"It was the main building in any village and where festivals were held."
He said it was very like a mediaeval castle, only in Viking style.
"The idea here is to build one with the same principle, where it'll be a community gathering point."
While it would become part of the Viking Festival, it would also be available to other groups.
Hughes said they had been looking to build the Longhouse for a while.
"We've spoken to council about it and it's been on the cards for a while but it's never really got off the ground because no one's known where to go or where to start."
He wasn't sure what the cost would be, but estimated it would be at least $200,000, "potentially more".
He said because it was intended to be a public building, they would have to meet building codes and codes of compliance as well as health and safety standards.
"My first thing would be to raise enough money to go to an engineer and an architect and get a design made, look at the cost and try to raise the funds to do so."
His original idea to build a replica Viking village was based off a similar one in Gudvangen in Norway.
Jamie Hughes has his own blacksmith shop in Norsewood. Photo / Dave Murdoch
Hughes, who owned a blacksmith shop modelled from one in Norway, said he had wanted to create a live-in village for people to visit.
"That's evolved into a need for a community hall, instead of me doing it myself, it would be a perfect opportunity for the entire community to benefit and get behind and replace our hall."
He also wanted to form a sistership with the town and had been talking with both the embassy and Tararua District Council Mayor Tracey Collis about the idea.
Hughes said he had already had a great response to the crowdfunding and offers from the community, including a lumber shop which had told him if he were to get trees or timber donated, they would do the milling.
He said people in Norway had also offered to come and help build it.
Some of those offers had come from a town called Stiklestad, which he said was on record as the place where the Viking era came to an end in 1030.
"St Olaf, who was the king of christianised Norway, there's a thing called the battle of Stiklestad, and that's where he fell, he was slain on the battlefields.
"They built a museum on the site, there's a Longhouse and there's another entire Viking settlement village and the people that hand-built this have offered to come down here and help out build our stuff."
Hughes wasn't surprised by the offers of help.
"I've been back here in Norsewood about three years, so I'm quite used to the locals and it's just the way they operate. It doesn't come as a big surprise to me because that's just the way our community is out here."
It was hoped the Longhouse would attract a few tourists to the little settlement.
Norsewood already had a few sites including Johanna's World, which was a memorial park with a log house and a Stave church, the Settlers' Museum and NZ Natural Clothing.
Hughes has set up a Givealittle page at: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/build-nzs-first-longhouse.
