In Norway, a Peacock was found in the royal ship-burial at Gokstad (c. AD
900-905), proving that the Peacock was known to the Scandinavians during
the Viking Age.
According to Olaus Magnus (1555), it was regularly kept at manors in
Östergötland and Västergötland in southern Sweden in the early sixteenth
century (the data must refer to the period before 1524 when Olaus Magnus
went into exile). There are a few Swedish subfossil records of Peacocks,
but they are all subrecent (post 1600 AD). Incidentally they are all from
Gothenburg and it is tempting to connect them to Gothenburg's extensive
eighteenth century trade with the Far East.
Ref: Olaus Magnus 1555: Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, Liber XIX
De Avibus. Roma
Tommy Tyrberg
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