Danish Vikinghjem

[Abby Brown] Have you ever heard of the Viking era? It was a way of life well over a thousand years ago far, far away. Mainly in what is now Denmark, Norway and Sweden. So why is there a replica of a Viking blacksmith's house here in Elk Horn, Iowa?

(Map marking Shelby County in west central Iowa.)

This is an unusual site in Iowa. People don't live in houses like this anymore.

(A small, squat wooden home built into the side of a hill.)

But it's here to help teach us about Danish culture. And it's here in Elk Horn because many of the people who live here are Danish. Immigrants from Denmark settled here when Iowa first became a state. Over a thousand years ago, a Viking blacksmith would have lived in a house like this.

(A two room, wooden house with a circular raised rock hearth or platform with charcoal and a shovel laying across the hearth sits in the center of the room. Tools hang off the back wall of the first room and bunk beds with a ladder are attached to one wall.)

A blacksmith used metal and fire to create things like tools and weapons for people in the community. In the Viking era, there was no internet. You couldn't just order the things you needed from Amazon and have them delivered. So people had to rely on craftsmen like blacksmiths to make the things that they needed to work and use in their homes. Even though Vikings didn't live in modern day Iowa, this model house teaches us a lot about their lifestyle. A blacksmith would often have lived and worked in the same space. Looking around, you can see some of the tools they might have used. The life and homes of a Viking looked a lot different than our lives do today.

Every county in Iowa has an age old story to tell. Thanks for exploring the Viking era with me here in Shelby County.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.