What a stationery weekend.
First… Sean told me that Graf von Faber Castell’s pen of the year was announced [1]More about the previous years’ pens here..
Then… I got the Pelikan Wanderlust box (pictures to follow). It’s a box with Pelikan ink travelling the world. I was supposed to get mine in December, but the box seems to be travelling to some remote islands and I was told it was held up in customs [2]It’s too late now to join Wanderlust, but Justanotherpen started a similar project..
Then… I got the Denmark booster pack I won in Rad and Hungry‘s hunt. Nice!
References
| ↑1 | More about the previous years’ pens here. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | It’s too late now to join Wanderlust, but Justanotherpen started a similar project. |
Score! That black eraser is NICE!
Rad and Hungry really brightens the stationery world.
Are the red and yellow pencils the same model? They’re sharp looking with what looks to be finished endcaps. How good is the lead?
Hmmm (I’m too lazy to look)…but what is the Danish word for “pencil”, some variation of “bleistift”?
Johnny, the pencils are nice, too! RAH really brightens the stationery world. I had a subscription for a while, but postage to the UK was too much for me in the long term…
Barnaby, they seem different. The red one seems to be darker and smoother and I saw that it’s more expensive in online shops. I haven’t used them extensively yet, but they do seem very nice. Both use cedar wood. You can see the Danish word in the caption of the second photo. The beginning of the word seems similar (Blei – Bly, which means lead).
Nice to see my old school pencils again. I grew up with these. The red one named “skjoldungen” was the one recommended by teachers back then. It had to be a number 2 – the yellow one was named “skoleblyanten” (- the schoolpencil) but was rarely seen, as it was cheaper and probably of poorer quality.
Back then, both had unfinished ends and seemed a bit thicker. There was also an eraser version named “Gorm” in green and an ink pencil in blue. The orginal Viking factory is long gone – these are probably from Schwan – stabilo. Lately Viking has been relaunched here, as something from the good old days – nice.
BTW the Danish word for pencil is “blyant”.
What does Skjoldungen mean – or is it just a name without meaning?
It’s nice that they are available again (Would be nice if they were made in Denmark, too).
Are there other Viking pencil available today? I guess the Gorm hasn’t been revived.
Skjoldungen literally means “the shield child” – according to the mythos they were the viking king’s 🙂 first army. Back then some of the vikingpencils carried names from the myths of the kings. I.e. “Gorm” was a king and “Skjoldungerne” was his army. The red pencils referred to royalty and history = premium quality. The yellow ones were the cheap ones – no name, not graded. So, in DK the yellow pencil is cheap – contrary to the English speaking world.
Yes, there are other vikings available, mostly fancy ones, like “crystal”, “element” and “carpenter” .I could send a few if you like?
/Henrik
BTW. if you want to see the current line of pencils – take a look here. I don’t suppose you read Danish – but there’s lots of nice photos. 😉 http://www.creas.com/produkter/brands-og-leverandoerer/viking/viking-blyanter.aspx
/Henrik
Henrik, thanks for this explanation! It’s a nice idea to name them after myths. Do you know how the element 1 is different to the other pencils? I wonder whether it’s a different quality or only a different design.
It would be nice to try out other Viking pencils 8^)
Ok! Prepare for a viking invasion – I can’t tell when or where – that would spoil the fun 😉
Oh, you never know when the Vikings are gonna invade.. 8^) Thanks!