Vikings

[poliphilo]

We were leaving Preston yesterday and we came across this little group of stone Vikings (on the slip road leading to the motorway.) I don't know what they're doing there but they've got bits of metal embedded in them and holes in odd places, which suggests they've been salvaged from some building or other.

I did some research (I Googled) and it turns out that Preston is on the Viking highway that runs down the Ribble valley from Jorvik (York) to the Irish Sea. The biggest Viking treasure hoard ever found outside Russia was dug up nearby (at Cuerdale) in 1840. 

 

 

Comments

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

These are deliciously creepy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If I were a kid they'd give me nightmares.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

Which makes me think they would be the perfect "don't go to Old Man Whahavew's property" lawn ornaments.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It kinda looks like they're hitching a lift.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

It kinda looks like they're hitching a lift.

The car tyres would be hard-pressed.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a chess game or similar... They're sweet; I could never get nightmares from figures like that!

(Of course, they are my kin... Now, excuse me; I've got a monastery to burn and some pillaging that just can't wait 'till Monday!)

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

Please simply disassemble the monastery and compost any monks that happen to be in the way, there is no need to contribute to environmental degradation when pillaging.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Hey; if I compost the monks, then what's the point of it all? Surely a Viking has a constitutional right to a little rape every now and then, no? Erh... Or something...

Anyway; is it my fault if those bleedin' monks chose to build their monasteries out of non-CO2-neutral materials?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

When i was a child I was terrified- but terrified- of the Easter Island statues. I think these guys would have affected me similarly.

They're so unexplained......

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I used to love the Easter Island heads as a kid... So calm and comforting, somehow. Reliable, enduring...

I suppose I don't need everything to have an explanation.

[shullie.livejournal.com]

wow... just wonderful... how old are they?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose they're very old. Probably 19th or 20th century.

But there's no clue on site as to where they come from or what they mean.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

These remind me of garden gnomes--the ones that travel.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Ah, good! Yes, they do look like garden gnomes.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Garden gnomes that travel....that's scary.

Here in Britain there are certain prehistoric standing stones that are supposed to move around when nobody is looking.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Once again I'm envious of the way such interesting landmarks are not vandalized.

No way would these pieces be left alone here--they'd have been hacked out, written on, smashed up, or stolen.

These somehow don't have a feeling of age to me. Maybe they aren't worn enough.

The holes in them suggest they might be fence posts...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about them being fence posts.

But I'm having difficulty visualising the fence.

I don't believe they're very old, but the primitive nature of the carving makes them hard to date.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

ahaah.. somehow the Rathergood viking kittens come to my mind here!!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Not quite as cute, though....

Love the icon!

[seaslug-of-doom.livejournal.com]

You know, if you leaned some shovels against a couple of these statues they would look like your average road repair crew, standing about gawping.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

LOL.

Even down to the protective helmets.....

[karenetaylor.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

I borrowed the one with the road signs to use as my wallpaper. Hope you don't mind.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm deeply flattered.