scruffy1
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Holy Year from Pamplona 2010, SJPP 2011, Lisbon 2012, Le Puy 2013, Vezelay (partial watch this space!) 2014; 2015 Toulouse-Puenta la Reina (Arles)
The Vikings have a long and tortuous history with Santiago de Compostela beginning sometime in the mid 9th century, 844 has been offered. Never liking English food and tiring of French cuisine they moved south to taste pulpo? They attacked Jacobsland (Galicia) and SdC on several occasions, in 966 they killed Sisnand, the warlord and bishop of Santiago who faced them in battle until Rosendo of Celanova (San Rosendo or Saint Rudesind) the bishop of Mondonedo defeated them, apparently they were looking for loot and ransom, nothing new under the sun. However, along comes Sigurd I Magnusson (c. 1090 – 26 March 1130), also known as Sigurd the Crusader, a good Christian king ruling in the golden age for the medieval Kingdom of Norway, he who became the first king to participate in a Crusade against the Muslim presence in the Holy Land. On the way to glory he fought the Muslims in Lisbon, the Mediterranean islands, Sidon, but not breaking with tradition he first attacked Christian Galicia and threatened SdC. The shrine and the cult of Saint James were already established, Al-Mansur had attacked and razed the town in 997, so what exactly was Sigurd thinking about??? True Olaf Tryggvason had brought Christianity to Norway only some few years previous to Sigurd, but it may be argued that while Olaf and most of the country were just barely Christian, they could not help themselves, and so returned to places already visited. History is often complicated and convoluted, life in Santiago was often difficult and dangerous so perhaps we should be happy that our worst fears concern blisters and the distance to the next albergue! PS Convoluted? In the town of Catoira less than 50 kilometers from SdC, there is an annual Viking festival which includes music and theater productions, a Viking feast, a mass, the re-enactment of a Viking attack complete with longboat, followed by a picnic in medieval dress - curiouser and curiouser! To say the least. Get out your diaries, this occurs the first Sunday in August, too late this year.
