{"id":16978,"date":"2025-05-15T14:30:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T12:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visitlofoten.com\/en\/?post_type=topic&p=16978"},"modified":"2025-05-15T14:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T12:46:14","slug":"seaweed-and-kelp-from-lofoten","status":"publish","type":"topic","link":"https:\/\/visitlofoten.com\/en\/topic\/lofoten-food\/seaweed-and-kelp-from-lofoten\/","title":{"rendered":"Seaweed and Kelp from Lofoten"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
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Seaweed and Kelp from Lofoten<\/h1>\n\n\n

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From as far back as the Late Stone Age, people have been drawn to these islands to live and work from the sea, with traces of activity dating from the Iron Age and Viking Age all the way to the present day.<\/p>\n\n\n

For over a thousand years, people have followed the annual migration of the Skrei, or Arctic cod, southward from the Barents Sea. But our connection to the sea and our ancestors is about more than just Skrei. We know from several sources that the Vikings ate seaweed and kelp as part of a healthy diet \u2013 even as a snack with beer! Dulse (S\u00f8l in Norwegian) is naturally rich in vitamin C, and we know from the sagas that the Vikings ate it on long sea voyages to prevent illness:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cNorwegian [Vikings] ate fresh dulse baked into bread, and dried and salted dulse as a kind of snack. When preparing a meal, the seaweed was mixed with butter or fat and served with dried, fresh, or boiled potatoes and turnips. Another way to prepare dulse was to boil it with milk or add it to porridge. Dulse was also added to bread dough to help the flour last longer. The Norwegian Vikings most likely brought dried seaweed as provisions on their long expeditions, perhaps because they realized it protected the seamen from scurvy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\nMouritsen et al., 2013<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\t

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1: Angelita and Tamara under the fish racks at Napp<\/figcaption>
2: Lofoten Seaweed<\/figcaption>
3: Lofoten Seaweed<\/figcaption>\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t