Vikingology Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

We were honored to finally chat with Carolyne Larrington, Professor and Emeritus Research Fellow of Old English and Old Norse literature at St. John’s College, Oxford. She is one of the world’s foremost experts on mythology with many many books and publications, including her most recent books The Little Book of Trolls and The Little Book of Dragons. She has also done a translation of The Poetic Edda.

Since we are both historians, and C.J. is an historical fiction author to boot, we are hardwired for creating narratives about the past and storytelling in general, so we were delighted to get a chance to talk with Prof. Larrington about what stories and myths mean to us humans as a species. This took us not only to the Viking Age and Norse myths, but much farther afield into the realms of religion, modern medievalism, and the human condition in general.

This was a fun and enlightening chat. We could have talked for hours!

Thank you Carolyne. We hope you will visit us again in the future!

Skál!

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This time we are excited to welcome back to the show experimental archaeologists and living history experts Kevin Alexandrowicz and Devon Rawlings of Regia Anglorum and Jarnborg Vikings. They have collaborated on a new book project that brings Viking Age death to life in a stunningly visual and visceral way.

Painstakingly staged and photographed, and based on the archaeology of actual burial sites, the graves Kevin, Devon, and their team created give us a glimpse into how the Norse prepared the dead for the next life. You’ll definitely want to watch instead of listen to see some of their amazing photographs as they explain the history and interpretation behind them.

Published by Hyldyr in Washington State, which has also brought to life other Norse themes such as the poems Völuspá and Hávamál, the Fuþark runic alphabets, and the Galdrabók, this new book promises to change the way we visualize death and burial in the Viking Age. It even includes introductions by friends of the show archaeologists Leszek Gardeła and Giorgia Sottotetti!

If you want to see an intriguing new way to engage with the Viking Age past, please buy the book! You’ll be supporting history, archaeology, artists, and publishers all at the same time.

Thanks so much Kevin and Devon for sharing your knowledge and artistry. Can’t wait to see what you do next!

Skál!

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Oh, the tropes and stereotypes we have to endure as historians and enthusiasts of the Viking Age. From horned helmets to shieldmaidens, there’s lots about the period that is either false or shrouded in mystery, yet it endures in our popular imagination.

But hang on to your heads, kids! In a new article, archaeologist and associate professor Martin Rundkvist is shedding light on another trope you may have heard about — vikings doing strange things with skulls. Did vikings really drink from the skulls of their dead enemies? Probably not, but did they do other stuff with them? According to Martin’s research the answer is a definite yes. But why? And whose skulls were they?

In this episode we talked with him about his study of 34 skulls in Sweden and Denmark. The conclusions may seem shocking, but the Norse were far from alone in human history in what they did with those skulls. Watch the episode and then check out the article yourself here. You can also find some of his other work on his academia page. It’s super interesting stuff.

Tack Martin! What a fascinating chat! We look forward to it again so we can hear about your adventures in Gotland.

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Here at Vikingology we spend what we often think is an outsized amount of time focusing on viking activity on the eastern shores of England. From the raid on Lindisfarne monastery in 793 — the so-called start of the Viking Age — and into the creation of the Danelaw, to the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, it seems all the action in the British Isles was in the east.

But in today’s episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with historian John Fletcher who told us about the importance of Cornwall in the viking story, in the southwest of England. He specializes in that part of Britain during the early medieval period and in 2023 published The Western Kingdom: The Birth of Cornwall. He is currently researching the impact of viking and Scandinavian activity there from the 9th to 11th centuries. It appears that while our eyes have been on the east, just like the vikings, Cornwall sort of snuck up on us.

From being the “true” heirs of the Roman Empire in the North, to tin mining, King Arthur, lots of Catholic saints, and being a sandbox for vikings to hone their skills, suffice it to say there’s lots more to Cornwall than meets the eye. To check it all out, watch the podcast and then buy John’s book!

You can also find John on Facebook and Instagram @authorjohnfletcher

Thanks so much John! We look forward to chatting again. 'Eghes da!

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This time on the podcast we laughed a lot with Rowdy Geirsson, the author of several books and articles based in the Viking Age, both its history and mythology. Like us, Rowdy is an American who has a passion for the Norse — he even spoke to us from Sweden where he is soaking up local viking history for the month.

So, what do Boston, Snorri Sturluson, warriors, Leif Eriksson, Óðin’s bird poop of wisdom, and getting sucked into black holes in the Vikingverse have in common? Watch the interview and find out!

You can follow Rowdy and his work on his website Scandinavian Aggression, and also on Instagram @rowdygeirsson. His writing on Norse culture and history has appeared in many places from Scandinavian Review to McSweeney’s. You’ll basically find him wherever vikings and humor collide. And for Óðin’s sake, buy his books!

Thanks Rowdy! We hope we can do it again.

Skál!

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Everyone knows that Viking Age Scandinavia was a barbaric and lawless place, right? With all that stealing, killing, property destruction, and selling of people into slavery, who else could get away with all that mayhem if not people with a complete disregard for law and order?

Well, if that’s your view of the viking world, we’ve got news for you. In this episode we chat with Professor and Dr. Alexandra Sanmark of the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland, an expert in all things legal and judicial in Viking Age society.

