The Viking Village, Njardarheimr

For Overview Video Click Here

As we were researching opportunities for our visit to the Flåm area, the Viking Village stood head and shoulders above the others. The two of us love history and relish any chance to immerse ourselves in the daily life of a specific era. Had we realized just how close Gudvagen is to Flåm, only a twenty minute drive, we might have arranged for a direct trip to the village and that would have given us a lot more time to talk with the folks in Njardarheimr. What we did instead was to book a bus tour that gave us a quick eight minute stop at Tvindefossen an absolutely gorgeous tumbling waterfall (our video here) that we got to share with hordes of other tourists but required an extra hour of bus riding. That said, we had an incredible experience at the Viking Village. Our tour guide started off by explaining that the term “Viking” refers to an occupation, not an ethnicity. Vikings were raiders, usually young men who would have gone out for a summer season or two to loot and pillage and bring back treasure before settling down to farm and hunt and raise a family. The Viking Village recreates life as it would have been lived in the Gudvagen valley a thousand years ago including all the activities that would have been essential to sustaining life in that environment. After a brief introduction he walked us to the edge of the village to introduce us to the Norse gods. Next stop was at a Viking boat to learn that the only difference between boats and ships was their size. The construction technique was the same. After that we learned a lot about the Norwegian long haired sheep and the processes involved in turning their fleece into warm and colorful clothing before moving on to weaponry, the various weapons and how each of them were best used. At that point he invited us to handle any of the weapons and shields and to try on the helmet before heading off on our own to explore the village and talk to other people there. What we didn’t know at the time was that all the people we saw in the village in traditional Norwegian garb are in fact residents of Njardarheimr founded by Georg Olafr Reydarsson Hansen, the gentleman who we saw playing Hnefatafl in the great hall. It’s a group of people dedicated to living the lifestyle using the same resources as the residents of the Gudvagen valley did a thousand years ago.