{"id":922,"date":"2025-02-14T09:31:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T08:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/?p=922"},"modified":"2025-02-14T09:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T08:31:43","slug":"runemaster-and-event-coordinator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/2025\/02\/14\/runemaster-and-event-coordinator\/","title":{"rendered":"Runemaster and Event Coordinator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oseberg Viking Heritage\u2019s newly hired event coordinator, Knut Roger Brekke (32), has, of all things, written a master\u2019s thesis on runes! Let\u2019s dive straight into<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Knifr M\u00e6lti<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>What the Knife Told<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text: Einar Chr. Erlingsen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"EXCITED:
EXCITED: Our new event manager, Knut Roger Brekke, is eager to get the ships and boats back on the water after winter and to welcome the first \u201cViking tourists.\u201d (Photo: Einar Chr. Erlingsen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That is, in fact, the title of Knut Roger\u2019s master\u2019s thesis. And the knife had quite a lot to tell. Especially during the excavations at Bryggen in Bergen, where hundreds of small sticks and wooden fragments with rune inscriptions were discovered. These functioned as a Viking Age\/medieval form of SMS \u2013 short messages that were sent and received. Much like text messages today, the content varied greatly. Some inscriptions recorded sexual conquests, magical spells, drunken ramblings, or complaints. Others resembled a form of graffiti \u2013 incomprehensible to the uninitiated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bergen boasts the world\u2019s largest collection of such inscriptions, with around 700 examples. However, similar finds have been made in other medieval towns in Norway, such as Oslo, Trondheim, and notably T\u00f8nsberg. Recently, another decorated wooden fragment was found there\u2014not with runes but featuring the prow of a Viking ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sex and Scandal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was therefore a multifaceted world that Knut Roger chose to explore in his analysis of these inscriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out that messages with more or less direct references to sex and chaos were often the ones that contained complete and comprehensible texts. One such example reads:\u00a0Gyda says you should go home.<\/em>\u00a0One can only imagine who the recipient was and why Gyda thought it was time for him to wrap up whatever he was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese types of inscriptions have often shaped our perception of how runes were used in the Viking Age and early Middle Ages,\u201d Knut Roger comments. \u201cHowever, most inscriptions seem to reflect a learning process\u2014someone practicing the art of carving runes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, Knut Roger concludes that we today might be missing a medium for communicating runes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s reasonable to think that wax tablets could have served as such a medium: easy to inscribe texts into but, unfortunately, also perishable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This theory is supported by archaeological finds from the Swedish sites of Birka and Sigtuna. In the latter, styluses\u2014writing instruments used to carve into wax tablets\u2014have even been discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"FROM
FROM T\u00d8NSBERG: The rune stick N A234 was found at Storgaten 24. The inscription reads fu\u00feor^k\u2014the first six runes of the runic alphabet. The last two runes are combined into what is known as a bind rune. (Photo: UNIMUS\/Kirsten Helgeland)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

An Exciting Job<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Oseberg Viking Heritage Foundation, Knut Roger will be responsible for organizing events and other activities, overseeing the booking schedule, and ensuring that our ships are always crewed. \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to this\u2014it\u2019s something truly unique. There aren\u2019t many places in the world where you can go sailing on a Viking ship. And on top of that, it happens in the very heart of the Viking world; no other place can compete with Vestfold when it comes to spectacular Viking Age finds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A
A \u201cFIGHTER\u201d: As a former leader of Borrefylkingen, Knut Roger Brekke has learned to fight the Viking way. As an event manager, things will be much more peaceful. (Photo: Emma Wold)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Knut Roger Brekke has a background as the leader of Borrefylkingen, an active group that trains in Viking combat techniques. His passion for history has been with him since childhood, and he never ceases to be fascinated by the Viking Age with its dramas, adventures, and craftsmanship. Now, he wants to share that fascination with others through his new job.<\/p>\n\n\n\"en_GB\"\/<\/a>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oseberg Viking Heritage\u2019s newly hired event coordinator, Knut Roger Brekke (32), has, of all things, written a master\u2019s thesis on runes! Let\u2019s dive straight into\u00a0Knifr M\u00e6lti\u00a0\u2013\u00a0What the Knife Told. Text:… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/02-KNUT-ROGER-BREKKE.jpeg",480,486,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/02-KNUT-ROGER-BREKKE-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/02-KNUT-ROGER-BREKKE-296x300.jpeg",296,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/02-KNUT-ROGER-BREKKE.jpeg",480,486,false],"large":["https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/02-KNUT-ROGER-BREKKE.jpeg",480,486,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/02-KNUT-ROGER-BREKKE.jpeg",480,486,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/02-KNUT-ROGER-BREKKE.jpeg",480,486,false],"gg_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/02-KNUT-ROGER-BREKKE-450x250.jpeg",450,250,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ole Harald","author_link":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/author\/ole-harald\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Oseberg Viking Heritage\u2019s newly hired event coordinator, Knut Roger Brekke (32), has, of all things, written a master\u2019s thesis on runes! Let\u2019s dive straight into\u00a0Knifr M\u00e6lti\u00a0\u2013\u00a0What the Knife Told. Text:…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":926,"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions\/926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osebergvikingarv.no\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}