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Viking

The word 'happy' has Old Norse origins

Talk Like a Viking! 10 Everyday English Words with Old Norse Origins

Did you know that many words we use today such as “husband,” “happy,” and “egg” are of Old Norse origin? No? Well, this isn’t surprising, as in the minds of many people the Vikings were nothing but a...
Ground-Penetrating Radar Locates Massive Viking Burial Mounds in Norway

Ground-Penetrating Radar Locates Massive Viking Burial Mounds in Norway

An extensive survey using ground penetrating radar in northern Norway has revealed the presence of 15 gigantic Viking burial mounds , along with other measurable remains of ongoing human activity...
 Illustration of a Viking shield wall (unknown artist)

Dissolving Myths: Vikings Did NOT Hide Behind Shield Walls

By ThorNews According to Rolf Warming, an archaeologist and researcher at the University of Copenhagen, the Vikings did not use shield walls in combat. A typical Viking shield was relatively small...
Birka: The Mysterious Demise of a Majestic Viking Trading Center

Birka: The Mysterious Demise of a Majestic Viking Trading Center

The Viking Age in Europe brought a lot of key events and innovations, and greatly shaped the future of things that were to come. But there is a popular misconception that the Vikings were all about...
Long-Lost Runestone From Viking Monument Recovered In Sweden

Long-Lost Runestone From Viking Monument Recovered In Sweden

Performing excavations in an area where new sewer lines are currently being installed, Swedish archaeologists have announced a remarkable and borderline miraculous find. While digging in half-frozen...
The Galloway Hoard, a rich Viking Age hoard found in Scotland

Viking Age Treasures Clean Up Nicely: Galloway Hoard Reveals New Secrets

Around the time the Irish were stamping out the Viking presence in their country, local lore says the Scots and Vikings also fought a battle near Galloway, Scotland. In 2014, a metal detectorist took...
Runriket, Where the Power Struggle of a Viking Ruler is Written in Stone

Runriket, Where the Power Struggle of a Viking Ruler is Written in Stone

The Viking era (800 -1066 AD) is arguably one of the most fascinating in history. Runriket, or the Rune Kingdom, is a unique archaeological area in Sweden, containing more than a hundred runestones...
Rapidly Melting Norwegian Ice Exposes Land Littered with Ancient Arrows

Rapidly Melting Norwegian Ice Exposes Land Littered with Ancient Arrows

Dozens of ancient arrows dating from the Neolithic to the Viking Era have melted out of the Langfonne ice sheet in Norway. In 2014 and 2016, reindeer bones and antlers, stone and river shell...
The Viking runestone was discovered by a farmer in southern Sweden when plowing his field. 	Source: Ingemar Lundgren / Västervik Museum

Runestone Discovered in Sweden Provides Window Into Viking Past

While plowing a field on his family farm in Småland, southern Sweden , Lennart Larsson came across a large stone. Larsson put the stone, which is 6 feet high (2 m) and 3 feet wide (1 m), to one side...
The child’s skeleton found in Dublin, Ireland may be the remains of a murder victim.

Irish Child’s Skeleton may be a Viking Murder Victim

In Ireland, a child’s skeleton dating to the Viking era has been found. The unearthing of a nearly complete child’s skeleton from the 9th or 10th century AD is an important one, but it is also...
The Vinland Map: A Most Non-European Artifact

The Vinland Map: A Most Non-European Artifact

The Vinland Map carries with it the air of mystery and, some would say, the stench of deception. In the vaults of Yale University, and insured for $25 Million, it is either a colossal fraud or an...
One of the Russian Viking coins found in Ireland. Source: Robert Carley

Rus Viking Coins Unearthed by Strong Rainstorms in Ireland

It is not uncommon for ancient coins to be found in buried hoards around the world, but some discoveries are rarer than others, such as an unusual find of what seem to be Kievan Rus coins unearthed...
Researchers have re-evaluated a helmet discovered in the 1950s in Yarm, Stockton-on-Tees. Known as the Yarm helmet, this is the first Anglo-Scandinavian helmet to have been discovered in Britain and is the second nearly complete Viking-era helmet discovered in the world to date. Source: Durham University.

