These are well-known folk traditions that have been collected from the 18th century onwards. In some Scandinavian areas, goose feathers were considered best to enable the soul to be released from the body," she says. “For example, people believed that using feathers from domestic chickens, owls, and other birds of prey, pigeons, crows, and squirrels would prolong the death struggle. The wide range of species provided researchers with unique insights into the bird fauna in the local area in prehistoric times and people's relationship with it.īerglund explains that according to Nordic folklore, the type of feathers contained in the bedding of the dying person was important. However, she was not disappointed by this discovery. Only a few feathers from eider ducks were identified, so we have little reason to believe that they were a commodity from Helgeland or other northern areas,” Berglund says. “It turned out that a lot of kinds of feathers had been used in the bedding at Valsgärde. The theory was that down from this location might have been exported south, so Berglund wanted to investigate whether the bedding at Valsgärde contained eider down. "Wealthy Greeks and Romans used down for their bedding a few hundred years earlier, but it was probably not until the Middle Ages that it became more commonly used by wealthy people in Europe," Birgitta Berglund says.īerglund has been researching down harvesting in Helgeland coastal communities in southern Nordland county for many years, where people commercialised down production early on by building houses for the eider ducks. Attached to the helmet in one of the boat graves was a metal plate etched with an illustration of warriors with birds of prey on their helmets.
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