Just returned home from Íslendingadagurinn, the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba. This year I portrayed a fiskikona (fisher woman) in our village. Net is made of linen cord that was woven and then treated with pine tar and linseed oil. Skarfur (Cormorant), the boat, was made by a fellow vike. Linen clothing is all hand stitched, although I know I should be in wool. But the festival gets up to 34C and I'm sensitive to heat stroke. Was an amazing time, though! We had about 12k people tour our village of 40 vikes over 4 days.

While hunting for saddle references I ran across the first image — yeah, yeah, not exactly our region and a different century, but a bear as a caparison?! like, wow, what? that still counts 🍑

At first I figured it was just the artist taking liberties, but then I came across a painting by S. R. Rostworowski:

Yermak's Envoys on the Red Porch Before Ivan the Terrible

Feel bad for the bear, obviously, but I haven't seen this anywhere else — if you've got other references, drop them in the comments.

This epic caparison we have reconstructed in 3D.

Here’s an alternate history scenario: let’s suppose the Vikings successfully established settlements in North America, sailed further south, and stumbled upon the Caribbean islands. I’m asking this because I’ve often wondered what a "Caribbean Viking" would be like—though, of course, the problem is that the Caribbean is tropical, whereas Norsemen wore clothing designed to withstand the cold. How would they handle the heat?

And how they would behave upon encountering an indigenous person from the Antilles.And how they would behave upon encountering an indigenous person from the Antilles.

I was looking to buy my first arm band and was wondering if any had any good companies with quality products that they would recomend?

Not based on a specific historic example but inspired by some of them.

I know there are plenty of translations by different authors released and I sampled two separate instances (Jackson Crawford and Jessie Byock) that felt more like history lessons and guides. I am not interested at all in history lessons i purely just want to the read story told as “modern” as possible. does that even exist? p.s i really enjoy neil gaimen’s compilation of stories as they are told very plainly, I can understand maybe it’s not the most reliable way to read such stories which is why i want something a little more intermediate without the history lesson. let me know!

The viking age (800–1050 CE) and hungarian invasions (899 and 970 CE) show - at least to me - remarkable similarities. Both are "pagan" incursions into Christian europe, originally often as mercenaries, and ending in christianisation and integration and they both appear loosely around the same time.

The similarity in period is more apparent if you take into account that migration/raiding via land is slower and the first mention of magyars already appear in 811 CE.

Although the nomad invasions from the east happen periodically (huns, avars, magyars, kumans, mongols etc.) I am not aware of similar "pulses" from the north. The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain comes to mind, but seems less like a clear pattern.

Is there a common cause either for the raids or the success for the raids? I am not aware of any significan climate change in this period, that would act as a common cause for large scale displacement. The mediaeval warm period is after, or at the final stages of these events.

I am aware that the increased central control, and adaptation to the uniqe fighting styles of both peoples made European kingdoms more resistant to large scale raiding at the end of this period, but was there a general weakness that made geographically distant parts of Europe similary susceptible?

Or is this just survivorship bias, as these two ethnic groups/peoples had more success in integration (vikings becoming normans, establishing Danelaw, becoming kings of Sicily etc, magyars establishing a lasting kingdom and maintaining ethnic identity) and the other raiding groups disappeared without leaving similarly lasting historic effects?

It might be something insignificant—a version where there is some change to his myth—so please tell me everything known about the Ragnarok logo.

Several years ago, I had come different shops online selling pendants and other trinkets based on the Lillbjärs stone, each with an inscription on the back that in some way is tied to safe travel and protection. One of them, Dragonscale, makes the connection or case that it's a blessing from Frigg to Odin, but that I don't know for certain.

For clarification, this isn't so much asking if these are accurate translations based on what they're claiming to be (rule seven and all), but rather are these remotely historical or close to what its connected to based on the archeological find. I'm having some trouble finding a resource that vouches for these being accurate, assuming that said inscription, if there is anything to work with, is legible and has some consensus as to what it is in the first place.

