A Flatpack History of Sweden

We start this episode in 1022 as Anund Jakob ascends the throne of Sweden, becoming King after his father, Olof Skötkonung. We look at his reign and how he was followed by his half-brother Emund. There is as always more war among the Scandinavian nations, religious turmoil and an intriguing historical dilemma surrounding some coins minted in Sigtuna!  (Had to briefly take down the episode as we no...

After two special episodes, we return to the chronological narrative. We enter the High Middle Ages and prepare to finally say goodbye to the Vikings. We find out about the lovely herring people would have eaten, see slavery begin to disappear and generally see how life was changing for people in this period.

This time we celebrate one whole year of us talking about Swedish history! We look back at our favourite moments, and reflect on all the things we have talked about so far. We both go through our top 5 favourite things from the first year, thank all you lovely listeners and give a few shout outs to some fellow podcasts we have met along the way.  Thank you as ever for all the lovely messages, revi...

We're taking a break from our usual chronological journey and instead visit a historical site in our own home. In what could be seen as part two of our special episode about dog tags, we continue to look at Sweden's preparations for war in the 20th century. Just like with the dog tags, we found that we're living with a reminder of history, namely a bomb shelter in our own basement! We go to have a...

We're out and about again! This time we visit Sweden's oldest town, Sigtuna. Founded by Viking leader Erik Segersäll and improved on by his son and King, Olof Skötkonung, the town still has lots of remains from that time visible today.  Listen to us explore the runestones, church ruins and Sweden's oldest main street, in our second on-location recording. Unfortunately, it also has some not very po...

This time we examine the first real King of Sweden, Olof Skötkonung (The Coin King!) His Viking dad set the stage, but now the son truly takes on the mantle of ruling Sweden. Olof makes coins in Sigtuna (with the help of some English immigrants), becomes Christian and his main enemy might have swum all the way to Rome! 

We have finally reached the real beginning of the Swedish monarchy! Or have we? Erik Segersäll sometimes gets the credit for being Sweden's first King, after establishing a new town and even taking over most of Denmark. We'll see how much his royal claim stacks up as we reach the final century of the Viking Age. Listen for a story full of blood, battles and bovine secret weapons! 

As we approach the end of the Viking Age in Scandinavia, we summarise everything we've learned so far and touch on some other topics we didn't cover in detail in the last few episodes. We set the scene for the arrival of the first "proper" Swedish Kings as we prepare to soon say goodbye to the Vikings. But first, let's talk more about runes, laws and thralls, plus other subjects. Bonus jokes inclu...

In a first for the podcast, we head outside to explore our new home city of Stockholm. We explore the island of Lidingö and find three Viking sites; two runestones and one grave site burial mound. Check out our social media pages for photos of all three places!

In our final thematic episode about the Viking Age in Sweden and Scandinavia, we explore what some Vikings would have believed and which Gods existed in their world. Prepare for a few strange stories and a godlike cow with a crazy name!    (1: Unfortunately our resident artist (Chris) no longer has access to a fancy stylus to create the image art for our episodes, but hopefully they will return so...

A slight change of format whilst Åsa is in Sweden, so this time we'll see Chris describe the lives of four Viking women to a special guest host. We look at the stories of a Swedish Princess, two residents of Birka and finally get to see how Olga led the Rus from Kiev after Igor's brutal death!

This is Part Two of our mini series on the lives of women during the Viking Age in Sweden and across the Viking world. We examine which sources can help us find out about these amazing people, then look at the role women played in marriage, politics, battle and what they might have worn. We also look at the darker side of Viking life as we see how women slaves would have been treated. 

We are back in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia after our trip eastwards to look at the Rus. We are now starting a short series of episodes on the lives of women in the Viking age. We will look at everything they had to face in society in the next few episodes. This time we give an overview of all the things that these women would have got up to, including childbirth, running the farm, owning bu...

News Update: We are moving to live in Sweden and the podcast is coming with us! Listen to this brief announcement as we talk more about it and explain how the move might have an impact on the next few episodes, but also the exciting opportunities to come. Tack så mycket! 

Still with the Viking Rus in the east, this time we quickly finish off leader Oleg with a dramatic, prophecy heavy death. We then examine his successor Igor and look at what we know about the events from his time ruling the Rus from Kiev. Spoilers: Heavy use of Greek Fire as the Byzantine Navy appears, more trade treaties with help from the Primary Chronicle and another ugly death to finish with.

In this episode we continue the story of our Swedish Vikings as they venture both east and south, heading towards Kiev, the Black Sea and Constantinople. The Rurik dynasty of rulers take hold of a few major towns in the region, such as Kiev and Novgorod and begin to set up a bit of a power base. We look at about 50 years of relations between these Rus and the Byzantine Empire, covering attacks, tr...

We begin this episode by getting to know the Rus in more detail, a name for the Swedish Vikings as they headed east towards modern day Russia, Ukraine, Greece and Turkey. We see how the Byzantine and Arabic sources describe these new arrivals and determine exactly how "Swedish" they remained after their many trips to the region. We also talk about how some of these Rus ended up back in western Eur...

In this episode, the Vikings get a visit from our most interesting character so far. Ansgar is the fascinating first Christian missionary to Sweden, who tirelessly tries to spread his religion throughout Sweden, in the town of Birka. We meet many other interesting characters, including the Viking "Kings" Björn and Anund, Father Witmar, Gautbert, King Louis the Pious and a host of supporting charac...

In this episode we start the real chronological journey through the Viking period. We begin with a look at the first large Viking raids on western Europe, in the rough period of 790-850. The Vikings started their now famous raids in this period, with the pivotal moment being the attack on the Christian monastery of Lindisfarne in 793. We look at the reaction to this attack and the following raids...

They have arrived! The Vikings are finally here. In the first of many episodes on this famous period of Swedish history, we give a rough introduction to the Viking period as we look at origins of the name Viking, where they lived, what they got up to and what kind of people they were. Were they even all Vikings? We also hear from Jerry of the Presidencies Podcast as he reads out a quote from us, s...

Surprise! This is our first special episode, breaking the chronological order to talk about an interesting historical object we found in our flat recently. Sweden issued civilian dog tags to all new born citizens for 50 years between 1960 and 2010. But why? We look into it and also have a brief chat about the history of dog tags in general. 

In this episode we're taking a break from the chronological narrative, as we stop to reflect on the crossover between fact and fiction, and the problems this may cause going forward. We discuss the Nordic Sagas, crazy kings and the many peoples who may or may not have existed in Sweden in the gap between the Iron Age and the Viking Age. We will meet colourful characters like King Weatherhat and a...

Welcome to Part 2 of our investigation of the Iron Age in Sweden and south Scandinavia. This time we take a look at the Germanic Iron Age, with its Migration Period and Vendel Period. See how society gradually shifts as we head towards the Viking Age. We also visit one of our favourite Swedish historical sites, Ales Stenar! 

In this episode we introduce the Iron Age to our story of Swedish history. This week we cover the first two major periods of the Iron Age; The Pre-Roman Iron and the Roman Iron Age, as we look at nearly 1,000 years of history. Bonus: There are Romans included... 

It's time for part two of our Bronze Age journey. This time we focus on graves, rock art and a little bit of a phallic obsession. From 1800 BCE to 500 BCE, there's a lot of physical evidence to talk about!