A Journey to the Eternal Joy of Walhalla

Coming from the heart of Moldavia, in Romania, I and my friends arrived at a chalet in the Mountains of Scandinavia, on a wonderful day of April 10^th. When we got there, the clear blue sky was reflecting itself in the clear water of the lakes and rivers, while the sunrays made the snow shine. It was a fairy-tale landscape: the coniferous forests, in which one could expect to see the trolls from the legends, and the high mountains with their peaks covered by fog seemed to surround Walhalla, the place where the northern people believed their souls would go after a death full of glory, a wonderful place with never-ending parties and eternal joy. The green of the forests was sprinkled with the white of the fluffy snow. Smelling the fresh air was a great pleasure for us. I felt like dreaming and I even was not sure if it was a fantasy or the reality.
The chalet, located in that wonderful scenery, was amazing. Just at the entry we could see the door made of wood and engraved with ingenious letters forming the name “Walhalla Valley”, letters which imitate the runic writing. Once we entered, we saw what the walls inside the chalet looked like and it was clear that they were made of wood, too. Downstairs there were two Viking swords hanging on the western wall; the southern wall was covered by a big and coloured tapestry showing the Vikings in their daily life. In the middle of the room there was a red stove which was waiting for us to light the fire. The furniture was made of oak wood, and it was sculpted with Viking warriors. There were three double beds in the north of the room, covered by soft and cream-coloured sheets. The edges of the four-poster beds were sculpted with interesting figures of mythological northern animals. Last but not least, the faience in the bathroom was painted with Viking ships sailing on the holy and never-ending waters of the ocean.
All those days we saw a lot of amazing things: unique landscapes and waterfalls, steep slopes, clear lakes, furious rivers and many more wonders of the nature. At night we used to party: we used to drink lots of mead while listening to Folk metal, Pagan metal, Viking metal, Atmospheric Black metal, Death metal and stuff like that. The atmosphere was great and everything was incredible. Moreover, we used to wander in the nearby of the chalet and sometimes to have snow-fights.
But in a holy northern night, Julia and Stefan had the idea to go for a walk. It was pitch black when they left the chalet and they did not return till morning. The rest of us thought that something may have happened to them, so we went to search for them. After some hours of searching, Ion and Maria “discovered” Julia and Stefan in the nearest village, but the most important discovery was made by me and Tudor. While we were wandering, we found something strange between two trees. When we looked more closely, we realized that we had made an incredible discovery: two stone-bearers. The first of them had runic inscriptions from which we could read the name of one of the Vikings gods: Thor. The other one had a character drawn on it. I said that it was the same god of thunder, dressed like a peasant, wearing a thick beard and holding a hammer in his hand. First of all, I thought it was only my imagination, a dream, and I asked Tudor to rub some snow on my face. Finally, I realised it was a dream come true and not my imagination. For the moment we forgot about Julia and Stefan and we returned to the chalet. We only remembered when we saw them there. All of us were happy about our discovery and we had a real party that night, with music listened at maximum. The following days seemed to be a never-ending party, and the joy and the feeling of happiness still exist in our souls today. The stone-bearers Tudor and I discovered are now exhibited at the Viking Museum in Oslo and we received lots of money and fame for our contribution.
It was something which I had never dared to dream of: making such a discovery concerning the Scandinavian medieval history. In general, the trips and holidays spent in unique landscapes are never forgotten, but our trip, excepting that it was our first trip together in such an area, had something really special. From all the things I have done and seen in the Mountains of Scandinavia on my first trip there, the most important lesson I have learned was that “The one who seeks shall find it, but the great discoveries are made when one does not expect them.”

Clasa a XI-a, Revista „Lyceum”, Prof. Coord. Ana Maria Placinschi