Vikings – Gregory Scott Blog

Alesund, Norway is one of the most beautiful towns I’ve ever seen.

It sits on a peninsula among a number of islands connected by tunnels under the water.

Apparently they did not want the eyesore of bridges obscuring the natural beauty of the islands and water.

The desire for beauty above mere functionality is a Kingdom impulse.

“Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food” Gen. 2:9 (emphasis added). The place God created for Adam and Eve was beautiful first and then functional. We have it backwards. We build for functionality and beauty is often an afterthought, if even that.

We took an excursion out to Giske island this morning in search of Rollo the Viking. Rollo (c. 860-c. 930 A.D.) , like most Vikings of his age, was a pagan raider, raiding villages in Europe and England and looting churches. He even attacked Paris via the Seine (885-886 A.D.). Continue reading “Viking Travel Journal––Day 7”

We opted to take a seven hour train ride from Oslo to Bergen, Norway because it was a “must do” and the scenery was supposed to be “breathtaking.”

It was neither.

It wasn’t bad; it just didn’t live up to the hype.

The best scenery is captured in the pic here of the glaciers.

The Wife summed it up best (as she normally does): “It just looks like East Tennessee.” And she should know.

But that was okay because today was a day to read about Olaf Tryggvason (Cir. 960–1,000 A.D.) the man who brought Christianity to Norway.

Olaf’s story is a remarkable for a couple of reasons. First, he spent much of his boyhood as a slave. He was born into royalty, but through some political changes in Norway ended up being separated from his mother and sold into slavery. I was immediately reminded of John Knox and St. Patrick, whom we studied on last years’ GSB tour. Continue reading “Viking Travel Journal––Day 4”