A photographer came by

Imagine this - after living for over 40 years on the island of Als I had never visited the Celtic Iron-Age boat reconstruction “Hjortspringsbåden ” until last year 2020 !

I had passed by many times on my way to the harbour at Dyvig, but had never stopped by. Then during the summer of last year (2020) I was driving home from Dyvig and I drove past once again, but then noticed a sign “open today” . I stopped my car, turned round and drove in.

On arrival I was met at the door by a lady volunteer who showed me around after I had seen the film concerning the history of the boat and the many hours put in by volunteers to recreate the Iron-Age boat from remains discovered in the local area. The whole boat was created with hand tools copied from tools from this period. I was also shown the forge area which awakened fond memories of my childhood where I also became fairly proficient as a blacksmith. One thought created a new thought and before I finished my tour I asked if it would be possible to see the forge in action.
I met Johannes a couple of weeks later and within half an hour the forge was lit and glowing (see enclosed image ). Interestingly Johannes still considers himself as an adult apprentice in spite of him being in his 80’s. I was 10 years old when I first used a forge and had forgotten a lot in the nearly 60 years since then!

I came back a week later with my camera, when the lighting conditions were better, to take some pictures of the boat itself and the best one is also enclosed. All in all time well spent and thank you all for showing me around. I can strongly recommend a visit.

The pictures I took can be viewed on my website and can be printed on professional fine art printers and papers in exhibition quality.

John Perry

https://nordlysprint.dk/collections/johnperrydk

Photo: John Perry, Copyright: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.