Vikings Archive
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Reasons for hiding Viking Age hack silver hoards
Posted on May 14, 2012 | No CommentsThe Viking Age was the period of extremely intensive deposition of metals in the history of Europe. The hoards deposited at that time contain in most cases hacked silver scraps. -
The Vikings and a Turbulent Anglo-Scandinavian World
Posted on April 27, 2012 | No CommentsThis talk will track the Vikings' impact on medieval England, an impact with effects that are still evident today. -
Between Apathy and Antipathy: The Vikings in Irish and Scandinavian History
Posted on April 21, 2012 | No Comments... during the seventies there was a veritable boom in specialised studies of the Vikings in Ireland. -
Evidence for Viking disruption from early Norman histories and commemorations of saints
Posted on April 13, 2012 | No CommentsDid the Vikings devastate the indigenous culture, leaving only a faint memory of Frankish society in Normandy or did they largely assimilate with 'minimal disruption' to Carolingian ways? -
Skeletons found at mass burial site in Oxford could be ’10th-century Viking raiders’
Posted on April 12, 2012 | No CommentsThirty-seven skeletons found in a mass burial site in the grounds of St John's College in Oxford may not be who they initially seemed, according to Oxford University researchers studying the remains. -
Identity and Economic Change in the Viking Age
Posted on April 11, 2012 | No CommentsThis project surveys a selection of hoard assemblages in order to scrutinize the changing relationship between economy and identity in Viking Age Scandinavia. -
The Viking Cities of Dublin and York: Examining Scandinavian Cultural Change and Viking Urbanism
Posted on April 10, 2012 | No CommentsDubh Linn and Jorvik, as Dublin and York were known in the Viking Age, both experienced enormous change during their time as Viking colonial centers. -
Representations of the Pagan Afterlife in Medieval Scandinavian Literature
Posted on April 5, 2012 | No CommentsThe image of the Norse hero laughing cavalierly at the hour of his demise is an ancient one -
Vikings not alone when they crossed the North Atlantic – mice hitched a ride too
Posted on March 20, 2012 | No CommentsNew research has revealed that when the Vikings sailed across the North Atlantic to places like Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, they brought with them the common house mouse. -
The Scandinavian impact on Irish seafaring technology
Posted on March 19, 2012 | No CommentsIn the Middle Ages mariners from both Ireland and Scandinavia sailed the North Atlantic, but in different types of ships and for very different reasons. The Irish sailors appear to have favoured skin-covered ships called curraghs as the means by which they sought out remote islands on which to establish monastic retreats. -
Tynwald: a Manx cult-site and institution of pre-Scandinavian origin?
Posted on March 18, 2012 | No CommentsThe subject of Tynwald and its history, origins and symbolism have occupied the interest of academics and others over the years. -
New TV drama – “Vikings” – to be filmed in Ireland and Northern Europe
Posted on March 16, 2012 | No CommentsThe History Channel in the US and History Television in Canada have announced they will be airing a scripted drama series, 'Vikings'. -
Rural Settlements in Medieval Norway, AD 400-1400
Posted on March 12, 2012 | No CommentsIn the 5th and 6th centuries the three aisled longhouse with a byre and a living section appears to dominate on rural settlements in all regions. From the 7th century onwards the diversity is greater. -
The Stirrup as a Revolutionary Device
Posted on March 11, 2012 | No CommentsA German legal historian, Paul Roth, published in 1850 a work that set out the basic concept of feudalism. According to Roth, Charles Martel had combined the two existing institutions of ‘vassalage’ and ‘benefice’—that is, a vassal swore allegiance to his lord in return for which he was given some kind of benefice, usually rent-free land. -
Linnaeus’s Game of Tablut and its Relationship to the Ancient Viking Game Hnefatafl
Posted on March 7, 2012 | No CommentsThe British game historian H. J. R. Murray was the first to identify the importance of Linnaeus's description of the rules of a Lapp game called Tablut. This game, he argued, was related to, and possibly identical with, an ancient Viking game called Hnefatafl, which the Icelandic sagas frequently reference
