Tree rings keep track of time

I WAS in Denmark last week and one morning I got on a train in Copenhagen to make a personal pilgrimage that I had been promising myself for some time.

I’ve always been fascinated by Vikings and anyone who shares that interest needs to visit the pleasant little town of Roskilde in central Denmark.

It’s an ancient town at the eastern end of a very long and winding fiord and it’s home to the Viking Ship Museum, the focal point of my pilgrimage. The museum is there because about 900 years ago several Viking ships were scuttled at a narrow point in the fiord at a place called Skuldelev, a short distance to the west. This was to partially block access to Roskilde by sea-borne raiding parties of unwelcome Norwegian Vikings.