Announcement: A drinkinghorn fit for a king!

http://www.kongehuset.no/aim/kongeh...dc7723628d0963214cedbc5dacc853318006a609f.jpg

This link shows a Norwegian drinkinghorn, from around 1620. It has been used by several scandinavian kings, and the engravings tell tales of its wielders. Today it has a prized place in the Norwegian royal collection.

The horn is called "Holshornet," and is named afther the farm where it originates.

Hope you enjoy.

Terrezar, that is fabulous. Thanks for the link.

Todd

Has Harald V drank from it?

Skål!

Roger, I am not quite sure. The stories doesn't tell, but it does belong to him, so it isn't impossible. I do know for sure that noen of the engravings are dedicated to him, as the last of the engraved signs were added during the 19th century.

May I also point out that the king of Norway is estimated to be in possesion of one of the worlds biggest collections of knives, if not the biggest. No country on earth has a more colorful tradition with knives, and the ruling king is ofthen presented with knives as gifts. Both new, and rare historical ones are known to be represented in the vast collection.

Oh, and Neal; Skål! Drekk til du sprekker, det er det vel unnt! (Drink unthil you burst, you're worth it!)

Terrezar said:

May I also point out that the king of Norway is estimated to be in possession of one of the worlds biggest collections of knives, if not the biggest.

Click to expand...

I don't know how knife collections are classified but Dr. B.J. Palmer in Davenport, Iowa claimed to have owned "The World's Largest Collection of Fighting Knives". Maybe his was the largest in a private collection or perhaps it was the largest when it's "Fighting Knives".

The thing is that noboddy quite knows how many knives the royal collection holds, but I can assure you that there are hardly any fighting knives there. In Norway knives are first regarded as tools, and our tradisions holds few kinds of fightingknives. The clame that the king holds the gratest collection of knives there is comes from other collectors from the Norwegian "knife-world." For example, I know a man with a collection of more than 4000 knives, and he assumes that the king has mutch more than that, as well. Another man I know told me that he did not know how many knives he had, but he started collecting when he had 250, and now he had been gathering them for forty years. He also said that the main difference between a royal collection and a private one is the fact that a royal collection has almoust only prized knives of high quality, while the private collectors hold all kinds of trash.

But when you speak of fighting knives... We do have a "tradition" called "Beltespretting" witch is basicly a form of dueling with knives. The duelants is strapped together, back to back sometimes, and has a knife in his right hand and the left wraped aroud the hand of the other duelant. This was banned in the 17th century.

Also, a normal, everydayknife that has been used for murder is kalled a "Skakniv," and is reconed to be a good thing, as they chase away evil spirits and stops bleeding. To protect small children knives, "skaknives" is the best to use, are also put into kribs next to the child.

Lucky for us, "Skaknives" is exremely rare