L’Anse aux Meadows

Viking Blood

 in Newfoundland / Our Quest  tagged blood feud / Denmark / family tree / heritage / King Gudrod the hunter / King Harald Redbeard / L'Anse aux Meadows / Newfoundland / Norway / Queen Asa / Sea Secrets lecture series / Vikings by

My latest Sea Secrets talk led me to the discovery of a sordid ruckus in the family tree. Somewhere in the late 700s, King Gudrod “the hunter” got his heart set on King Redbeard’s daughter, Asa. Redbeard told Gudrod to go sit on his sword.* Gudrod took the setback like a true Viking and stormed Redbeard’s kingdom. He ran Redbeard through* and took Asa back to his own kingdom. Asa bore him a son then bribed a squire to make her a widow.  Well played Asa!  Wish we could do lunch. *Poetic license invoked.

Weird Job

 in Florida / Newfoundland / Our Quest / Wildlife/animals  tagged archer fish / Denvery aquarium / dolphin research / L'Anse aux Meadows / Pueblo Chieftain / Rookery Bay / sea urchin / shark tagging / travel / University of Miami / Viking lodge / whale watching by

When our local paper asked for wacky, wonderful job stories, I had to share mine: “Can I squirt him in the eye?”  I felt weird being so blunt with the brave little geek in braids, but having graduated from high school in the seventies, I knew I’d feel weirder negotiating with five teens over shark tagging tasks.  So when the grad students got our shark situated under their bodies, I got to test his reflex, and his eye membrane nictated nicely which meant that he wasn’t too stressed.  On the next round I clipped a bit of tissue off another […]