Just for fun, what's everyone's Genealogy? I myself have never done a DNA test, and I've thought about doing one to see what all pops up. However, I got a lot of family records, and of course my family living in different countries helps. As of now, my family is spread between 4 countries. Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and the United States. Though I've been told I have very distant family in Norway and Iceland. From my mom's side, from family and records, my family is of course Primarily Danish, and there's some North Germany in there, Swedish, and a little bit of Irish in there from certain family members. On my dad's side, it is Irish and Danish from my current living family. However based on last names, and down history we can find, we believe there's some Norman and Anglo-Saxon way down the line. But over the last 100 years in the family, Denmark and Ireland were places my family were around most, with some going back and forth from Sweden and Denmark, and my family that settled and stayed in Ireland on my mother's side. My dad's side had settled in Ireland quite a bit longer, with some of our records going back and forth from Ireland and Scandinavia for quite a while, with family from Denmark establishing themselves as early as 14th century if our records are correct. My dad was actually born and immigrated from Ireland which is kind of cool, because as much of a Dane as I am, since my mother's family immigrated from Denmark, I've always just known myself as a Danish American. I only met my dad in the last few years of my life and began learning all this information at least from his side of the family and it's pretty cool knowing and learning things about my family. All this information has made me want to get a DNA test and see what it says, and what I can piece together for a further back family tree. Though i may find out by blood im far less Danish than i think i am, which is a bit saddening lol, none the less, most of my family lives in Denmark, and I'll always stand by the good saying, Fuck Dig Jeg Er Dansker! 😁 Anyways show me some DNA tests and let's talk about some history!

More info about the Dna article 'Norse Code' in Natue magazine. Prof Alice Roberts's (edited due to length) social media post: "My friend Pontus Skoglund and his colleagues have JUST published this incredible new piece of research into Viking-era migrations - using ancient DNA and a brand analysis called Twigstats. [......] This new analysis includes a new piece of information relating to [.....] the remains of 30+ individuals from a mass grave in Oxford, thought to have been slaughtered in the 1002 St Brice’s Day Massacre, [......]. Ancient DNA analysis is an incredibly powerful tool for understanding populations, migrations and families [.....]. This is really exciting science. And it’s really hard. First the archaeogeneticists have to take samples from ancient bones, then they extract DNA from the samples [......]. Ancient DNA might survive the ravages of time - but it’s usually broken up into tiny pieces, [......]. So the next stage is assembling those segments of code into a whole genome. It’s a mindblowingly huge puzzle which is only made possible with advances in computing power. But reconstructing an ancient genome is just the beginning. What the archaeogeneticists are really interested in is comparing lots of genomes - looking for similarities and differences. These are the key to understanding what was happening to populations in the past - and tracking migrations. Over time, genomes acquire new mutations. Those mutations will be inherited by descendants of the person in whom the mutation first arose. While most of the genome will be identical between two people, the pattern of these little differences is crucial for working out what happened to populations over time - and for tracking families. [.......]. Pontus told me that distinguishing different Iron Age Scandinavian groups, for instance, is MUCH harder. It’s not a perfect analogy, but imagine trying to tell if someone is Norwegian or Danish by the appearance - it’s hard. But Twigstats works by focusing on salient differences - and these are ones related to relatively recent mutations [......]. It ignores older mutations which have been sifted and sorted through populations over time, creating confusing ‘noise’. So it’s a bit like snipping a twig off a gene tree so you can focus on just those branches - ignoring the rest of the tree. Hence the name: Twigstats. This means you can now spot subtle but important differences between populations that are quite genetically similar. And then this also means you can spot when in time a population starts to look more similar to another one - implying that those populations have merged with each other. In other words: some people have migrated and settled in a new place and started to mix with the population already there. Pontus and his colleagues tested their new technique on simulated data to make sure it worked - which it did, very well. Ten times better than anything else they’d tried before. They used it to look at some real samples, looking at modern human and Neanderthal DNA - to test a criticism of the theory that these species interbred with each other in the Palaeolithic. Now this is something I’ve been following for years, ever since my first big landmark series for the BBC, The Incredible Human Journey. Back then, in 2008, there didn’t seem to be any evidence of modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals mixing. At least, fossil bones weren’t providing a suggestion of interbreeding. But then ancient DNA came along - with the first Neanderthal genome published in 2010. And then it seemed there was evidence for interbreeding, around 60,000 years ago. But a few scientists have criticised this claim, saying that the patterns in the modern human DNA could have happened another way, just through genetic variants being sorted over time, creating a sort of mirage of an interbreeding event with Neanderthals. Most archaeogeneticists still thought that interbreeding explained the pattern. But there was an element of doubt. [....] Twigstats finally puts that doubt to bed. Neanderthals and modern humans definitely met up and swapped genes with each other (delicately put). [.......] The main focus of the study was the later first millennium - the Viking Age. And here, Pontus and his colleagues were able to use Twigstats to track migrations of different populations that have been difficult to ‘see’ before, they’re all so similar. They found evidence for migrations of Germanic people southward into Poland and Slovakia, as well as into south-central Europe and Britain. And then later, those people that ended up in Poland were themselves replaced during the Slavic period. They also found evidence of a previously unknown migration into Scandinavia, before the Viking Age - transforming the ancestry of Denmark and southern Sweden. Interestingly, this seems to coincide with a change in runic script and language - establishing Old Norse and the Younger Futhark."

