I`m spending parts of Easter in the second largest town in Denmark, Århus. Århus had her city rights in 1441 but one can trace back the city to the 8th century. Århus, or Aros, as they believe the city was called back then, is celebrating her Viking history my inviting all visitors to their Viking …
I can`t wait until the third of March. Why? Because of this trailer for the series about Vikings on History Channel: Vikings are coming – the trailer It`s very short and it only shows Vikings running around with axes and swords – the Viking myth, if you like – but there was one …
I was going to make a post about Viking movies – the good, the bad and the ugly (most of them are in the latter category, unfortunately) – when I came over this amazing run-through of every Viking movie ever made. Check out the list and read all the comments. They were very thorough! Here …
AiramLebasic (*hugs*) sent me this very interesting article from National Geographic about how they`ve found a Viking settlement on Baffin Island. It`s around 50 years since they discovered the first proof that Icelandic sagas about the exploits of Leif Eriksson were correct: In the 1960s two Norwegian researchers, Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad, discovered and excavated the …
FFFbone posted a link to this amazing list of 10 creatures in Scandinavian Folklore at the Random-Fandom . These are all creatures that are ingrained in our culture – especially the Norwegian culture which seems to have taken these creatures much more to heart than, for instance, the modern Danish culture. If my son spends too …
I mentioned in an earlier post that I would write about myths about the Vikings. One of the biggest myths is that the Vikings were dirty and unwashed. Everything is relative, of course, and compared to people of today who shower every day and use tons of beauty products, they may seem rather poorly groomed. …
Mama_Lovis gave me an interesting article where five myths about Vikings are discussed. I`ll come back to the other four myths but will deal with the one about what Vikings looked like first. Tall, muscular and blond or redheads I`m sure it`s no surprise that Vikings were tall (though not entirely as tall as the …
I found this incredibly interesting article which links the current good economy in Scandinavia all the way back to the Vikings. No, we do not still live off the gold and silver stolen from churches and monasteries by hordes of Vikings back in the days. The reason for our current high GNP is apparently the …
In 1903 a farmer close to the Norwegian city of Tønsberg – a large city in the Viking age – stumbled over part of a Viking ship from around 834. The ship was used in a burial and was almost in one piece when it was found. Two women were buried there and speculations have …
Check out this cool converter where you can see what your name looks like in Nordic Runes. This is what Thyra looks like in Runes: What does your name look like?