Vikingology Podcast

In this episode, we had an interesting chat with William Short and Reynir Óskarson who are experts in the experimental archaeology of Viking combat and weaponry. You know…the shiny, sexy stuff that comes to most people’s minds when they hear the word “Viking.” We talked about their methods for understanding fighting in the Viking Age, the famed Ulfberht sword, how Vikings may have trained, their b...

Viking Age Iceland was what we might call “progressive.” They had no king or strong central state as had arisen elsewhere in Europe, but instead, starting in 930 A.D. had the Alþing, a public assembly where chieftains and free farmers settled disputes and matters of law by negotiation and consensus. It was a proto-democratic system ahead of its time and is still referred to as the oldest parliamen...

Have you ever wondered how Viking houses were built and out of what? It turns out, even archeologists had it wrong for a very long time. In this episode we talk to historian and archaeologist Sigurlaugur Ingólfsson, director of operations at the Árbæjarsafn Open Air Museum in Reykjavík, Iceland, who tells us how Viking houses were built, why they were built that way, and what we can learn from mod...

Something was brewing in Scandinavia that reached a boiling point in the 8th century A.D./C.E. We historians acknowledge this phenomenon as the creation of the “Viking Age.” But why? Scandinavia certainly existed prior to that time, and Vikings probably did too. So what made this time so special or different? What sent Nordic peoples out into the world to raid, trade, and settle in unprecedented n...

We had so much fun and covered so much interesting ground in our talk with Davide Zori of Baylor University that we made two episodes from it! Our first episode on the grave of Egil Skallagrimsson is available here on our Substack. Check it out. We have both video and audio versions available. In this episode, Davide dove into chieftain-level power structures in the Viking Age, particularly in Ice...

Terri and C.J. finally had their long-anticipated sit down with fellow Oregonian and History podcaster Dan Carlin to discuss the topic of the Vikings, which Dan covered in his recent episode Twighlight of the Æsir . We wanted to understand why the most popular History podcast in the U.S. decided to devote FIVE hours to the Vikings — with a sequel coming later this year — and answer the question: W...

We call our podcast Vikingology: The Art and Science of the Viking Age for a good reason. From the beginning we decided to focus not just on the factual history, but also on the “art” of historical interpretation. So it was with great pleasure that we got to sit down with best-selling historical fiction author Eric Schumacher for this episode. Like lots of us, Eric caught the medieval bug early in...

Ever wondered what a Viking sounded like? Is it a dead language, or could someone have a proper chat with a Viking if one was suddenly transported to the 21st century? In this episode we found out firsthand from Dr. Jesse Byock who is an expert in Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Take a listen and find out. In addition to teaching Old Norse, Jesse has also spent his career unearthing – lite...

Just think of it. Those poor Christian monks minding their own business dedicating themselves to God living lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and then boom! Vikings start showing up to terrorize and steal from them, and then do it again and again and again. Why? What on earth could have brought this catastrophe upon those defenseless religious communities? In this episode, we sit down wit...

In this episode we traverse a lot of Viking ground. Dr. Jesch is a scholar who has written on several aspects of the Viking Age over a long and distinguished career, from women and the Nordic diaspora to poetry and the runes. We talk to her about the influence Vikings had on the various areas where they traveled and settled, the difference between Skaldic and Eddic poetry, and what a Viking Age po...

In this episode we sat down with Dr. Davide Zori, archaeologist and historian at Baylor University who specializes in Vikings, to discuss some of Davide's most exciting finds at a farmstead in Iceland, including a grave which may be that of Egil Skallagrimsson, a famous Viking whose story is recounted in Egil’s saga Skallagrimssonar . Read the saga in English translation here. Davide worked the si...