The Vikings are infamous for raiding and terrorizing their neighbors in Britain and France and are known to have been active in the east around the Balkans and as far as Constantinople. But we hear very little about the Vikings in Spain and Portugal. Did the Vikings leave these nearby lands untouched? The Vikings were…
All Viking warriors were known by their neighbors to be strong, ferocious, and bloodthirsty. But among the Vikings themselves, there was an elite group of warriors known as the Berserkers. They were believed to fight with the ferocity of wild animals and to be immune to steel and fire. But did these warriors really exist,…
The term Vikings is often used as a generic term to refer to a wide and varied group of people, and it is not always clear who exactly those people are. We are very guilty of doing this! So today, let’s take a closer look at who exactly we are referring to when we use…
Ragnar Lothbrok is the most famous Viking we know about today. But he was at least as famous for the vast number of warrior sons that he fathered as he was for his own exploits and deeds. Ragnar seems to have had at least nine sons and two daughters, though different sources record different lineages…
Those of us who loved the History Channel’s Vikings series and watched it more than once on Netflix were devastated when it came to an end (even if the final season wasn’t quite as good as the ones that went before). Netflix, knowing when it was onto a good thing, promised us a new series…
One of the incredible things about the Vikings is how much of the world they discovered, more than 500 years before Christopher Columbus landed in America while looking for India – someone took a major wrong turn on the way! Meanwhile, the Vikings not only raided across mainland Europe by land and sea, but they…
When you read the Viking sagas one of the things that you will notice is that the Vikings seem to have drunk, a lot! Sharing alcohol played an important role in the social customs that cemented social hierarchies and political alliances, which is why drinking features so prominently in so many Viking stories. You can…
In modern stories of the Vikings, Norse warriors tend to be presented as enormous and towering over their European neighbors. But were the Vikings really taller and stronger than other people living in Europe at that time? The short answer is actually yes! When the Vikings first landed in England at the end of the…
The Vikings are known for having been excellent sailors. The superiority of their ships allowed them to dominate their corner for Europe for centuries. They discovered new lands, such as Iceland and Greenland, which were otherwise known to Europeans. They also made it to the Americas half a millennium before any other European. But without…
As you know, our passion here at VKNG is Viking-inspired jewelry and creating authentic pieces that are true to the Viking style and ethos, while being more than just replicas. So, a very important question to us, and I’m sure many of you, is what jewelry did the Vikings actually wear? Materials Jewelry was commonly…