The Icelandic Vikings of the Middle Ages had a justice system centered on blood feuds , in stark contrast to modern legal proceedings. Unlike today's courtroom dramas with attorneys and evidence,...
Ragnar Lothbrok , an iconic figure in Viking lore, emerges from the shadows of Norse sagas, a sea king whose exploits reverberate through the annals of history. In 845, as the Frankish Empire...
The Viking mindset, as revealed in Old Norse sagas , emerges vividly through tales of these five great Viking deaths. The raid on Lindisfarne in AD 793 marked the outset of Viking depredations in...
Giants, demigods, dwarves and elves - all these creatures made the Old Norse mythology so colorful and captivating. Preserved for posterity in the Norse sagas and manuscripts, these myths and legends...
Ragnar's Death Song, also known as the Song of the Crow or the Krakumal, is a poem that tells the story of Ragnar's death. According to Norse sagas, Ragnar Lothbrok was a legendary Viking warrior and...
Many cultures throughout history have had their own unspoken societal rules, and the Vikings are no exception. The Drengr Code was a code of ethics and principles that was believed to have been...
In 2013 archaeologists in Iceland came across an ash pile which led to excavations that began in 2017 at Arnarfjörður, near the church town Auðkúla in Iceland . The ash pile led to the discovery of a...
In Norse mythology, Valkyries were originally sinister spirits that would fly above the battlefield in search of the dead, deciding the fate of the fallen for Odin . The word “Valkyrie” means “...
“Brothers shall fight | and fell each other, And sisters' sons | shall kinship stain; Hard is it on earth, | with mighty whoredom; Axe-time, sword-time, | shields are sundered, Wind-time, wolf-time...
In Norse sagas, Sigrid appears as the wife of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, then Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. She's also known as a famous Polish queen of the Vikings, who was called Świętosława...
Iceland’s medieval literature is rich in many regards: in Eddas and sagas, it tells us about early Scandinavia and its expanding world-view, ranging from the mythology of the North, the legends and...
The Valkyries of Norse mythology were women of vast prestige and power. They were one of the few factions of warrior women from ancient lore recognized as having any power over the mortal realm...
Considered an outlaw saga, the Gisla Saga survives in thirty-three manuscripts, first written in the 13 th century. It is notable for its psychological treatment of characters and its blatant...
In many ways, the old Norse beliefs of Scandinavia are strange and wonderful. The old pagan religion had gods and goddesses of music and fertility, nature deities, elves, dwarves, giants, magical...
The Sagas of the Icelanders have long been preserved as the most comprehensive specimen of the literary culture of the 13 th and 14 th centuries of Iceland. In writing these sagas, many attributes of...
Over seven decades ago, an ancient skeleton was found in a well in Sverresborg, a medieval fortification located in Bergen, Norway. But World War II put an end to the excavations and the body was...
Despite numerous so-called myths which existed in stories, sagas and texts of our ancient past being proven true, many still insist that all myths and legends are simply down the imagination and...
Archaeologists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Museum have found an ancient silver button and set of balance scales along with other artefacts during an excavation in mid-...