First Ever Viking Helmet Discovered in Britain

A re-evaluation of a helmet discovered in Yarm has led experts to believe that it is the earliest Anglo-Scandinavian helmet ever to have been found in the British Isles. The remarkable Yarm helmet is...
Researchers have discovered extinct strains of smallpox, an infectious disease also known as Variola, in the teeth of Viking skeletons proving the disease was around at least 1,400 years ago. Source: nobeastsofierce / Adobe Stock

Viking Explorers Found To Be Carriers Of The World's Deadliest Virus

Chinese-Flu, Kung-Flu and now Trump-Flu, according to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, but now, in the middle of all these politicized pseudonyms names for...
Artifacts discovered by Tor-Kjetil Krokmyrdal at Sandtorg farm, believed to have once been a Viking trading station, include objects of Eastern origin (on the left) and from the British Isles (on the right). Source: Julie Holme Damman, The Arctic University Museum of Norway and Tor-Ketil Krokmyrdal.

Archaeology Student Discovers Viking Trading Station in Northern Norway

A Norwegian archaeology student has found a remote Viking settlement that will change the history of Viking Age Norway. The intrepid discoverer, Tor-Kjetil Krokmyrdal, is a Norwegian master ’ s...
Two Viking re-enactors fighting

Viking Re-enactor Nearly Kills Partner During Swordplay

A woman has almost been killed by her partner as he was practicing his sword moves in Britain. He is a Viking re-enactor and he accidently stabbed the woman. She was critically injured, in what...
Thor's hammer amulet

How a Viking Amulet Solved the Mystery of Thor's Hammer

In 2014, archaeologists solved a long-running mystery through the discovery of a 10th century Viking artifact resembling Thor’s Hammer. Before then, they were only working with a hunch about the 1,...
Viking in action. Credit: Nomad_Soul / Adobe Stock

The Life and Death of Sweyn Forkbeard and His Viking Empire

Sweyn I, known also as Sweyn Tiugeskaeg (which means ‘Forkbeard’), was a Viking chief who became the ruler of Denmark, Norway, and England. His byname, ‘Forkbeard’, is a reference to his long, cleft...
A Deadly Formula - Why Viking Weapons and Armor Were So Effective

A Deadly Formula - Why Viking Weapons and Armor Were So Effective

Nothing continues to be so inspiring and thrilling from early medieval history such as the Viking Age. This exciting historical period turned the nations of Europe upside down, and ushered in a new,...
When the couple removed the floor, they discovered a Viking grave. Source: Nordland County.

Viking Grave Found Under the Floorboards of a Home in Norway

A Norwegian couple made an unusual historic discovery during renovations of their home. First they found a number of Viking era artifacts, and then archaeologists declared that they had found a...
Representation of Cnut the Great.     Source: Nomad_Soul / Adobe Stock

Cnut the Great: the Myth, the Man, and the Multi-National Viking Monarch

Cnut Sweynsson, known also as Cnut the Great (sometimes spelled as Canute), was the ruler of England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden. His realm is often referred to as the North Sea Empire, or...
Stone formation Ales Stenar in southern Sweden on the Baltic Sea coast.        Source: Fabian/ Adobe Stock

Ales Stenar, Sweden’s Stone Circle May Have More Secrets

Sweden is famous for the Northern lights, IKEA and their Vikings, known as Varangians. The country has a rich history and many heritage sites, one of which is the enigmatic Ales Stenar, (or Ale’s...
A side-rendering of the giant mound that once covered the buried Viking ship. Today, the ship's remains lie under less than 20 inches of topsoil. (NIKU/LBI ArchPro)

1,000-Year-Old Buried Viking Ship Will be Raised!

Norwegian archaeologists have announced a plan to raise a buried Viking ship from the earth. The vessel is from a ship burial that is over 1000 years old. It is the first time in over a hundred years...
Representation of Vikings in South America. Source: Nejron Photo / Adobe stock

Were Vikings in South America Over 400 Years Before Columbus?

Here is presented the widely dismissed account that probably sometime in the mid-11th century, Danish Vikings from Schleswig and the Danelaw (as ascertained from runic rock inscriptions) arrived at...

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