According to descriptions of Norse cosmology, the Norse universe is set around a mighty ash tree called Yggdrasil. The nine worlds that make up the Norse cosmos are held within the roots and branches of the tree. This means that all living beings in existence live within Yggdrasil. But most are limited to the confines…
We’ve talked a lot about the children of Loki on this blog, but he wasn’t the only character from Norse mythology to “go forth and multiply”. But since Loki’s children are central villains in the story of Ragnarok, we know quite a bit about them. Despite Thor being one of the most important gods in…
Huginn and Muninn are the famous pair of ravens from Norse mythology. They are the familiars of Odin, and their names mean “thought” and “memory”. But what do we know about what the Vikings thought about this pair of birds? And what does this tell us about Odin and the Viking concept of the soul?…
It feels like almost every day there is news of a new Viking burial discovered in someone’s backyard or during new construction work. These sites reveal stunning pieces of jewelry, formidable weapons, and new insights into what the Vikings thought about both life and death. Let’s take a look at four recent and interesting Viking…
Curses have a long and colorful history. Some of the oldest examples of writing from ancient Egypt and Greece are curses written on papyri or clay tablets for someone who wanted revenge on an enemy. I say “for someone” since literacy was not widespread in the ancient world. This is probably part of the reason…
The Grimnismal in the Poetic Edda is an important text for understanding Norse Mythology. In the text, Odin, in the guise of a man called Grimnir, describes the realms of the gods and the cosmology of the Norse universe. These descriptions are revealed in 54 stanzas that are written in ljodahattr meter, which was typically…
When you look around the internet, it is not hard to find examples of Thor’s hammer, or Mjolnir, amulets. They were popular pieces worn in the Viking age, and they are also popular pieces of jewelry among modern-day Vikings and followers of the Norse religion. When looking at pictures, it can be difficult to determine…
Coins are among the most useful archaeological finds for historians. They are often marked with a date, or at least the name of a ruler that gives a dating period, providing “terminus post quem” dating information for the archaeological context in which they were found. The imagery used to decorate a coin can indicate much…
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…
