Prehistorian Aksel Klausen joins the Brute Norse Podcast to swill wine and chat about ring symbolism, weapon sacrifice, kingship, and the emergence of the ancient Germanic warrior elites. This is the first part of a two-part interview.

The Germanic tribes are often credited with the destruction of the Western Roman Empire. There are no Roman roads in Scandinavia, still the empire resonated in the cultural memory of the Vikings. From Teutoburger Wald to the Taliban, Brute Norse joins forces with Krister Vasshus, PhD student in onomastic sciences at the University of Bergen, to discuss just how far the Roman shadow fell beyond its Northern border.

In this first episode I had a talk with Leszek Gardeła, assistant professor of archaeology at the University of Rzeszów, Poland, about the ambiguity of magic, morbid viking burials, and the ethics of studying the dead.

Music by Eirik Storesund and KB Hus.