''Fe dør
frender dør
ensjøl dør på samme vis;
Jeg vet ett som aldri dør,
dom over hver en død.''

''Cattle die
Family dies
You die yourself the same way;
I know but one thing that never dies,
The legacy of all that is dead.''

- Håvamål (lit. ''High Speech,'' in this case Odin speaking the Viking Holy Word)

As we witnessed the legacy of the vikings for ourselves during our visit to the Borg Viking Museum, I couldn't help but see some irony in these words of Odin that Espen had translated for us.

This long house on the top of the hill is the Borg collective, if you will: a re-creation of the house of a viking chief, complete with a mead hall and all sorts of viking goodness. At 80 meters long, it is the largest house ever found that originated in the pre-Viking era. The fact it is situated on top of the hill is impractical for several reasons - including protection from the Norwegian weather. This suggests that its location symbolized power and prestige.

While at the museum, I tried some viking-style soup, and I had my first taste of mead. Mead is sweeter than honey and burns like sauna screech on the way down. Only a viking would want to get drunk off of this stuff.

Many thanks to Nadia, who took this picture while Paul and I struck a vicious pose with some viking attire to make sure nobody would dare mess with us. But we weren't prepared for the vicious viking women-folk.

Amy and Eilidh seized control, and then, in a fit of rage, Amy prepared to slay Eilidh. Thankfully, we were able to stop the photo-shoot and break the two Scot-Vikings up at the last minute, just before all hell broke loose. The two of them, thank God, seem to have ended up on good terms.

I have a cool cross-cultural story I have to share with you. Espen and Mona from Norway, as well as Nadia from Malta, were taking a look at an early draft of these pages. It suddenly struck me that nobody seemed to realize why I'd titled this section, ''The Borg Collective.'' So I asked them what they thought most North Americans would associate with the word ''Borg.''

There was (literally) a five-second silence, and then Mona and Espen offered, ''castle'' and ''fortress,'' which apparantly are close to what Borg means in Old Norsk. Nadia didn't have any idea what I was talking about. I explained to them that the Borg are a race of cyborgs that roam the galaxy in cube-shaped vessels looking to assimilate cultures into their collective.

After a bit of a laugh and some more explanations, Espen commented on what a funny mix of images - past and present - the word ''Borg'' will now evoke for him. And he was kind enough to let me repeat here that he said, and I quote, ''By now, resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.''

Everyone in Cafe Å Lars heard me split my sides laughing.

''Opp i otta
og ut må han
hom har få folk i arbeid;
en mistermye
med morgensøvnen,
rask er halvveis rik.''

''Wake up at sunrise
and go out must he
Who has few people working for him;
One loses much
By sleeping in the morning,
Fast is half-way rich.''
- Håvamål

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