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…
We know the Vikings had an expansive outlook and looked beyond their territory for trading, raiding, and settlement opportunities. With this and the geographic proximity of Poland to the Viking world in mind, it is surprising that Poland rarely features in English-language scholarship about the Vikings and their activities. Most accounts jump over the large…
Like most ancient cultures, the Vikings believed in the supernatural and magic. They had their pantheon of gods, led by Odin the All-Father and his son Thor. They believed in other supernatural entities such as elves and trolls, and that the spirits of the dead lived on in other worlds. They also believed that while…
The Viking Age began in the 700s AD when Viking ship technology advanced to the point that the Norsemen could successfully raid their European neighbors in the Balkans, Western Europe, and the British Isles, and colonize new lands in the North Atlantic, including Iceland and Greenland. The Viking Age ended when the Pagan warrior clans,…
As an historian, one of the most common questions I get about warfare is what happened to the bodies of the dead after battle. In the case of the Vikings, this is a complicated question to answer, as it is not addressed by contemporary sources. We must infer what probably happened based on what we…
If you are a student of Viking history or Norse mythology then you have probably come across the name Snorri Sturluson. He is one of our main sources for both the legendary stories of the gods and the history of the Norwegian kings. But considering just how important Snorri Sturluson is as a source, it…
Based on a conversation with Arith Härger, a former archaeologist and now independent researcher with a special interest in Scandinavian and Nordic studies, this post asks the question that we have heard frequently following the popularity of the History Channel’s “Vikings.” Was Ragnar Lodbrok real? Ragnar wasn’t invented for the show. His stories are found…
The Norse sagas often feel like modern soap operas when you read them, with the characters trapped in a cycle of love, betrayal, and vengeance. This is particularly true for the Volsunga Saga, probably the best-known of the Norse sagas, especially since it inspired Wagner’s Viking operas and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.…
The Vikings are infamous as ferocious warriors who burned and pillaged their way through Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. Just the sight of a Viking ship in the horizon could strike fear in the heart of their neighbors, and many of them towered over opponents on the battlefield (the Vikings were taller…
The Norse sagas often feel like modern soap operas when you read them, with the characters trapped in a cycle of love, betrayal, and vengeance. This is particularly true for the Volsunga Saga, probably the best-known of the Norse sagas, especially since it inspired Wagner’s Viking operas and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.…