My grandparents Osmont Yacinthe Auguste

Presentation:

The first explorers are incontestably the Vikings who explored many countries by the sea or the lands: England, Ireland, Spain, France, North Africa, the Central Asia, Arab caravans, Greenland to the American continent. They enriched themselves with the people they met and the products they found, discovered while doing many victims because they were nevertheless wild warriors.

The drakkars allowed certainlyVikings because they could see the open sea and because of the lightness that enabled them to accost everywhere or to be drawn on the firm land. By good wind it slipped by to 12 knots, that is to say 22 km/h. With the oar with a crew of 5 men, it did not exceed 5 knots. The name of Viking would come from the old language Viking, the Norrois which would mean handle or small bay: vik.

The reason of the Vikings invasion incontestably comes the year 782 where Charlemagne massacred in the immense clearing of Sachsensheim four thousand five hundred Saxon warriors who refused to convert to a single God, under the song of the monks “Per Christum dominum nostrum. ” the torturers carry out them all the night; it is the lost war of Thor against the cross of Christ, but revenge will come ten years later in Lindisfarme where this time the monks undergo the fury of the Vikings.

The crime of Frank, the law of the iron of God will ignite during more than two centuries and half Europe, because hatred of Normans are poked and the iron of Odin must reply to the iron of God.

However the Vikings when they are not occupied to make war took great care of their appearance, the hair and the barbs perfectly maintained. The women carried a long hair which they raised in a chignon.

Men and women put makeup on them. The Vikings liked the sharp colors which they carried out thanks to the plants: the nut husk for the brown-green, the red extracted the garance, the yellow of the sheets of the birch and the pastel of the indigo.

The men enjoyed jewels as much as their partners and showed their richness with gold or money fibules. Certain jewels of the Scandinavian divinities like Thor God continue to be carried only after the appearance of Christianity. The sword or the axe remains indissociable nevertheless with the Viking warrior

Most important to understand the Viking, land owner or land worker, King or chief, he is a free man; he lives in the first equally community which meets in the form of council or Ting. The woman have the right to divorce. I always heard at home this reflexion “one does not put a knee at ground in front of anybody ", that comes to us from the Duke of Rollon in front of the King of France.

The Vikings left their imprints of the most fantastic naval epic of every time, there remains a real passion which excites the heirs of the Normans and help them in their throw to pursue their dreams and to give birth to Heads of state as Guillaume the Conqueror who is the most blatant example. Normandy remains rich in patronymics inherited from the Danes who settled down there.

The Viking was not only a barbaric, bloodthirsty warrior he was also a quiet farmer and a breeder in spite of the activities of hunting and fishing which were dominant. The rye was the basic cereal which originally in Denmark, was a seed that colonized a field of barley. The linen is also cultivated, the seeds can be eaten  and the fibers weaved.

On the 9th Century the Neustrie, the Western Kingdom abandoned by the Francs, could see the big draggon head Drakkars. The kings of the sea were taking possession of the future Normandy. They knew how to create the economical and the military network that made the Normandy the first european country. The  Dukes of Normandy, valiant warriors as well as fine politicians, mixed up their blood to that of the reignant family, giving to the country its importance with the help of the Church.

From 1106, the Duchy of Normandy belongs to the Crown of the United Kingdom of which the King is also the King of France vassal in so far as the Duke of Normandy. The destiny of the most powerful european kingdon associated then the Normandy to the United Kingdom under the same banner.

The treaty of Paris between Saint Louis and Henry III put back the Normandy to France in 1259.

The Vikings menus

The leg of lamb on a bed of apples and horseradish.
For 4 persons a 2 kg leg of lamb with 100 gr of butter and some salt.
For the sauce: 1 kg of bitter apples, fresh horseradish, honey and the water.
To place in a warm oven during two hours, the Vikings used the brooch or the fireside. Spray regularly the leg of lamb of salty water (with the same properties as the sea water).
For the sauce, it is necessary that you peel the apples, to reduce them to puree.

The cod in the butter and in the mustard

For 4 persons 1kg of cod, water, salt, butter and mustard.
Empty and rinse the cod with big water, plunge it into the salt water in the same proportions as the sea and carry to boiling. Remove the pot of the fire and let rest 10 minutes before draining. Accompany with rye bread, mustard and melted butter.
 

Cabbage in the caraway seeds and in the bacon.

For 4 persons 1 cabbage, 800 grams of salty or smoked bacon, 1 spoon of caraway seeds, butter, water and salt.
Wash the cabbage and chop it finely, cut bacon. Melt in a pot profoundly thick, deposit a first layer of cabbage, sprinkle with caraway seeds, a layer of bacon and so on. End by a layer of cabbage and moist with water.
Cover and carry to boiling and cook during 2h30 stir once in a while to avoid cabbage to stick, add water eventually.

Serve with rye bread and mustard.

The traditional Norman porridge

Cooked apples: for 4 persons, 120 grams of hulled grain of  broken barley, 1,5 liters of water, 1 kg of apples, salt and honey.
Peel apples, cut them in two and remove pips. Pour the hulled grain in rain into the boiling water, carry to boil while moving and to cook 15 minutes. Add apples and make simmer on slow fire during 15 minutes, move and salt slightly. Accompany with liquid honey.

Porridge :
For 4 persons, 120 grams of hulled grain of oat, 1 liter of juice of sweetened elder, 400 grams of honey, 75 grams of chopped hazelnuts.
Peel apples, cut them in two and remove pips. Warm up the juice of elder on slow fire by incorporating it the honey, add apples and continue the cooking on slow fire so that apples. Add the hulled grain of oat and mix until obtaining a porridge. Serve with sprinkled chopped hazelnuts.

Vikings Alcohols :
The mead realized from honey which we boil added by volumes of water and which we reduce by half and to which we add spices, was the breuvage of the Gods because it allowed during the drunkenness to contact them. Bjor was also appreciated, liqueur was extracted from fermented fruit juice. The beer brewed from barley to which we add berries and the mead is always locally produced.  

The Gods:
Odin is the patriarch, to the troop of redoubtable warriors protects the poets, Thor is worshipped for its strength, Niord reigns over the wind and calms the water and the fire, his son Frey is the God of the fertility and his daughter Freyia is the Goddess of the love.