“The Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani” (1909) by J. C. Dollman.

According to professors of archology Bo Gräslund (Emeritus) and Neil Price (University of Aberdeen) a lot of traditions where broken in the mid 500´s.

Burial traditions changed, communities where uprooted.

Only relatively recently have these thing been put in relation.

It all started at N.A.S.A. 

In the early 80´s scientists at the Goddard institute of space studies started studying volcanic eruptions such as the such as the Pinatubo in 1991 and Krakatau in 1983 to understand their relations to global climate changes better. These eruptions release large amounts of ashes and sulfur dioxide that falls down within a couple of weeks. But the sulfur dioxide reacts with water forming sulfuric acid in aerosol form witch can spread until it cover large parts of the world for years.

The drops of sulfuric acid absorbs and reflects sunlight witch can make global temperatures sink. 1816, the year of Tamboras eruption has been called “The year without summer”.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the impact of quiescent and explosive volcanism on the Earth’s radiative balance (Fischer et al. 2006). Redrawn after Robock (2000).[fullsize fig]

Pic: http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/ccr/efischer/volcanoes.html

Eruptions of this size are rare and biologist Michael Rampino and astrophysicist Richard Stothers started to study ancient texts to find more of them.

Stothers who also knew classical languages read the Latin and Greek source texts himself. Their article “Volcanic eruptions in the mediterranian before AD 630” was published in “Journal Of Geophysical Research” 1983.

They noted that four authors of late antiquity mentioned 536 as a year when the sun was powerless or veiled. “We are amazed at bodies casting no shadow at mid day” -Roman official Cassiodorus.

He also mentions how “the sun was blueish” and that it was not a temporary thing like an eclipse. He also says that “the air has thickened into some kind of mixture” and that the fields give no crops. “Neither the natural colour, nor warmth from the celestial bodies can penetrate. As if we saw them through a thin skin”.

This had been going on for a year when he wrote the letter.

Though Cassiodorus doesent mention a volcano Stothers and Rampino cant imagine what else it could have been.

Comparisons with ice drill cores from Greenland, around 540, give or take a decade, there was a layer of sulfate that could be from an eruption.

This has made scientists aware of a possible earlier unknown eruption in 536.

Stothers wrote the article “Mystery cloud of AD 536”.

He says the ash cloud and its consequences for the climate exeeds any others for 3000 years back.

Annual rings on trees shows that the climates in the northern hemisphere from the US to Siberia where unusually cold 536-45.

The first to make a connection to Norse archeology was Danish archeologist Morten Axboe.

The gold hords dug down around this time, like the bracteates of Söderby, Uppland (Sweden) might have been to placate higher powers, or possably to protect them from robbers during troubled times.

Axboe connected this climate to the myth of Fimbulvetr and Bo Gräslund continues on that. “Harsh winter have never been a problem in the north” he writes in ”Fimbulvintern, Ragnarök och klimatkrisen år 536–537 e Kr” i Saga och sed 2007.

“But if there where no crops as summer approached you starved”.