Erik The Viking Sails Again!

Seaside villagers beware, there will be a band of historians and reconstruction specialist lurking your shores. Mightily rowing to the barking commands of a fur dawned Viking. But fear not, some say there is a savior born to once again wipe clean the angry sea baring pillaging Vikings. Some say it will be Mel Gibsons finest two hours!

–An 11th-century Viking longship that has been reconstructed to its original condition will soon depart on a seven-week voyage from Denmark across the North Sea to her home port of Dublin, powered only by her sails.
The Havhingsten fra Glendalough (The Sea Stallion from Glendalough) is the largest Viking warship ever rebuilt.

On July 1 the vessel will leave the Danish port of Roskilde, which served as the Vikings’ flourishing political and commercial centre from the 9th to the 12th century.

After a 44-day and 900-nautical-mile crossing using only its huge square sail, the longship and its 65 crew will reach Ireland, where it was originally built in 1040 in the Glendalough forest.

The longship took part in clashes between the Anglo-Saxons and Normans in 1050-1060, when many Danish Vikings lived in Ireland.

The boat was sunk in the Roskilde fjord with four other ships at the end of the 11th century to defend the Danish coast from invading Vikings from Norway.

The hull of the oak ship was found in 1962, and reconstruction began in 2000 at the dockyards of Roskilde’s Viking Ship Museum — a task that was to take four years.

After 84 days of tests in nearby waters, the ship is now ready to retrace its route home–Read