‘To Talk of Many Things’: Whales, Walrus, and Seals in Medieval Icelandic Literature
In comparing the roles of whales, walrus, and seals, this study will examine the themes that recur throughout the Old Icelandic literary tradition, and how these may have been influenced by the circumstances of the time.
What did they sound like? Reconstructing the music of the Viking Age
This paper attempts to fill that gap by offering a reconstruction of Viking Age Scandinavian music.
Maiden warriors in Old Norse Literature
In the Old Norse literature, the term ‘shieldmaiden’ (Skjaldmær in Icelandic) tends to be used with reference to a Viking woman warrior
NEW! The Medieval Magazine No. 108
Spring cleaning! The first issue of the Medieval Magazine with a fresh new face!
In this issue, we look at Norse seasons, medieval beliefs about luck, food and politics in Constantinople, Spanish Easter traditions, and the overlooked life of Catherine of Aragon.
What Vikings really put in their pillows
Your pillows – if they’re not synthetic – are almost certainly filled with domestic goose or duck feathers. These are the most common types of fill used for this purpose today. But our ancestors weren’t always as discerning.
Valhalla Rising: The Construction of Cultural Identity through Norse Myth in Scandinavian and German Pagan Metal
This paper is focused on an intriguing and dynamic stylistic trend in metal culture, which is to use Pagan histories as source of inspiration for the lyrics and images of metal bands.
Nalbinding for Beginners
Nalbinding is the Viking-Age term for single-needle knitting. A traditional wool craft that would be used to make woollen hats, socks, gloves and mittens.
Political and Cultural Relations between Norway and England after the Conquest
What I want to suggest here is that there were important connection between Anglo-Norman England and Scandinavian literature and culture as well, even though the Anglo-Norman kings and writers increasingly looked to the continent for modes of explaining their society.
Wood Culture and Technology in the Greenland Norse Society, 10th-15th Century
Despite a relatively poor wooded environment, well preserved archaeological collections show timbers were often used, suggesting Norse people in Greenland found multiple ways to acquire the wood they needed.
Vikings Against The Academy: Junior Scholars Unite in the Face of Looming Career and Mental-Health Crises
Luke John Murphy tells us about The Network of Early Career Researchers in Old Norse.
Walrus Ivory and a History of Trade: Greenland Trade Networks in the North Atlantic
Norse settlement in Greenland represents the far westward reach of Norse influence. Despite being a considerable distance from other settlements, the Greenland colony was not nearly as isolated as it appeared.
How and why did the Viking Age begin?
The question of how the Viking Age started has been much debated by historians. One of the leading scholars in the field, Neil Price, is looking to address this fundamental question with his latest project – The Viking Phenomenon.
How Weather Ruled the Vikings
By Danielle Turner When the weather determines most happenings in a person’s life, what kind of cultural changes emerge as a direct result…
Ascending the Steps to Hliðskjálf: The Cult of Óðinn in Early Scandinavian Aristocracy
This thesis is a study of the cult of Óðinn as it seems to have evolved within the newly emerging warrior-based aristocracy of southern Scandinavia during the centuries prior to the Viking Age.
The Place of the Evil: Infant Abandonment in Old Norse Society
This study examines the issue by focusing on one aspect of it: the special case of exposing deformed infants as prescribed in Old Norse laws.
The use and the abuse of history, national heritage and nationalism
‘Icelanders or Norwegians? Leifur, Snorri and national identity then and now’ followed by a panel discussion
The Double Impact of Christianization for Women in Old Norse Culture
The question of whether Christianity resulted in an improvement, or a worsening of conditions for women in still open to debate.
Watchful Warriors on Viking-Age Sculpture
Watchful Warriors on Viking-Age Sculpture Lecture by Howard Williams Given at the University College Isle of Man on December 14, 2016 Almost every…
The Vikings in Orkney
In recent years, it has been suggested that the first permanent Scandinavian presence in Orkney was not the result of forcible land-taking by Vikings, but came about instead through gradual penetration
Major Viking Age manor discovered in Sweden
Birka, Sweden’s oldest town, has long been a major source of our knowledge about the Viking Age. New geophysical research has now uncovered the ninth-century manor of a royal bailiff at this site.
Trees as a Central Theme in Norse Mythology and Culture
The continual theme of trees in Norse Mythology is important to our understanding of the cosmology of Norse Mythology.
Viking Faroes: Settlement, Paleoeconomy, and Chronology
The paper presents a synopsis of the current evidence for the settlement chronology and Viking Age to Early Medieval paleoeconomy of the Faroe Islands.
Smiths, Myths, and Viking Age Stones
In this lecture, Professor Williams will be examining depictions of smiths from Norse mythology on Viking Age stones in the British Isles, as well as on rune-stones and picture-stones from Scandinavia.
Worshipping the Dead: Viking Age Cemeteries as Cult Sites?
The examined saga accounts demonstrate that when the dead are venerated by the living and when sacrifices are made to them, these acts of worship usually occur at the graveside and not elsewhere in the landscape or within buildings.
Number Symbolism in Old Norse Literature
It is generally agreed that some numbers such as three and nine which appear frequently in the two Eddas hold special significances in Norse mythology. Furthermore, numbers appearing in sagas not only denote factual quantity, but also stand for specific symbolic meanings.