Poltergeist, Norwegian style

A Viking grave has been discovered under the floor of a private home in Bodø, central Norway. The Kristensens were renovating the family home and pulled the floorboards to install new insulation under the bedroom floor. After digging up a layer of sand and the stone rubble underneath that, something shiny caught their eye. At first they thought the small dark circular object might be the wheel from an old toy. A little more digging turned up a heavily corroded iron axe and a few other iron pieces.

At this point Mariann Kristensen contacted Nordland County officials and they dispatched archaeologists from the Tromsø Museum to investigate the finds. The bead, axe and other objects appear to date to the early Middle Ages, around 950-1050 A.D. They have been transferred to the museum for study and conservation.

Archaeologists have begun a larger excavation of the find site; ie, under the Kristensens’ house. County archaeologist Martinus Hauglid thinks it’s most likely a grave from the Iron Age or Viking Age. The stones the Kristensens found under the sand layer are probably part of a burial cairn.

[Hauglid] said he had never heard of a find being made underneath a house.

“I never heard of anything like that and I’ve been in business for nearly 30 years,” he said. “They did a magificent job, they reported it to use as soon as they got the suspicion that it actually was something old.

The house had been in the family since it was built by Mariann’s great-grandfather in 1914. There is no family legend of Vikings in eternal slumber under the bedroom floor.

3 thoughts on “Poltergeist, Norwegian style

  1. Not sure, if this particular axe blade would count as ‘Francisca’ (i.e. a Germanic type of tomahawk). Maybe, it would have in the “early Middle Ages” 😉 :

    As a rule of thumb, the Middle Ages set in with the last Roman “Augustulus” handing over power in 475AD (if I remember correctly) and the discovery of the New Colonies in 1492AD. Therefore, 950-1050AD would actually rather be in the 2nd half time of the Middle Ages.

    Contrastingly, from a Norwegian point of view, i.e. where those things took a bit longer, the estimation as ‘early’ might be alright. –cf: wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisca

  2. Well, now that the eternal slumber has now been disturbed, things may change.

    I hear that they have a good view from the bedroom window, imagine waking up every day night to see it! :ohnoes:

  3. Looks to me like great grandpappy probably had at least some idea it was there. Wether or not he knew it was a grave or not who knows, but he did a nice job of incorporating the stones into the foundation. Nice way to protect it (however unintentionally) from non malicious destruction from farming. Way to go gramps!

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