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 myth and the saga literature, to get a sense of the viking mind regarding death and the afterlife. How did they deal with dead bodies? Where did they believe people went after death? Were ghosts and revenants welcomed or shunned? Were the dead scary or benevolent? Did they take steps to protect against them? And how much did the Christianization of Viking Age Scandinavia change those beliefs?

It’s a fascinating topic that we hadn’t delved into much on the show. We learned a lot, including the fact that maybe an important way to keep bad spirits away is to cover your anus. To be safe, you’d better watch or listen and find out why :)

Thanks Irina! We must do it again soon.

You can find Irina on her Shield of Skuld newsletter right here on Substack. Do check it out. Lots of great viking content there.

Skál

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 into this very thing — pun intended :)

We talked about how legal institutions in England were changing dramatically from AD 900 to 1200 due in part to internal political developments but also to the incursion of the vikings who not only raided and traded but eventually settled there, creating a new hybrid culture based on traditional Scandinavian legal systems, in an area that came to be known as the Danelaw.

Want to know the difference between customary and common law, how a person would know which laws they needed to obey when living in a hybrid world, and what happened to 13-year old thieves? Jake’s got you covered.

His article Legal culture in the Danelaw: a study of III Æthelred has won several awards for its novel approach to this subject, so if you’re interested in a deeper dive, do check it out.

Thanks Jake for a really interesting chat that got our wheels turning!

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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 harsh little island in the North Atlantic during the Viking Age — which are chock full of utterly human situations and emotions that are still relatable all these centuries later. And sometimes they even put them on trial.

But oddly enough, we started the conversation by talking about Beowulf and what it means to be killed in the Vikingverse. Go figure.

John and Andy are leading a saga tour of Iceland in April 2026. If you are interested in tagging along, check out their website Saga Thing Tours. Space is limited so sign up early!

And don’t forget to listen to their podcast. You’ll get a deep dive into the saga literature and occasionally hear an interview with top scholars and general viking enthusiasts as well. All great stuff.

Thanks John and Andy! We hope we get to do it again.

Skál!

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We welcome back friend of the show archaeologist Martin Rundkvist who talked to us earlier this year about skulls in our episode The Headless Norsemen. This time we catch up with his latest archaeological work and finds from the Swedish island of Gotland.

As you may know from our previous episode with author Octavia Randolph, Gotland is an island that was critical for Viking Age travel back and forth across the Baltic Sea. But as Martin tells us, based on his team’s finds which span an impressive amount of time from the Bronze Age in 2,000 BCE all the way up to the medieval period of the 1100s CE, Gotland has a very deep history indeed.

If you regularly just listen to our podcast, you’ll want to watch this one instead to see some of the cool artifacts which have been recovered. It brought to mind for us the interesting topic of cultural objects and relics, why they are important, and whether they will matter in our future. Fascinating stuff.

You can read the full archaeology field report here.

Thanks Martin. Please come back again any time!

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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’s just completed that will be published by Penguin Classics next year. But that wasn’t all.

As we historians tend to do, we wandered into philosophical questions about the human condition which transcends time. It seems vikings were so very different from us and not so very different at the same time.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. It’s your opportunity to eavesdrop on what historians talk about when they talk like no one is listening.

Skál!

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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 ale.

And Odin is a massive a*****e.

If any of that seems intriguing to you, well, it did to us too! So we decided to talk with author Gregory Amato who wrote that bit describing his books of fantasy fiction set in the Viking Age, most recently through his series Spear of the Gods. We talked about what drew him to this genre and how his two lives as a former FBI intelligence analyst and now author collide in his work.

In addition to telling good stories and immersing his readers in another world, Gregory also hopes his work can help people to better understand Norse magic, myth, and people on their own terms, rather than through those more nefarious uses which abound in various corners of our world.

This was an interesting and, at times, deep conversation about not only writing but engaging with the past responsibly in general. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Thanks Gregory! C.J. is looking forward to reading your signed copies ;)

For more information, head to Gregory’s website where a free surprise awaits you!

You can also find his other musings on his Substack.

And you can buy his books here.

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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 what it meant to be a woman in the Viking Age. With a mix of history, writing, and podcasting, they are our kind of people!

We talked to them about why they chose the Viking Age as the backdrop for their stories, the art of writing and what it takes to appeal to readers of historical fiction, and what role AI may play in changing the writing game. And we also waded into the murky waters of women warriors. Did shieldmaidens exist? Watch or listen and find out!

Thank you Johanna and K.S.! We had a great time.

You can learn more about their work on their websites:

johannawittenberg.com and ksbarton.com.

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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 kinda weird since they are one of the most iconic images of the Viking Age. But thanks to Erik, his dad David, and their shipwright Jay Smith of Aspøya Boats in Washington State who have recreated a 56-foot long replica inspired by a Skuldelev ship from the Viking Age in Denmark, we finally get to dive into some of the nitty gritty details of how those magnificent works of art and craft were created.

We learned about building techniques and materials, what it feels like to sail a viking ship, why they were different than other boats of the time, and what it means to have a special, perhaps emotional, connection to such a vessel. If you’re used to listening to us, you’ll definitely want to watch our interview this time to see the cool images that we discuss.

If you want to check out “Valkyrie” in person, you are in luck! Erik and his crew have been approved by the U.S. Coast Guard to take people out in her, so you can experience what it meant to be a viking for yourself (minus the raiding and pillaging, of course). Head to their website, Northwest Viking Ship, for more information and to book a tour. They are also hiring, so if you want a job as a viking, now is your opportunity!

Tusend tak Erik! It was a real pleasure. Fair winds and following seas!

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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 Arthur, the medieval afterlife, and more.

But we wanted to talk to her about her latest series about vikings named Norman.

Well, actually the ones named “Rollo the Walker” and “William the B*****d” whose viking opportunism and medieval badassery gave us the area in France that we still call Normandy to this day because of them. We find out how and why a viking chieftain could create a dynasty that would change the history of a French region and the entirety of England forever. And why those Normans are the tech bros of the Viking Age.

Thanks so much Eleanor! You are great fun and we look forward to chatting again soon.

You can find out more about Eleanor’s work, including her books THE ONCE AND FUTURE SEX: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society and The Middle Ages: A Graphic History on her website.

You can also check out Eleanor on her two podcasts: Gone Medieval and We’re Not So Different.

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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 may have heard about — vikings doing strange things with skulls. Did vikings really drink from the skulls of their dead enemies? Probably not, but did they do other stuff with them? According to Martin’s research the answer is a definite yes. But why? And whose skulls were they?

In this episode we talked with him about his study of 34 skulls in Sweden and Denmark. The conclusions may seem shocking, but the Norse were far from alone in human history in what they did with those skulls. Watch the episode and then check out the article yourself here. You can also find some of his other work on his academia page. It’s super interesting stuff.

Tack Martin! What a fascinating chat! We look forward to it again so we can hear about your adventures in Gotland.

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