<< The long travel

In the viking age, it was quite common to travel long distances. Skeien* narrates that it was taken as a sign of fearlessness, manliness, strength and bravery. Dying away from homeland was seen as an honorable way to die.

While we probably don’t have the exact same perception nowadays, there’s always this interesting feeling that traveler’s wake up on us all. Perhaps, it has to do with the apparent ability to just leave everything behind and the prospect of adventures in distant lands. 

We’re creatures of stories after all.

We lust after experiences to share with loved ones and be enriched as individuals. This has not changed much from the times of the holy Olav of Norway and the great viking warriors. In a way is also one of our most beautiful and contradictory qualities: longing for a home as we roam the world. 

It’s the same indomitable spirit that filled the souls of ancient explorers, taking them to adventures beyond their own coasts, that rose and gave meaning to whole cultures sending them after the promises of glory and victory. 

I personally think, it’s not only the material, but rather there's something in the spirit of these great men which incited all of this. Its but a natural expression of our exploring instinct, the same that we see in little children bravely going after things they don’t understand but that somehow pick their attention.

The desire to explore is human nature, it fuels each and every one of us, and forces us to look beyond that which we already have, thinking something better has to be beyond.

 A curse and the most beautiful of blessings. 

Most religions agree that: we’re made in the image of God.

What a wonder we take after his best qualities!

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Notes:

‘Tore Skeie- Hvitekrist. Paraphrase and own translation of hiswords: Å reise langt var livsfarlig og av den grunn et bevis på frykstløshet, mandighet, styrke og mot.