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Nordic history and culture Welcome to your essential news source for all things travel and culture in the Nordics and beyond.

A research project in Norway has shed new light on an intricate defense system first developed in the Viking Age.
11/10/2025

A research project in Norway has shed new light on an intricate defense system first developed in the Viking Age.

The research is the first in-depth investigation of how beacons were used as a form of defense in the country.

How do you celebrate a complicated past? Norwegians are finding new ways to connect with their Viking roots, without ign...
10/10/2025

How do you celebrate a complicated past? Norwegians are finding new ways to connect with their Viking roots, without ignoring the hard truths.

Modern Norwegians connect with their Viking heritage and history with a combination of cultural curiosity, entrepreneurial opportunity, and nuanced reflection.

Four land spirits still stand on Iceland's coat of arms. Here's where their story comes from.
09/10/2025

Four land spirits still stand on Iceland's coat of arms. Here's where their story comes from.

Tales of these mythical creatures, guardians of the Land of Fire and Ice, can be found in the sagas and are best described as potent and protective spirits.

Our clearest doorway into Norse myth and the early medieval North often bears one name, Snorri Sturluson of Iceland.
08/10/2025

Our clearest doorway into Norse myth and the early medieval North often bears one name, Snorri Sturluson of Iceland.

Much of what we know about Norse mythology and early medieval Scandinavian history is thanks to the work of just one single man, 13th century CE Icelandic author, poet, and politician, Snorri Sturluson.

Here are five reliable choices for a winter trip built around Viking ships, artifacts, and living heritage.
07/10/2025

Here are five reliable choices for a winter trip built around Viking ships, artifacts, and living heritage.

A few handy options for enjoying your fix of Viking Age culture even in the coldest months of the year.

During the Viking Age, education in Scandinavia was largely informal, centered around practical skills and oral traditio...
06/10/2025

During the Viking Age, education in Scandinavia was largely informal, centered around practical skills and oral traditions rather than formal schooling. Skalds, or bards, were crucial in this system, using storytelling and sagas to pass down knowledge and cultural values.

Despite their reputation for producing early medieval Europe's most feared warriors, Viking societies were also deeply interested and involved in education and literacy. We aim to dispel their reputation as mere brainless barbarians by exploring how Viking societies passed on knowledge and skills.

The windswept Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean may not be the first place you would expect to be a cradle of de...
05/10/2025

The windswept Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean may not be the first place you would expect to be a cradle of democracy. Yet it can make a claim as being a genuine cradle of democracy as a parliament, of sorts, has existed here for more than a millennium.

Whilst it is still very much a feature of 21st-century Faroese political life, the Løgting can trace its roots back to an age when Vikings sailed the seas.

They sailed far, fought hard, and ruled in many places. So why did no Viking empire last?
04/10/2025

They sailed far, fought hard, and ruled in many places. So why did no Viking empire last?

How did people from Viking societies not carve out an empire of their own following their early medieval outward expansion?

A three-year project by the Polish Academy of Sciences and Aarhus University is investigating Silver Hill on Wolin to te...
03/10/2025

A three-year project by the Polish Academy of Sciences and Aarhus University is investigating Silver Hill on Wolin to test whether a Viking Age harbor once stood there.

Archeologists are searching for evidence of an ancient Slavic-Scandinavian settlement on the Baltic island.

In 1016, England stood on a knife edge. Edmund Ironside raised support in Wessex and beyond, C**t anchored his strength ...
01/10/2025

In 1016, England stood on a knife edge. Edmund Ironside raised support in Wessex and beyond, C**t anchored his strength along the coast. Assandun stood as the next battleground.

The next generation took up the martial challenge that their fathers had started, as we find Edmund Ironside crowned and taking the fight back to C**t's Viking force. Yet would this more aggressive battling ultimately rid England of the Vikings?

For Viking Age storytellers, the sky was shaped from a giant's skull, lit by a sun pulled across the heavens by a horse-...
30/09/2025

For Viking Age storytellers, the sky was shaped from a giant's skull, lit by a sun pulled across the heavens by a horse-drawn chariot, and threatened by wolves engaged in a cosmic chase.

In Norse cosmology, the sky was a dynamic backdrop that saw a host of beings, deities, and even trees animate it with an interplay of divine motion and cosmic struggle.

Visitors love Gotland today for its beaches and old town walls, but its Viking past made it one of the richest spots in ...
28/09/2025

Visitors love Gotland today for its beaches and old town walls, but its Viking past made it one of the richest spots in the Baltic.

Nowadays, the only hordes visiting the Baltic island of Gotland are of the tourist variety. Yet this balmy isle houses an impressive Viking history that saw it as a focal point of trade, traffic, and treasure during the early medieval period.

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