When restoration work was underway at Pitney Church in Somerset, England, in 1853, excavators found a fine gold-gilded bronze brooch that appeared to date to the Saxon era. It was quickly named the Pitney Brooch. Examination at the British Museum revealed that while the brooch dated to the Saxon era in England, specifically the second…
Eight interesting-looking mounds were excavated near the village of L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, starting in 1960. They were soon identified as the remains of Norse-style buildings and presented as evidence that the Vikings reached the New World around the year 1000 CE, a good five centuries before Columbus. The excavation leaders, a Norwegian…
Deep in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, just a few miles outside of Heavener, Oklahoma, stands a stone slab about 10 feet by 12 feet, chiselled with markings that have been identified as Norse runes. Many Norse runestones have been found across the United States. Most people believe that they are modern, created by…
In 1898, a Swedish immigrant named Olof Ohman reported that he found a stone, measuring 30 x 16 x 6 inches in size, while clearing land he had acquired in Western Minnesota for farming. It weighed a hefty 202 pounds. The stone was found lying face down in wetlands covered by the roots of a…
The Viking world was full of symbols. Not only were they a powerful way to express ideas, but the Vikings also thought that symbols had power. The Vikings believed that their runes were more than just a script, they were also a magical tool that could be used to shape the world. Symbols were an…
Archaeologists have confirmed that the stories of Vikings sailing to the New World around 1000 CE. This is thanks to the discovery of a Viking-style settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows at the northern tip of Newfoundland in the 1960s, and other scattered archaeological evidence in this region of Canada. But before this archaeological confirmation, there…
The Vikings generally had a good diet, rich in animal proteins and much less reliant on grains than their southern neighbors. This is one of the main reasons why the Vikings were on average several inches taller than the English and the French, and why the English sometimes referred to the Vikings in England as…
Title image: Hermodr riding Odin’s steed Sleipnir to Helheim, by W.G. Collingwood 1908. Source: University of Victoria, Canada Before the rise of the motor vehicle, horses played an essential role in shaping human civilization. Horses were essential for everything from transportation to warfare. Viking society was no exception. Horses were functional tools, status symbols, and…
The Nordic countries were not immune to the hysteria of the European witch trials. While laws against witchcraft had been on the books in each country since the Middle Ages, the executions began in the 16th century in the period of the Reformation, when there was a new focus on weeding out heresy with the…
So, you are interested in Wicca ? Whether you are interested in following the path yourself or just want to better understand others who identify with Wicca, read on to understand the basics of Wicca. We’ll talk about its origins and key principles, plus debunk some common myths. A Modern Religion with Ancient Roots: The…