I'm a Viking-reenactor from Norway, and what Dave says is actually consistant with what I've learned from local historians and fellow reenactors. So if anyone has any toubt that this method of navigation works, I've been on a replica vikingship where we tried using a sun stone and it actually worked.
A few years ago on the TV show "Vikings", the leader, Ragnar Lothbruk used a Sun Stone to find the sun on cloudy days. This allowed the Vikings to travel West where they found rich old England. I think it was in the 8th century A.D. They looted and pillaged churches and villages, and some stayed to farm. That little rock changed human history in a big way. The show was as realistic as the information the producers had to go by. Pretty neat that you made this video. Thanks Dave.
You look like a Viking, but you teach like a scholar. I've always been interested in devices of navigation.When I was a child, I was lost in the mountains. It was the compass training from my father that got me home. Very interesting. Thank you for this. Respectfully from Stephen Hedman. Vancouver Island B.C Canada.
It will also show the sun when it is just over the horizon, since you can see the UV light that is refracted. This means that it could be used at dusk/dawn when neither sun nor stars are directly visible, and at any time of day in the arctic circle, as the sun is never far below the horizon even at night in midwinter. To what extent it was used that way is unclear.
Rose, my 8 year old , is reading a chapter book Imagination Station where the main characters go back in time and they have to get a Viking sunstone..... So thanks for the great vid Really interesting
Really neat presentation ! Interesting and useful regardless of what the Vikings were doing respectively . I'd imagine some scholars would appreciate your work . I like it quite a lot as I've always wondered what may have been going on with that aspect of their navigation . Really cool ! Also the "dots" showed up very well !
ive been doing this for about 3yrs now. there is a mathematical equation that tells you the exact bearing you are looking at and other info. you need to know the date of the day you are on and the dates of the solstice (summer & winter) and know your latitude also know where the sun is. the crystal allows you to find the sun on cloudy days. it really is not hard once you learn it and it is within 1* accurate unlike compasses which tend to be 2* accurate and affected by surrounding materials. the original crystal they used would have a line etched on the long side. this line would appear to be doubled until inline with the sun which then would appear single.
I just looked on the popular auction site and there are several dealers selling these. less than 20 bux. might give me something to do this winter on those hazy days. Thanks DC.
is that similar to how a camera gets lens flair with the sun and it's diagonal when facing away from the sun but vertical when facing towards the sun or how all the dots line up when towards the sun?
Latitude in the Northern Hemisphere is pretty easy on a clear night. If you can find the North Star, Polaris, its height above horizontal (in degrees) is your latitude. There's not a single star you can do that with in the Southern Hemisphere but there are ways to estimate it. (Look for "celestial pole" on Wikipedia.) Longitude is harder. With an accurate way of telling time, an ephemeris (a book of celestial objects and their positions at certain times), and a way of measuring the direction and elevation of those objects, you can calculate your longitude. That's how surveyors and ships' navigators used to do it. But it's not exactly a bushcraft skill.
