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 look and explore the background as to why there were so many shelters built in Sweden. 

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 podcast-friendly ducks!

Bonus: brief history of the Dala horse included in the review section at the end.

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 included after the outro theme tune! 

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 soon!)

(2: Republishing to remove 10 minutes of silence that snuck into the end of the episode!)

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 businesses and getting involved with politics and marriage.