Tolkien’s Cauldron: Northern Literature and The Lord of the Rings
Tolkien was a scholar of Old Norse literature and much of his work in the Lord of the Rings is informed by his knowledge of old Norse mythology, Eddic poetry, and saga. Tolkien’s use of these sources enriched this complex story of Middle-earth.
INTERVIEW: Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths
An interview with author Nancy Brown on her latest medieval offering: “Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths”.
Horses of Agency, Element, and Godliness in Tolkien and the Germanic Sagas
What is the contract between man and equine that allows a beast ten times our size and one hundred times our strength to willingly serve in our ambitions? What magnetism (and who placed it) is it that draws humanity and horses together?
Where does Old Norse religion end?
How did the believers of the Old Norse religion perceive other religions, and to what extent did people from the outside get in contact with myths and rituals?
Conquest or Colonisation: The Scandinavians in Ryedale from the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries
The study of settlement history has developed within the fields of history, archaeology and geography. As a result much of the work carried out in settlement studies has borrowed the research and conclusions of scholars from other disciplines.
An island archaeological approach to the Viking colonization of the North Atlantic
The present paper is a brief exploration of the application of methods commonly used in the archaeological study of the Pacific and Mediterranean islands to the expansion of the Vikings across the North Atlantic during the ninth to eleventh centuries AD.
Odin, Magic and a Swedish Trial from 1484
If we are to believe any number of histories, spiritual life in medieval Scandinavia, and especially the conversion to Christianity, is readily summarized: paganism collapsed against Christian conversion efforts in dramatic fashion at a meeting of the Alþing, or when a missionary bore hot iron, or an exiled king had a deep religious experience, or when a pagan revolt was finally overcome, and so on.
Early Religious Practice in Norse Greenland
How many Icelanders were Christian at the time of Greenland’s settlement? Were there any pagans? Did Greenland ever officially convert to Christianity and, if so, when?
The Good, the Bad and the Undead: New Thoughts on the Ambivalence of Old Norse Sorcery
When taken collectively those sources imply that seiðr was a kind of operative magic which – among other things – enabled its practitioners to foresee the future, heal the sick, change weather conditions, reveal the hidden, shift into animal form or travel to other worlds in a state of trance.
Iron Smelting in Vinland
Any former iron smelting site presents a special problem for archaeologists. The process of converting iron rich ore into a working iron bar requires a complex series of steps. Each separate function is most likely to be undertaken by heavily modifying the previous equipment set up. Unfortunately for the archaeologist, the evidence of those important earlier stages is certain to be blurred, if not totally obliterated, by later steps. It will be the very last part of the whole process which alone remain as evidence.
What Was Viking Poetry For?
The most characteristic kind of verse that has been preserved from the Viking Age is praise poetry — praise either of the living or of the recently dead…
Old Norse Nicknames
What role do nicknames play in expressing cultural sensitivities and ambiguities in medieval Icelandic and Scandinavian society? How did they develop and become so common especially during the medieval period?
Hƒdr’s Blindness and the Pledging of Ódinn’s Eye: A Study of the Symbolic Value of the Eyes of Hƒdr, Ódinn and fiórr
The supreme god of the Old Norse pantheon, Óðinn, is one-eyed, and þórr is described as having particularly sharp eyes
Herding horses: a model of prehistoric horsemanship in Scandinavia – and elsewhere?
This article discusses a possible system of horse keeping, used in prehistoric Scandinavia, with focus on the Late Iron Age.
Modern nationalism and the medieval sagas
Nineteenth-century romanticism had a special interest in both the medieval world and primitive, untainted rural culture. As the nineteenth century progressed and turned into the early twentieth, the Danes fell more and more under the nostalgic spell, tending to look upon the Icelanders through increasingly romantic and patronizing eyes
What Vikings really looked like
Were Vikings really dirty savages who wore horned helmets, or did they look like we do today? Here’s what the experts say.
“Semiotics of the Cloth”: Reading Medieval Norse Textile Traditions
Reading textiles from medieval Norse society supplements written sources and also provides insight into the voice of the individual who created these textiles.
Runic Magic
A witty, not to say mischievous, Viking archaeologist has defined the first law of runic studies as ‘for every inscription there shall be as many interpretations as there are runologists studying it.’
‘How Can His Word Be Trusted?’: Speaker and Authority in Old Norse Wisdom Poetry
This dissertation concerns the presentation of compilations of wisdom in Old Norse eddic poetry: how it was that the dozen poems one might classify, however tentatively, as wisdom poetry legitimized and put across their content.
Innse Gall: Culture and Environment on a Norse Frontier in the Scottish Western Isles
The title of this paper encapsulates a central problem to be faced when looking at the notion of a frontier zone in the islands which fringe western mainland Scotland. It asks if the region was a „Norse frontier‟, yet the territorial designation of the kingdom which encompassed most of the maritime zone from Lewis in the north to Man in the south is given in its medieval Gaelic form.
The Plants used in a Viking Age Garden A.D. 800-1050
Overpopulation in the Scandinavian countries created the Viking society, whose tradesmen, settlers and sea warriors had a considerable influences on the European countries. In return, influenced by what they saw, they brought back goods of all kinds, probably also seeds and posssibly plants.
Medieval Garments Reconstructed: Norse Clothing Patterns
A practical guide to making your own Norse Viking garment!
í víking : Norse who went plundering
Raids were commonplace among the Norse. They outfitted ships, plundered towns and monasteries, and sought adventure. Although they pursued far more peaceful pursuits much of the time, the summers saw them go í víking, plundering.