as Dave H says latitude isn't so hard, can also do it by the sun and the angle a shadow makes from a stick at noon (though there is some calculation to it, and some knowledge of how the sun moves through the sky in relation to the seasons and thus the 'time of year' you want to determine your location, as well as a measuring device for the stick and the shadow. So you can do your calculations). Or you could improvise a 'sextant' like tool with a wooden board, some string, and say a stone on the string. You would get a rough angle straight away, which you would still have to correct for the season to find your actual latitude. longitude is neigh impossible unless you have a clock on you that was displaying accurate local time (so the clock has to say it's noon when the sun is at it's highest in the sky at your 'home' location), and you know the clock is accurate in regard to this over a longer period of time... then what you can do is determine north in your current location, and use a stick to determine the actual 'noon' moment in the location you are at. Then when you look at your clock it will tell you how many minutes (or hours if you are really far away) you are from your home location (as it will either be before noon, or after noon, on your clock) ... Then if you know your 'home locations' longitude you can calculate your present longitude from there ... hardest part 'in the bush' is obviously how to know what the exact noon time was in your previous location in relation to your current location, if you are only able to determine noon in your current location. Unless you have that clock to tell you that time. Hope this makes sense... Hmm, i guess there is one way to cheat around this problem, and that would be to measure the distance you travel with ranger beads. If you have an accurate map and navigation skills you can determine your longitude off of your map, given you know where you are ;) ... but even without this, given you are able to move due west or due east, and you know the longitude of your original location, you can use the distance you have traveled to determine the longitude of where you ended up. Obviously if you don't move due east or due west and go say 'east-north-east' you would have to know the exact angle you moved along, to calculate the due east distance you traveled to then calculate your longitude from that. Easier way to cheat even from that, is to get a garmen ;D ;) ... but yeah, try and wiki these things and maybe try some methods yourself if you are interested :) ... i found that when i started to somewhat study this my locational and seasonal awareness got a whole new level, it's pretty interesting stuff tbh. well worth spending some time on. (a slight side effect is that you will no longer be able to take 'flat eartheners serious', not sure if that is important for you, but if it is... stay well away from this expertise).
Longitude by tradition requires that you know the time difference at noon between your location and Greenwich, England (GMT). Easiest way to accomplish this in the bush (assuming you got blindfolded and dropped off at a random location) is to have a GMT or dual time style watch that you set the secondary time to GMT. You can use a shadow stick to mark directions and to get the approximate solar position, of noon, or the highest point on the shadow's arc, over several days. You then set your primary time on your watch to match that noon. You'll know eastern vs western hemisphere by virtue of whether you reached solar noon before (western) or after (eastern) (example: solar noon on the east coast of the US is 5 hours before GMT noon). 1 hour difference is 15 degrees longitude, 4 minutes is 1 degree. So if your solar noon is 6 hours and 44 minutes before GMT noon, you're 101 degrees West.
This is real cool. No sun stone is still not found from viking age. But mentioned in sagas. But the sun stone e was not a revolution thing that make the viking age possible. There was not cloud all-time. One of the most important navigation gear was birds. About the sun stone. If you draw a cross on a paper. And put the stone over it. One line will sharp and the other is blurred and have two lines. If you turn it or change angle of light the blurred line will get sharp and the sharp one split upp in to lines. That is why you se to dots.
If you're having trouble finding Iceland Spar, you should also look for Optical Calcite. Chances are you'll find the latter stone in larger sizes, you could also check in local "Rock Hound" shops if you have one near you. More often than not if said shops don't have the size or quality of stone in stock they can usually order the size/quality that the customer requires in a day or two... depending on availability that is
My only question is, How can the Norse have used Icelandic Spar when the discovery of Iceland was about 100 years after the raid on Lindisfarne Northumbria (today's England)? That tells me that calcite can be found in Scandinavia also.
I wonder if something like this can be made with polarized filters. I have no idea how, but it would be fun to play around with. .. Thanks for the good work. ...
From what I read, the idea may have been to work up from that spot on the horizon, keeping the single dot, until the crystal looks yellow... right where the sun is.
What would the vikings have used to mark the crystal? I'm wondering because it seems like for there to be two dots the mark must be some what transparent?
I saw a show on the Vikings using the Sunstone not that long ago & instantly thought of you Dave. I was like, that something only a clever Northman like Dave Canterbury would have & know :)
I have a sunstone, when I reflect a green Lazer through it. At any angle. It produces a perfect 8 point pattern with a spot in the middle. Has anyone else discovered this? If you look into the crystal. There is no pattern to be seen. If you want pics. Please send email address.
It's EAASY To Do a method of this with polarized sunglass. I can find the sun any day with them. I you need 2 pairs or pop the lense out of one and twist
A drop of Pine tar or Birch would be an easy marking dot, and they most likely measured angle from the horizon to factor degrees easy enough done with simple tools
Mr. C. recently did a video in which he used his fist at arm's length as a navigation tool, so elaborate time measuring may not have been needed. Did they even have glass? Hourglasses? The idea of measured time?