Turns out, those Scandinavians knew a thing or two about crime and punishment and took it very seriously. The result was an intricate set of laws, courts, and procedures that were part of Germanic custom going all the way back to the Roman era. We talked to her about various legal policies and procedures, what our sources are for them, and where those public assemblies took place. We also discussed the legal parity that the Viking Age is famous for in our modern imaginations. The reality may surprise you.

Her book Viking Law and Order: Places and Rituals of Assembly in the Medieval North spells out the complex nature of Norse systems at a time when laws were not written down but performed and remembered visually and orally. It’s a fasinating look into a culture that counters our every impulse thought about what it meant to be a “viking.”

Thanks Alex, it was a most interesting and thought-provoking pleasure!

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Góðan Daginn, Bonjour, and Hello!

This post is a quick update for our subscribers. Learn about our new projects and podcast guest teases for May. There’s lots of good Viking stuff coming up.

Thanks for reading, watching, and listening. We appreciate your support!

You’ll find C.J.’s Substack here.

You´ll find Terri´s Substack here.

And lots of good stuff for Viking and medieval nerds on Medievalists.net, including information about Terri’s online Viking history courses.

Skál!

In this episode we have one of our most wide-ranging conversations yet, and if you follow us at all you’ll know that’s saying something because we are very prone to ranging wide!

We chat with Alex Harvey, an archaeologist from Yorkshire, England, who has written several books on medieval history. But we wanted to hear all about his Forgotten Vikings which was published in the U.K. in 2024 but is just now reaching audiences in the U.S. in 2025.

Alex’s book and research had us asking many questions — What is the meaning of “Viking” and how is that changing? When did the Viking Age actually begin and end? How did he become interested in Vikings in the first place?

Then we ventured into how the Romans may have influenced the Viking Age North, the intermix of myth and reality in storytelling then and now, the importance of modern pop culture for getting people interested in Viking history, authenticity in the movie The Northman and TV series Vikings and The Last Kingdom, and how Vikings look to us like a mix of Walter White and Tony Soprano.

We warned you that we ranged pretty wide.

But just who are the “Forgotten” Vikings? You’ll have to watch/listen to find out.

Thanks so much Alex! We look forward to doing it again soon when we can dig into more about archaeology.

After you’ve read Forgotten Vikings, don’t forget to check out his other book Riddles of the Isle and then be on the lookout for his forthcoming book Little Kingdoms: An A-Z of Early Medieval Britain.

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When one of Peter Gibbons’ book reviews reads, “A great read full of blood and gore,” you know you’re in for an interesting ride! And so it was that we had a great ride (and time) talking with Peter about his best-selling book series set in the Viking and Saxon worlds: The Saxon Warrior and Viking Blood & Blade Saga.

Peter is not only a prolific writer but a very accomplished one as well, winning the highly coveted Kindle Storyteller Award in 2022 for his book King of War. He lives in Ireland, but was born in the north of England. His love of reading as a kid and growing up in the shadows of Viking settlements helped to spark his interesting career.

We talked with Peter about several things like how he got his start as a writer, when he was fortunte enough to quit his day job to write full time, the intrusion of AI into the writing field, and how the world still needs the creativity and passion that only humans can bring to the table. We also asked him who it is that he sees when he looks at Vikings. His passion for them and their Age was immediately apparent and infectious.

But as we tend to wander on Vikingology, we ended our talk on King Arthur. Go figure.

Thanks so much Peter for such a fun chat!

Sláinte!

You can shop for all of Peter’s books on his website.

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Do you believe in elves or magic spells? In Iceland those things have been part of the traditional folklore for a very long time. To learn about what that meant, and continues to mean, we spoke with experts in Old Norse religion and folk beliefs Kári Pálsson and Giorgia Sottotetti. They worked together on a new book, The Galdrabók: Forbidden Icelandic folk magic with Hyldyr, a small, independent publisher in Washington State that has also published other books on related themes.

This episode was a bit of a spooky one for Terri. As a researcher of Vikings and Iceland herself, coincidentally (or not?) back in 2019 she had seen Jarðskinna, the tiny manuscript that we discuss and that is the focus of Kári and Giorgia’s book (along with the Galdrabók), and always wondered what it meant. As you can see from her photo above, taken in the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavík, it contains strange images and symbols that still defy explanation. Luckily, Kári and Giorgia have transcribed the Icelandic text, but they have yet to crack the code. If you have any experience with Icelandic folkloric magic and potential insight into what the images might mean, they would love to hear from you. You can reach them through their publisher.

The episode was a bit spooky for C. J. too. All he could see in the images and symbols was an alien abduction! But perhaps that was because he was a bit under the weather and could really have used a magic healing spell. Or maybe he’s just spent too much time in the Vikingverse ;)

This was a really interesting and fun chat, not only about the manuscripts, but the beliefs of Nordic peoples that have withstood the test of time, from before and during the Viking Age straight through to the present. And we ended on a recitation of a Fart Rune, so what’s not to love about that?!

Takk fyrir Kári and Giorgia!

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