Anyone who has watched an episode of the History Channel’s epic show Vikings would be forgiven for thinking that all Viking women were Valkyrie warriors on par with their menfolk, that enjoyed significant power and freedom. But, while Viking women enjoyed more freedoms than their counterparts in other parts of Europe, they were far from…
While Thor might be the best-known of the Norse gods, Odin was the most important of the Viking deities. Called the “Allfather” in recognition of his role as the ruler of the Aesir gods, he was a complex being. He was the god of war, wisdom, magic, death and the runes. He was intelligent and…
In Thor: The Dark World we are taken to Svartalfheim, where Peter Dinklage plays a dwarf of giant stature. Upon seeing it, we would be forgiven for thinking that it looked like Tolkien’s home of the dwarves, Moria, but in space. Both fictional worlds are based on the home of the dwarves, also known as…
The Vikings called that the land in which they, human beings, dwelled Midgard (Middle Earth) or Mannheim (Home of Man). They believed that it was one of the nine worlds that made up the cosmos of Norse mythology. It was separated and protected from the rest of the cosmos by a great body of water…
Helheim, which literally means “house of Hel” in Old Norse, was one of the nine worlds within the universe of Norse mythology. It was an underworld realm of the dead, where those who did not find themselves in Valhalla, the afterlife of brave warriors, were destined to spend eternity. But despite the similarity in their…
Erik Torvaldsson, better known as Erik the Red, was a famous Viking adventurer from Norway who, among other things, discovered the icy island of Greenland and led the first Viking settlement there. He also taught his children his adventurous ways and was the father of Leif Erikson, the Viking credited with reaching North America. Since…
The Valkyries are some of the most well-known and ferocious women from our Viking past. Sometimes called Walachuria, they were servants of Odin whose principal role was to select brave fallen warriors and take them to dwell in Valhalla. But what do we really know about the Valkyries as a group of divine shield maidens,…
We are all familiar with the stories of Thor, and have heard rumors of human sacrifices, but what was the Viking religion really like? The pagan beliefs of the Old Norse religion are difficult to decipher, as they are not recorded anywhere. Old Nordic religion was a folk religion that was passed down via word…
Culture and language are intimately linked. Therefore, one of the best ways to better understand a people is to better understand their language. So, Vikings fans – what language did the Vikings speak? The answer to that question is complicated as the Vikings were not homogeneous over space and time, and neither was their language.…
The History Channel’s TV show Vikings has been largely responsible for a significant increase in popular interest in our Norse ancestors. Centering on the Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok and his family, the show lifts the veil on the Viking world of the 9th and 10th centuries. But, while the History Channel always endeavors to make…
