Not too long ago, I reviewed the LEGO® Harry Potter “Triwizard Tournament – The Arrival” set (76440). I am not a collector of LEGO® Harry Potter, but I saw potential in the hull design of this set. So, I waited for double points at the LEGO® Store and snagged a copy… and then I snagged a second copy during the subsequent round of double points. Since then, I have been busy building my own ship using the base LEGO® Harry Potter hull as a template. However, my ship has nothing to do with the Wizarding World. Instead, I have built a ship inspired by the Viking Knarr.

What is a Viking Knarr? It was a cargo ship used during the Viking era (roughly 800 – 1050 CE). The hull of the ship was wider, deeper, and shorter than the typical longships associated with Viking raids. The Knarr was used for trading as well as for transporting goods and livestock to distant Viking settlements. These ships operated with smaller crews than longships and were capable of traversing the North Atlantic. They relied more on their sails than longships, but were also equipped with oars.

I’m comfortable calling this a MOC and not just a MOD.

For my design, I used the interior structure, side paneling, and mast design seen in the LEGO® Harry Potter set. However, I completely remodelled the rear of the ship, the deck, the prow, and stern. While the sides of the ship are recognizable as coming from the Harry Potter set, I think the overall ship is different enough that I can call it a MOC and not just a modification of the original set.

In the original Harry Potter ship, only half of the hull interior was accessible. In mine, I stripped the bedroom from the front half and also made the rear accessible through removable deck paneling. I left the below deck space open since it is a cargo ship. Instead of living space, I placed a crate, a treasure chest filled with gold bullion, and some bottles. Additionally, I made the mast attachment sturdier than in the Harry Potter set. So, a column extends from the deck down into the bowls of the ship for the mast attachment.

I took some creative liberties in my design.

This is not an accurate Knarr. I left the deck fairly open with some benches for rowing. Additionally, I included more cargo items. I also used the medium-sized cloth sail from the Harry Potter set mounted on a central mast. The mast has rigging to stabilize it, similar to actual Viking ships. I even placed a steering oar on the starboard side, as was custom in Viking ships. However, I paid no attention to actual ship proportions.

My ship is also part of a larger build that will tell a story. I’ve hinted at that story already in some recent Minifigure Monday posts about the Minifigures I’ve included in this MOC. Namely, the Viking Merchant and Raven Master. The crow’s nest on my ship is a liberty I took for the sake of my story and characters. Viking ships did not have crow’s nests. But some lore suggests the term came from Viking practises involving crows. You can read the Raven Master post for more on that if you are interested.

The prow was a challenge.

Viking ships typically had symmetrical prow and stern areas so they could sail in either direction. My ship doesn’t have that design. There is a clear prow and stern. The prow was the hardest aspect to design. I really wanted it to look like a curving sea serpent. That is not always easy to achieve with LEGO® bricks. I went through several designs before I found a neck and head design that I was proud of. I would say the prow took me a good two weeks of tinkering to settle on.

The build was also delayed by parts acquisitions. I am proud to say that I had most of the extra parts I needed in my collection already. However, the LEGO® Harry Potter set only comes with six 8x3x2 reddish brown wedge elements… my design needed eight. I also liked the stickers the Harry Potter set comes with for those wedge elements. While the wedges were not overly expensive on Bricklink, the sticker sheet was stupidly overpriced, especially when you added taxes and shipping. So, I decided to just buy a second set. I have enough extra bricks in that second set to try my hand at a longship now.

I bought two “Triwizard Tournament – The Arrival” sets for parts.

Another element I needed was the inverted dark tan slope with cutout. The Harry Potter set included two, but my design needed four. The dark tan version of this piece comes in seven sets, but I only had the one Harry Potter kit. Again, it is not expensive to order one from Bricklink. However, since I already needed other parts from the Harry Potter kit, it only fuelled my desire to buy a second set. Plus, double points at the LEGO® Store rolled around again, making the decision easier.

I won’t spend too much time talking about the Minifigure crew in this article. They have been or will be covered in Minifigure Monday posts. Suffice to say, only the Viktor Krum minifig from the original Harry Potter set made his way into this build… though I modified him a bit. To round out the crew, I included a modified version of a Dungeons and Dragons character, as well as some modified classic Vikings from the 2005-2007 LEGO® theme.

True North Bricks is going Norse.

I’ve been building up to this first Viking Knarr MOC for a while. This past summer, I reviewed both the Creator 3-in-1 Viking Ship and the Ideas Viking Village. I’ve also collected Viking Minifigures on recent trips to LEGO® resellers around North America and at conventions. After years of indecision on a unified direction for my builds, I have decided to go Norse. I’m reading a lot about the mythology and lore of my native Finland, which has many similarities to Viking beliefs. So, my upcoming builds will focus on telling a story set in that realm.

As for this Viking Knarr, it is just the beginning. But you can see this beginning in person at Bricks in the Six. I will attend that LEGO® convention for the first time this year, and I have registered this build to go on display. I hope to see you there!

Until next time,

-Tom

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