Vikingology Podcast

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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The Norse during the Viking Age inhabited a world that was both utterly foreign to us and yet humanly familiar. Like us, they believed in ghosts. But maybe unlike us they believed in revenants and other supernatural creatures of all kinds. It seems their world was pretty porous when it came to the line between the living and the dead.
In this episode we chatted with Irina Manea, a scholar of Norse myth and the saga literature, to get a sense of the viking mind regarding death and the afterlife. How did they deal with dead bodies? Where did they believe people went after death? Were ghosts and revenants welcomed or shunned? Were the dead scary or benevolent? Did they take steps to protect against them? And how much did the Christianization of Viking Age Scandinavia change those beliefs?
It’s a fascinating topic that we hadn’t delved into much on the show. We learned a lot, including the fact that maybe an important way to keep bad spirits away is to cover your anus. To be safe, you’d better watch or listen and find out why :)
Thanks Irina! We must do it again soon.
You can find Irina on her Shield of Skuld newsletter right here on Substack. Do check it out. Lots of great viking content there.
Skál


Get full access to Vikingology Podcast at vikingology.substack.com/subscribe

The Norse during the Viking Age inhabited a world that was both utterly foreign to us and yet humanly familiar. Like us, they believed in ghosts. But maybe unlike us they believed in revenants and other supernatural creatures of all kinds. It seems their world was pretty porous when it came to the line between the living and the dead.
In this episode we chatted with Irina Manea, a scholar of Norse myth and the saga literature, to get a sense of the viking mind regarding death and the afterlife. How did they deal with dead bodies? Where did they believe people went after death? Were ghosts and revenants welcomed or shunned? Were the dead scary or benevolent? Did they take steps to protect against them? And how much did the Christianization of Viking Age Scandinavia change those beliefs?
It’s a fascinating topic that we hadn’t delved into much on the show. We learned a lot, including the fact that maybe an important way to keep bad spirits away is to cover your anus. To be safe, you’d better watch or listen and find out why :)
Thanks Irina! We must do it again soon.
You can find Irina on her Shield of Skuld newsletter right here on Substack. Do check it out. Lots of great viking content there.
Skál

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Get full access to Vikingology Podcast at vikingology.substack.com/subscribe

Historians and archaeologists who study the vikings are constantly grappling with the question of the amount and level of influence they had on the various parts of the world they ventured into. In this episode we add legal customs to the mix with Dr. Jake Stattel, a legal historian and postdoc research fellow at Cambridge University's Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, who is looking into this very thing — pun intended :)
We talked about how legal institutions in England were changing dramatically from AD 900 to 1200 due in part to internal political developments but also to the incursion of the vikings who not only raided and traded but eventually settled there, creating a new hybrid culture based on traditional Scandinavian legal systems, in an area that came to be known as the Danelaw.
Want to know the difference between customary and common law, how a person would know which laws they needed to obey when living in a hybrid world, and what happened to 13-year old thieves? Jake’s got you covered.
His article Legal culture in the Danelaw: a study of III Æthelred has won several awards for its novel approach to this subject, so if you’re interested in a deeper dive, do check it out.
Thanks Jake for a really interesting chat that got our wheels turning!
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