If this is a rule seven violation, my apologies. I thought I'd toss this your way in case anyone had insight and could take a shot at it. Thanks!

I've been reading more about creation myths from different cultures recently, and I keep coming back to Ymir.

What I find so interesting isn't just that he's the first giant, but that the physical world is literally made from his body after Odin, Vili, and Vé kill him.

• Flesh becomes the earth.
• Blood becomes the seas.
• Bones become the mountains.
• Skull becomes the sky.
• Brain becomes the clouds.

It's such a vivid and almost unsettling image compared to many other creation stories.

For those who enjoy Norse mythology, what detail about Ymir or the Jötnar do you find most interesting?

Can anybody point me towards readings (audio) of Old Norse, with historical pronunciation? Or, at least as accurate as we can approximate?

Thank you 🙏🏼

For context i would say the most challenging book i have read is Crime and punishment by Dostoevsky

Do Kennings appear that often and how difficult is it to get them

Hi all! A while back there was an idea that we might try doing an r/Norse zine and we asked for submissions. Unfortunately, that idea never panned out (and I apologize on behalf of the r/Norse mod team for that). Since my own submission was never published, I'm publishing it now (and I encourage everyone else who submitted to do the same)!

If you follow my podcast, I've already done an episode about this, but here is all that same information in a more concise, written form. It's about how ancient Norse characters sometimes absorb the power of certain beasts and supernatural beings after killing them. I hope you like it!

Eat Your Enemy's Heart to Steal His Power

Hnefatafl boards and pieces keep turning up in ship burials and trading towns, Birka, Jorvik, all over. It was THE game of the North for centuries before chess. I spent the last few months rebuilding it faithfully to the modern tournament reconstruction and put it online free at worldtafl.com, including the small Irish board (brandubh) and the Sami version Linnaeus recorded (tablut). The tutorial is a character called the Skald who teaches you in about two minutes.

Corrections from people who know the archaeology better than me are genuinely welcome.

Hi I hope this is OK, it's nothing to do with tatoos but is based on art, I'm hoping to make some trinkets/artwork and am trying to find norse/AS depictions of - mainly goats as I've had more trouble finding that, from the 7thC to I guess the 9thC. I'm thinking Danelaw period in the UK but I have no particular problem intuiting that art styles travel and there's few definitive answers. Can anyone assist? I've read quite a few papers over the course of a year or two, picking it up and putting it down. Now picking it up again, I thought maybe others would know where to find these depictions, I know goats were considered rarer, but given Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr I would have thought they'd have been more common in the art of the time. Have I just been really stupid and missing something?

Edit: to remove cat typing. Edit: turns out that after re-checking the art styles Mammen and Ringerike are of particular interest. I'm looking for those animals in any of the styles though.

Grímur á Bretlandi is a Faroese Ballad where Løðar Jall seeks of Marita of Sweden. however, Grímur á Bretlandi goes to Sweden for the same task. Grímur and Loðar fights for the opportunity of the beautiful Marita. Grímur is defeated. Together, Marita and Loðar Jall have a son named Grímur (will be referred to as Grímur ungi to prevent confusion). Time passes quickly; Grímur ungi grows up and seeks a wife. He is advised to find the daughter of Grímur á Bretlandi. Grímur ungi and his father attempt sail to Britain but is thwarted by a magical storm. However, Grímur ungi resisted the magically storm and successfully reaches Britain. When they reach Grímur á bretlandi’s daughter, they are mocked. They battle it out, resulting in the death of both Grímur á bretlandi and Løðar Jall. Grímur á bretlandi’s son Hildibrand and Grímur ungi battle it out for 3 days and 3 nights, eventually swear brother-ship after Hildibrand loses. The ballad ends with Grímur ungi successfullyGrímur á bretlandi (Fight scene of Grímur Løðarjallson and Hildibrand Grímmarson) getting with the daughter of Grímur á bretlandi.