Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Salme ships are two clinker-built ships of Scandinavian origin discovered in 2008 and 2010 near the village of Salme on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia.Both ships were used for ship burials here around AD 700–750 in the Nordic Iron Age and contained the remains of 41 warriors killed in battle, as well as 6 dogs, 2 hunting hawks and numerous weapons and other artifacts.
The island is called Saaremaa in modern Estonian and Saarenmaa in Finnish — literally "land of the isle" or "land of the island", [3] i.e. the same as the ancient Scandinavian name for the island. The old Scandinavian name is also the origin of the island's name in Danish Øsel, German and Swedish Ösel, Gutnish Oysl, and in Latin, Osilia.
Saaremaa was the wealthiest county of ancient Estonia and the home of notorious Estonian pirates, sometimes called the Eastern Vikings. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a fleet of sixteen ships and five hundred Oeselians ravaging the area that is now southern Sweden, then belonging to Denmark.
Main page; Contents; Current events; Random article; About Wikipedia; Contact us; Pages for logged out editors learn more
According to a theory proposed by Lennart Meri, it is possible that Saaremaa was the legendary Thule island, first mentioned by ancient Greek geographer Pytheas, whereas the name "Thule" could have been connected to the Finnic word tule ("(of) fire") and the folklore of Estonia, which depicts the birth of the crater lake in Kaali. Kaali was ...
The inhabitants of Saaremaa (Ösel) are also mentioned in a number of historic written sources dating from the Estonian Viking Age. On the eve of Northern Crusades , the people then residing in Saaremaa were described in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle : "The Oeselians , neighbors to the Kurs ( Curonians ), are surrounded by the sea and never ...
The archipelago is composed of the islands Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, Muhu, Vormsi and about 900 other smaller islands. [2] The archipelago is separated from the Estonian mainland by the Väinameri Sea . Protected areas
Saaremaa Parish, also known as Saaremaa Municipality (Estonian: Saaremaa vald), is a municipality in Saare County in western Estonia. It is the largest municipality by land area and largest rural municipality – or parish – by population in Estonia. The administrative centre of the municipality is its only town Kuressaare.