Marriage was an important institution in the Viking world, but also more flexible than seen in many other parts of the Medieval world. During the height of the Viking age, most free men were small landowners and needed a wife to oversee their household of extended family, workers, and slaves. For the elites, like in…
By the Viking Age, Odin was the most important god in the Norse pantheon. He was viewed as the creator god, creating both the human world and mankind. He was also the progenitor of most of the Aesir gods, including Thor and Balder. He was associated with war but also wisdom; he was the source…
The Viking homelands were in the northern climes of Europe, where ice and snow, not to mention freezing temperatures and food scarcity, are a fact of life for several months of the year. Is it any wonder that the Vikings mastered the art of skiing and skating? The Mythology of Ice According to the Viking…
All cultures have stories about how the world came to be. In the Viking world, the story was as violent and bloody as the culture itself. The Norse creation myth sees fire and ice combine in the void to create life, which was then forcibly shaped by the gods as they started their ongoing conflict…
Ullr is one of the Viking gods who didn’t make it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While he is among the lesser-known gods today, he seems to have been a very important Norse god in both pre-Viking and Viking times. The son of Sif and stepson of Thor, he was a god of winter, skis,…
While the male gods may steal the show in most Norse myths, Asgard had its fair share of Norse goddesses. Principal among them was Frigg, or Frigga, the queen of Asgard and the wife of Thor. She is famous for his motherly instincts, but (despite what Marvel says) she was not the mother of Thor.…
The VKNG Team has an exciting new announcement. We are moving our artisan workshop to Paris. In many ways, this is a homecoming, as VKNG was born in France 12 years ago. We wanted authentic-feeling, high-quality, Viking-inspired jewelry, but could not find what we were looking for on the market. We decided to make our…
Sky gods are often the most important in the pantheon, such as Zeus in the Greek pantheon and Jupiter in the Roman. The Norse were no different, with Thor, their god of lightning and thunder, among their most important gods. But what about the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies? While these gods exist in…
It seems like every mythology has a goddess of love and beauty, but the Norse goddess Freya, or Freyja, was so much more than that. Freya was the most popular Norse goddess worshiped by the Vikings. While she was considered the most beautiful of the Norse goddesses, she was venerated as a fertility goddess. She…
While it is not something most people think about on a daily basis, most people know that some of the English-language days of the week are named after the Norse gods. For example, Thursday is named for Thor and Friday for Freyja. But how did that come to be? It is not as simple as…
