Herdwick a "smit") of marking sheep for ownership. Before chemical dyes became available, this dye was made from either iron ore or graphite mixed with grease. For many years the legal method of identifying a particular shepherd's sheep were notches cut out of a sheep's ear, called "lug" marks—now replaced by ear tags. Herdwick The Herdwick is a breed of domestic sheep native to the Lake District of Cumbria in North West England. The name "Herdwick" is derived from the Old Norse "herdvyck", meaning sheep pasture. Though low in lambing capacity and perceived wool quality when compared to more common commercial
Viking art category of Viking period artefact, their design and decoration largely independent of the developing styles characteristic of wider Viking artistic endeavour. A non-visual source of information for Viking art lies in skaldic verse, the complex form of oral poetry composed during the Viking Age and passed on until written down centuries later. Several verses speak of painted forms of decoration that have but rarely survived on wood and stone. The 9th century skald poet Bragi Boddason, for example, cites four apparently unrelated scenes painted on a shield. One of these scenes depicted the god Thor's fishing expedition, which motif is