Danish or Swedish?

[Kyriakos]

Today i finished a nordic medieval set, but i am not sure what i should name it as. It was mostly modelled after norwegian buildings, but afaik Norway was part of Denamrk in the middle ages.
Anyone familiar with the history of northern Europe at that era who could help me christen these rebellious norsemen?

 

[Verbose]

Today i finished a nordic medieval set, but i am not sure what i should name it as. It was mostly modelled after norwegian buildings, but afaik Norway was part of Denamrk in the middle ages.
Anyone familiar with the history of northern Europe at that era who could help me christen these rebellious norsemen?

Actually Norway was not part of Denmark back then. It was a perfectly independent country, the king of which on equal footing with the king of Denmark and the king of Sweden. All three kingdoms formed the Great Nordic Union in 1397.

Though it has been a bit of a poser in Scandinavian history why the kingdom of Norway, after being an important Viking age and early Medieval power player in Scandinavian, and British affairs, it somehow slipped into a total backwater dominated from Copenhagen in the late Middle Age, and early Modern period? One explanation proposed has been a particularly bad case of Black Death, though that's not gone unchallenged...

But seeing the "stavkyrka" in them, I'd think you should go all out Norwegian.

 

[Kyriakos]

Ok, i ended up naming them Norwegian

 

[trader/warrior]

Awesome!
You really should get æøå in the city names, though. And Trondheim is lacking an N.

 

[Kyriakos]

Thank you

Do they look Norwegian enough in your view?

 

[trader/warrior]

Well the houses look more german or danish to me, but I'm not actually sure what medieval houses looked like here. Would most likely be all wooden with thatched roof though.

But yeah it looks very Norwegian to me.

 

[Camikaze]

I don't know about this subject personally, but this thread could be of some use to you.

 

[storealex]

The houses look too modern and not very Viking like for the early settlements. Maybe houses looked like that in the late medieval period of Scandinavia, but certainly not the early one.


Perhaps use Longhouses, surround by defenses such as Treldeborg:

Longhouse:

 

[Kyriakos]

It is a late medieval age set
The longhouse in your pic actually was the prototype for my model in the se part of the large towns.

 

[Yeekim]

I agree the houses look quite out of character... I immediately think "Germany" or "Lowlands" when I see them. Surely you see yourself that they are completely different from the churches and the great hall(?) - which look great btw...although not exactly "late" medieval".

 

[Verbose]

I agree the houses look quite out of character... I immediately think "Germany" or "Lowlands" when I see them. Surely you see yourself that they are completely different from the churches and the great hall(?) - which look great btw...although not exactly "late" medieval".

I tend to agree. The cross patterned walls of beams and whitewash are quite non-Scandinavian. Wood would seem to have been the thing mostly, or brick walls or proper stone masonry, for the wealthy, plastered.

Not Norwegian, but perhaps for reference, here's the oldest pictorial depiction of Stockholm, from 1535. (It's actually a detail, the bottom portion, since most of it is occupied by a depiction of the sky showing an odd meteorological phenomenon, "weather sun" in the local lingo.)

 

[Kyriakos]

The regular houses always look like that in my sets, since it helps speed things up (i don't want to create new houses for every set).

 

[Kyriakos]

The houses look too modern and not very Viking like for the early settlements. Maybe houses looked like that in the late medieval period of Scandinavia, but certainly not the early one.


Perhaps use Longhouses, surround by defenses such as Treldeborg:

Do you have a better pic of this so i could model it?