The Vikings in York

As I am writing, the Viking festival is already a week past. The festival coincided with Kees and Thomas' "mid-term vacation", and York was bustling with tourists, and above all, Vikings. On Saturday, we went to the Museum Gardens, and watched this horde of fierce Vikings practice for the great battle that was to take place that evening. They never seemed to tire of lining up in two rows and storming at each other with load battle cries.

Later that day, we watched dancers from Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire perform their traditional Horn Dance. The reindeer antler of these dancers were carbon dated in 1976 to c. 1066, but it is not clear whether the tradition itself actually dates from that time. According to The English Year, the earliest mention of this dance dates from 1532. In any case, the present-day costumes seem to date from the 1880s, although some of the additions (such as the sunglasses) seem to be from a distinctly later date. The English Year also mentions the "determinedly unspectacular manner of the whole affair," although the dancers certainly seemed to have fun. And the meaning of it all? Ah, yes, a "pagan fertility ritual," no doubt. I’ll just leave the viewers of these picture to judge for themselves.

On Sunday, we decided to visit the actual site of a Viking battle: Stamford Bridge, where, in 1066, king Harold celebrated a decisive victory against an invading Viking force, only weeks before he himself was defeated at the Battle of Hastings. Most people had warned us that there was nothing to see at Stamford Bridge. They were right, of course. But we had a nice walk anyway. And after the Viking weekend one only needs a bit of imagination to think what the scene may have looked like almost a thousand years ago...

A Hike on the Moors

During Kees and Thomas’ mid-term break, Maarten and Edmé and their children Wessel and Kira were visiting. We decided to go for a hike on the North York Moors. Although the Moors were still covered with snow, it was melting fast. Our first destination was one of the mysterious standing stone circles, near Grosmont. The tallest standing stone had a large number of coins squeezed into the cracks. Were they mementos left there by tourists, or offerings to the gods? If the latter, I'd say that Christians are more generous in their Sunday offerings than their pagan counterparts here. We found no pounds, only pennies, and an occasional 5 or 20 p. In any case, the kids were very keen on prying some pennies out of the stone. After some hard work, Thomas came home with 7 p. that day.


The North York Moors Railway was running during the school break. All the kids were great fans of Harry Potter, and NYMR station of Goathland was featured as the "Hogsmeade" station in the first Harry Potter movie. Unbeknownst to us, Goathland was also the site of "Aidensfield" in the popular series "Heartbeat". Below is a picture of the Aidensfield garage cum funeral service. We chose Goathland as the starting point for a very wet but beautiful hike on the Moors.

The Mystery of the Wooden Mice

The first carved mouse we saw was in Knaresborough (see the picture of Thomas, on an earlier posting). But since then, we’ve encountered more of these curious creatures, carved into church lecterns, choir stalls, and kneeling benches. Our own neighbourhood church, Saint Thomas cum Maurice, had no fewer than three of them! Where did these mice come from? One of our church friends, Ken, suggested we take a look in nearby Kilburn, so we when Ulbe was visiting us last weekend, we made a trip to this part of the Yorkshire. There was considerably more snow once you were higher up in the Hambleton Hills. Kilburn is also famous for its White Horse. This is not a prehistoric creation, but was commissioned in 1857 by a local Kilburn grocer, Thomas Taylor, and executed by the diligent pupils of the local school. Being a white horse, it does not stand out in the snow very well (unlike our blue Volvo), but you can still see it in the escarpement...

In Kilburn, we discovered the origin of the mouse mystery. Since 1925, woodcarver Robert Thompson and his descendants carve this mouse in every piece of the heavy-duty hand-crafted oak furniture they make. The tradition apparently started when one of Robert Thompson’s colleagues remarked that woodcarvers were as "poor as church mice". Judging from the price tags on some of these pieces, I expect that no longer to be the case. Today, wooden mice can be found in almost every Yorkshire church (we found one in Saint Michael-le-Belfrey!) and as far away as Westminster Abbey. Regrettably, the visitors’ centre was closed, but there were still plenty of mice to discover.

Snow in York.

Yesterday it snowed. The news said that it was "the worst snowfall in Britain of the past eighteen years", but what we saw outside was more what we in Michigan would call "a light dusting". But armed with my camera, I made my way to the museum gardens, hoping to take some nice pictures. I noticed I was not the only one. Every middle-aged man in York with an SLR camera had had the same idea. The scene resembled more a local photo club outing. Anyway, I made some nice pictures of the York Museum Stone (the Bronze-Age rock carvings made for nice patterns in the snow), and of the statue of local painter William Etty looking out over a snowy Minster.

A trip to Whitby.

For the first weekend our students were here, the International Office had organized a trip to Whitby. We’re reading both Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and Bram Stoker’s Dracula in class, so there’s plenty of reason to visit this charming harbour town. The ride there over the North York Moors was almost as spectacular as the town itself. After our visit to the abbey ruins, we descended the famous 199 steps (Kees counted 197, and Thomas 205), and we enjoyed a very cold and windy walk on the pier. Later on, we visited the ship "Grand Turk" which was moored in Whitby harbour. Despite appearances, it was built only eleven years ago, as a prop for the series "Hornblower". Good for some hands-on history. More pictures can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010157&l=dcefd&id=1564647650

















On board the "Grand Turk", we came across this puzzling notice:

The students arrive.

On Thursday, the students arrived. I went with the bus to meet them at Manchester Airport. The bus driver was a bit confused about the time he was supposed to pick me up, and he arrived 20 mins. late. When I arrived in the arrival hall of terminal two, the whole group was already waiting for me. Two hours later, we arrived at York Saint John’s, where Kate welcomed them with a roll of cookies (picture), before they, somewhat jet-lagged, went on to their orientation sessions. Only three days later, they seem to have settled in very quickly.