Vikings Archive
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Danish Ferocity and Abandoned Monasteries: the Twelfth-century View
Posted on February 23, 2015 | No CommentsThis article tries to explain why twelfth-century authors found it so important to invent stories of Viking brutality towards monks and nuns and what ideas and material they used to create their stories. -
Q&A: Michael Hirst, creator and writer of Vikings
Posted on February 19, 2015 | No CommentsThe third season of Vikings is set to premiere tonight in the United States and Canada. The show, which follows the adventures of Ragnar Lodbrok and his family, has been averaging over three million viewers in North America. -
Vikings: Brutal and Bloodthirsty or Just a Misunderstanding?
Posted on February 18, 2015 | No CommentsDuring its first two seasons, the popular History Channel series Vikings triggered a vigorous debate among scholars and amateur historians about the show’s authenticity—particularly the gore and violence. But separating truth from fiction, it turns out, is harder than it sounds. -
Choosing Heaven: The Religion of the Vikings
Posted on February 15, 2015 | No CommentsThe Viking-age gods stemmed from two races – Aesir and Vanir. -
The Age of the Vikings
Posted on February 12, 2015 | No CommentsThe Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by medieval and modern myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and developed a vast trading network. They traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships, not only to raid but also to explore. -
Popular Vikings: constructions of Viking identity in twentieth century Britain
Posted on February 4, 2015 | No CommentsAlthough the Viking Age ended nearly a millennium ago, today Viking images are everywhere, functioning as tourist attractions, marketing devices, role models, and sources of regional/national pride and identity. -
Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age
Posted on January 31, 2015 | No CommentsDrinking ceremonies played a very important social role in Viking Age Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England. -
War on the Waterways: Maritime Conflict in the Viking Age in the North Sea Region
Posted on January 30, 2015 | No CommentsThe ubiquitous Viking warship is perhaps the most high-profile symbol of early medieval Scandinavians. -
Vikings’ homes would have been very polluted, researchers find
Posted on January 21, 2015 | No CommentsDanish researchers have found that the fires used for cooking and heat in Viking-era houses would have caused significant indoor air pollution. -
What do we think of the Vikings and what did the Vikings think of Cleveland?
Posted on January 8, 2015 | No CommentsThe popular perception of Vikings is that they were pagan warriors, picking on the rich Christian settlements of the British Isles with impunity. -
Vital Factors in the Success of the Vikings
Posted on January 5, 2015 | No CommentsViking raids in Western Europe met with an easy success which is rather astonishing. -
Winter, snow and cold in the life of the Westviking
Posted on January 3, 2015 | No CommentsThe main purpose of this paper is to examine how the Westviking were influenced by winter, snow and cold in their day-to-day life as they were making progress in the West. -
Vikings in Manitoba?
Posted on January 1, 2015 | No CommentsManitoba bound? Not likely! -
Spanish Vikings: Searching for the Norse presence in Iberia
Posted on December 19, 2014 | No CommentsThe fearsome reputation of the Vikings has made them the subject of countless exhibitions, books and films - however, surprisingly little is known about their more southerly exploits in Spain. -
Bad Heritage: The Vikings in North America
Posted on December 15, 2014 | No CommentsI’ll propose that few times are more Immemorial than the medieval, which I think helps explain why the North American Norse have been promoted so heavily. It’s not just their priority among European arrivals; it’s that they’re medieval arrivals. -
Change in Northern Winds: A Modern Review of the Viking Siege of Paris 845
Posted on December 11, 2014 | No CommentsParis has been besieged many times throughout history, yet the Siege of Paris by the Vikings in 845 remains a significant episode in this larger chronology. -
Viking Hall discovered in Sweden
Posted on December 8, 2014 | No CommentsA Viking feasting hall measuring about 47.5 metres in length has been identified near Vadstena in central Sweden. -
Thousand-year-old crucible provides more evidence of the Vikings in Canada’s Arctic
Posted on December 5, 2014 | No CommentsAlthough it was found about fifty years ago, archaeologists have just determined that a small stone container discovered on Baffin Island in Canada's Arctic region was actually part of metallurgical equipment used by the Vikings around the year 1000 A.D. -
The Viking (1928): ‘where Norse maids wear rather short skirts and cute winged metal helmets’
Posted on November 30, 2014 | No CommentsFor its corny helmet and scantily clad damsels in distress with matching horns or wings, it asks the right question humanity has been asking from the beginning. -
Norsemen And Vikings: The Culture That Inspired Decades Of Fear
Posted on November 24, 2014 | No CommentsThoughts of these monstrous men link themselves with words such as bloodlust, raids, and conqueror. Which leaves one to ponder why these men have come to be forever linked with such carnage, surely they must have had some redeeming qualities? -
Vikings Red with Blood and Dead: White Martyrs and the Conquest of the American Frontier
Posted on November 23, 2014 | No CommentsIn 1898, a Swedish American immigrant unearthed a mysterious stone from a Minnesota farm field. -
The Viking Language of the Highlands and Islands: Reconstructing the Norn Language from Old Norse
Posted on November 18, 2014 | No CommentsThe Orkney and Shetland islands of Scotland were at one time colonized by Vikings and belonged firmly within the field of Scandinavian cultural influence. During this time the people of these archipelagos spoke a unique language known as Norn which evolved from the Old Norse language. -
The Orkney Islands in the Viking Age
Posted on November 12, 2014 | No CommentsHow and when did Orkney become such a key player in the relations between Norway and Scotland? Were the Earls of Orkney a barrier to war between the nations? -
Which Famous Viking Are You?
Posted on November 7, 2014 | No CommentsDo you sail the Sea of Worms and trade with the Skraelings? Perhaps you're in service to the Romans-Who-Speak-Greek in Miklagaard. -
Who Would You Fight for in 1066?
Posted on November 4, 2014 | No CommentsIt’s the year 1066. Edward, the King of England, has just died. Edward named his successor as Harold Godwinson, but Edward’s cousin, Duke William of Normandy, claims the king had promised him the crown. As William plans to invade England, there is another invasion brewing to claim the throne - led by Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway. It’s a time of turmoil, betrayal and bloodshed… who would you fight for?
