Vikingology Podcast

It’s our 70th episode and we have a treat for you! If you are or were a fan of the original History Channel series Vikings (now on various streaming services), you’ll likely remember the early protagonist of the show, Ragnar Lothbrok. If you hung on until the series ended 6 seasons later, you’ll also remember his sons. These men were all the stuff of viking legend. Except some of them were real. T...

In the popular imagination vikings are usually portrayed as badass warriors whose primary occupation is to go out raiding and pillaging, but have you ever wondered exactly how a raid is put together? This time we chatted with Romney Smith, a medievalist historian at Australian National University about what goes into running a raiding business. It’s waaaay more interesting than just a few rando du...

We are thrilled to welcome Søren Sindbæk back to the show! Last time we talked about the many things that make vikings human, and this time we sort of continued that thread with our discussion about the large and impressive ring fortresses that dot the Danish landscape. How could Viking Age Scandinavians have pulled off such monumental feats? Turns out their ability to muster human and natural res...

Our regular listeners and viewers will know that we have been chasing vikings in the Frankish Empire for a while on Vikingology. C.J., as a Frenchman, has researched them extensively, Matt Ponesse who specializes in the monasteries they raided in France was one of our very first guests, and Christian Cooijmans has also weighed in about early viking activity in the Frankish realm. But that’s about...

In the spirit of the World Cup, we have a Vikingology hat trick! We happily welcome Tom Horne back to the show for a third time. He’s now in contention with Clare Downham for our Golden Boot, er, shall we say Golden Mead Horn? This time we were excited to hear about Tom’s new book Treasures of the Vikings . This superbly visual book is just what you might expect — or at least hope for — in somethi...

The logistics of what it took to be a good (read: successful) viking are only coming into view in recent years for historians and archaeologists. And what we see is that it didn’t matter if it was how to haul your ship from point A to point B over land or choosing which targets to hit for raids, the level of efficient planning and risk/reward calculation is looking to be much more sophisticated th...

We are so thrilled to have back on the podcast Prof Judith Jesch, one of the world’s foremost scholars of Old Norse language, literature, and runes. Last time we spoke with her we talked about vikings and their skaldic poetry, and also the years-long project she was working on — a new translation of Orkneyinga saga . Fast forward three years and The Saga of the Earls of Orkney has been completed a...

This is not your eye doctor’s vision test chart. These are runes — the secret code for unlocking the mysteries of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking worlds. And this time we are thrilled to have on the show Dr. Jasmin Higgs , a runologist from the UK who told us all about them. Jasmin specializes in the runic alphabet and inscriptions from the pre-Old English period but also has training in Old Norse insc...

There is a special kind of magic that happens when a creator breathes new life into the Viking Age in new forms. For those following the Vikingology journey, we remain fascinated with how the Viking Age continues to resonate in today's world as a source of inspiration. In this latest episode, C.J. sits down with Joshua Gillingham, a true polymath within the "Norse-sphere." While many know him as t...

For centuries explorers have been searching for El Dorado, the famed ‘city of gold’. Ditto the lost city of Atlantis. Many long believed the historical city of Troy was not real until archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann proved them wrong. And now we have Hans Wanneby and Rikard Evertsson who also hope to prove the unbelievers wrong by finding the home of Beowulf, the famed warrior protagonist of the...

It’s our 60th episode! And what better way to spend our Diamond Jubilee than a long-awaited chat with Old Norse scholar Dr. Jackson Crawford? Many of you will be familiar with him through his immensely popular YouTube channel , where you can experience the intersection of cowboy cool and the vikings. He has produced hundreds of videos about Old Norse, history, and the literature of the Viking Age,...

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...

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 site...

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...

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 int...

Four podcast hosts geeking out on the Viking Age. What could be better, right? We finally got our chance to sit down with John Sexton and Andy Pfrenger, Medieval Studies scholars who found they shared a love of the Icelandic sagas and started a podcast about it. They’ve been at it for over a decade now, bringing in-depth readings and discussion of the sagas — those tales about people living on a h...

This time we welcome friend of the show Professor Clare Downham of the University of Liverpool back to the show for an unprecedented THIRD time. We always have so much fun chatting with her that we can’t seem to stop! Clare is one of the world’s foremost scholars on vikings, particularly vikings in Ireland and England, and this time she talked to us about the new compilation of primary sources she...

Imagine a past much like our own, only the myths and sagas of Norse legend are all true. Vikings roam the northern seas in search of plunder while skalds compose poetry about great adventures. Sorcerers manipulate unseen spirits and runes to cast powerful spells. Dragons and undead draugar hoard gold and other great treasures. Dwarves forge magic swords, change shape, and brew incredible mead and...

This time on the podcast the authors outnumbered the historians. We got a fun glimpse into the world of historical fiction writing set in the Viking Age from authors Johanna Wittenberg and K.S. Barton. Johanna writes the Norse Women series. K.S. is author of the Norse Family Saga trilogy. And that’s not all! They also co-host the podcast Shieldmaidens: Women of the Norse World where they discuss w...

It’s our 50th episode! A giant thanks to all of you who have listened, watched, and supported us in our little viking endeavor. We have a real treat that we’ve saved up special for the occasion — our long-awaited chat with Erik Knudsen, captain of the replica viking ship “Valkyrie”. In our three years of doing Vikingology Podcast, we have talked surprisingly little about viking ships, which seems...

Terri and C.J. are finally back together again! After a summer hiatus so that C.J. could move to France, we reunite for a very special chat with medievalist historian and fellow American Pacific Northwesterner Eleanor Janega. Some of you might recognize her from her incredibly popular History Hit TV series that she’s done on everything from the history of body modification to the plague, King Arth...

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 m...

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 ha...

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 w...

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. Ale...