How do you tell if you have Viking DNA? If you send your DNA off to an ancestry DNA testing lab, you might get results suggesting that you are 50% “broadly European”, 10% “North African”, and 40% “Norwegian”. That means you have Viking genes, right? You may also be told a fascinating Viking DNA family…
Many of the pieces of jewelry in the VKNG collection are inspired by genuine Viking antiquities that were used by real Vikings almost a millennia ago. These same archaeological finds provide important information that help us to understand how the Vikings lived and what they believed in. Today we decided to pay homage to some…
When you read more sensational stories about Viking history, you will often hear tell of barbaric human sacrifices! While there is evidence of occasional human sacrifices among the Vikings in exceptional circumstances, the practice was rare. It seems primarily to have been associated with kingship. Ahmad ibn Fadlan observed Volga Vikings, a group of Swedish…
Several different types of magic are known from the Norse world. There is Seidr magic used by powerful seeresses and Volva (witches). Then there is rune magic practiced by warriors and the Galdrastafir runic magical staves from medieval Iceland. Galdr is another magical art known from the Viking world. This is a type of magical…
We know that Viking culture had sacred spaces to worship their gods because they are mentioned in the surviving sagas and sources. But very little specific detail survives. We must piece together what these spaces might have been like from descriptions in texts written in Christian times, descriptions of the cult practices of earlier related…
One of the things that we get asked about most is Norse holidays. Which ones did the Vikings celebrate, how did the Vikings mark them, and how do they relate to the important holidays that we celebrate today? With those questions in mind, let’s take a look at the Norse calendar and how it frames…
It is well known that the Vikings originally hailed from the modern Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, all of which were formed in the Viking age when areas ruled by chieftains were consolidated into confederated alliances. We also know that the Vikings raided around Europe and eventually began to settle in some of…
If you scan the surviving Scandinavian texts, you will find the names of many Norse gods and goddesses. But many are only mentioned in passing, and little is known about them beyond their name and the fact that they were considered among the Aesir. Forseti is one such god. His name only appears twice in…
If you watch the History Channel’s Vikings, you will notice that it is the kings of Wessex, rather than the other areas of England, that are held up as the main leaders of the resistance against the Danish encroachment. While the TV show takes a lot of liberties with its timeline, this is a reflection…
The appearance of Icelandic actress and former swimmer Ragga Ragnars as Gunnhild on the TV show Vikings has inspired a lot of interest in this powerful woman. In the program, she is a mighty shieldmaiden who was married to Jarl Olavsson. Following her husband’s death, she fell for and married Bjorn Ironside and returned as…