"Russia expands its warning to Denmark to include 'military-technical measures.'" The Russian "bear" as they call it, is all growl no bite. Maybe its a teddy bear instead. 😆 amazing how they always threaten with nuclear bombs and other military measures. All they do is use their old secret container ships trying to destroy our data cables in the baltic sea, when no one is looking. Maybe they should just shut up for a while..

https://www.mensjournal.com/news/archaeologists-iron-age-weapons-denmark

Old studio, Denmark. Looking forward to building the new one.

Obsessed with foggy forests. 😍 #denmark #forestfriday #forest #foggy

This may be a strange post, and I'm not sure how to categorize it exactly. Its about Norse Paganism, and Being Danish. My own weird thoughts, emotions and so forth. That maybe others may relate to, or maybe you'll be like, man why would you bother posting this? I'll start though for the record I believe that anyone, from anywhere can choose to follow and be apart of Norse Paganism, follow and honor the spirituality and culture. However, I've never been able to accept this for myself. I've had thoughts that I don't hold any validity as a Norse Pagan, because I am not Danish enough or not Scandinavian enough to follow Norse Paganism, because I wasn't born in Denmark, my family moved away from there and came to America, so nationally I'm not a Dane, I'm only a Dane in my blood. I'm not sure how to explain this in a concise manner, but I shall try. But for some reason my brain likes to directly correlate my own amount of being Danish with how much that makes me a Norse Pagan, despite the fact I know better, and acknowledge the fact that anyone can choose Norse Paganism. Some days I just feel like an imposter in both. Aside from my slight accent, I only knew a few words in Danish and a song growing up, and didn't start learning the language until I was an adult, and didn't start really following Norse Paganism until I was 21 (I'm 25 going on 26 now.), plus my family never really wanting much to do with me because of my spiritual followings, and now the few family members I do talk to once in a blue moon in Denmark and Sweden, I at this time can't keep up as well in conversations using their language, a language I should be fluent in and know well... It all just makes me feel like an imposter. Here I am a "Dane" if I really can call myself that, studying the old history and spirituality of my heritage, and I can't even connect with my own family and people in modern Nordic culture. And it sometimes makes me feel like maybe I don't belong. However there's also the whole factor, that my family would accept me and see me as one of them, if I ditched paganism and converted to Christianity which of course will never happen. I'm very much rooted in my ways of Forn Seð, and my overall exploration of esoteric and spiritual topics and paths on my quest for knowledge. But man sometimes my mind betrays me with these thoughts of invalidation. Maybe it is the winter time, the depression that hits, as much as I love winter, it is the time I spend the most alone, especially with my job working nights, by myself I get plenty of time be stuck in my head and contemplate everything. Anyways, I apologize for this jumbled mess of thoughts and feelings? I like posting about my thinking on these things in my life experiences and journey as a follower of Forn Seð, as it's something real, even if it's a bit weird, awkward, sad even? Because maybe you relate to it, maybe you also experience times of depression, disconnection and not feeling like yourself. As we are all human, and have strange thoughts, and feelings, that put us in strange places, and I think out letting and sharing these at times helps us connect, heal, and gain greater understanding, especially in the strange complexities of the human mind. Also here's a picture of some deer I came across :)

Video from my time at Lindholm Høje, Denmark. Lindholm Høje (Lindholm Hills, from Old Norse haugr, hill or mound) is a major Viking burial site and former settlement situated to the north of and overlooking the city of Aalborg in Denmark.

A few pics from my time at the Jelling Runestone in Jelling, Denmark.

Appreciating #forestfriday today with a pinch of antlers 🦌 #Denmark #forest #fog #autumn