 2015

Hey, England's last master cooper needs an apprentice, too.

It's a more focused program, and it lasts four whole years, but you can immediately assume the mantle of "England's Next-to-Last Master Cooper" when the apprenticeship ends!
posted by wenestvedt at 10:16 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

FTFA:

Both sexes are learning to carve wood, forge metal and bake bread as well as honing their archery, shipbuilding and weaving.

Husby admitted he did not know how useful these skills will be in the job market (“maybe they can make products to sell in different Viking markets in Norway and Scandinavia?” he said), but he insists that the real merit was in the learning, “which is worthwhile, no matter what you do with it. For instance right now, they’re learning how to make traditional Viking weapons, which is mind-expanding.”

So not exactly STEM-heavy, but it still sounds like Prof. Husby is selling this short! The student Vikings will get a good grounding in actual skills like practical handwork, project management, team-building, budgeting (both work as well as materials), and more.

To be honest, I have heard of much stupider ways to spend a gap year or multi-week pre-college orientation program.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:24 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

I wish I'd taken a course in forging swords in college, instead of COBOL.
posted by Foosnark at 8:36 AM on September 3 [2 favorites +] [!]

You mean you wish you'd been a Kobold?
posted by fiercecupcake at 12:41 PM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

"England's Next-to-Last Master Cooper" when the apprenticeship ends!

actually that would be the last Journeyman Cooper.

You aren't a master until YOU teach someone how to be a cooper (or at least hang with one?)

(pedantry ends here)
posted by bartonlong at 12:55 PM on September 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

I wish I'd taken a course in forging swords in college, instead of COBOL.

One is an exercise in using primitive tools to build things that protect the monied class, and the other is making fucking SWORDS!
posted by wotsac at 7:41 PM on September 3, 2015 [5 favorites]

The school is part of the Norwegian folkehøgskule, or “folk college”, system, in which many students spend a year between school and university learning life skills at a local college.

If we did this in the U.S. , we could do "pioneer skills" maybe.

Or hell, Native American skills (unless that would be appropriation if non-Native kids did it? You'd have to tread carefully I guess.)

Also, how many of us here on the Blue have wished for modern "Life skills" classes like managing budgets, finding housing, car maintenance, etc. as part of a normal education? Once again, someone else is being cooler than us.
posted by emjaybee at 6:39 AM on September 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

If we did this in the U.S. , we could do "pioneer skills" maybe.

Or hell, Native American skills (unless that would be appropriation if non-Native kids did it? You'd have to tread carefully I guess.)

We could do both. And then have a battle to see who learned their ancestral skills better!
posted by theorique at 9:58 AM on September 4, 2015