Tag: middle ages
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Primary Sources for Odin’s Wandering Beyond Norse Mythology
du-ich-jeder-deactivated2017071 asked: Greetings friend,it is told That odin wanders among us. Do you have some source(s) That descripes those interactions? I know all the ones from the poetic and snorri edda, yet i am not satisfied. I love your blog and respect your knowledge a lot:) It has indeed been told that Óðinn wanders far in…
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Mermaids, Sirens, and Sea-Dwellers in Norse Mythology
manic-entity asked: Do you know of any kinds of mermaids or sirens or other sea dwellers in Norse myth? (If there’s two things I love, it’s mermaids and Norse myth) Off the top of my head, I cannot think of specific mermaids in Norse mythology. I can, however, recall that there is a Danish fairytale from…
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Objects Associated with Thor in Norse Mythology
Anonymous asked: I dreamt of a wooden bowl washed with seawater that caught the sunlight and was hailed by a chorus that sang “Thor lives!” Was this entirely dream-fiction or are there objects beyond the hammer associated with Thor? The first thing that comes to my mind when you describe your dream is a scene from Brennu-Njáls…
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The Age of Settlements
“Iceland was first settled from Norway in the days of Haraldr the Fine-Haired, son of Hálfdan the Black, at the time…when Ívarr, son of Ragnarr loðbrók, had St. Edmund, king of the Angles, killed; and that was 870 years after the birth of Christ, according to what is written in his [Edmund’s] saga.” (Ari Þorgilsson…
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Notes on the Word ‘Viking’ in Old Norse
Anonymous asked: how did vikings called themselves (is it different by country/area?)? the term, “Viking” came later after the viking age (if I recall this well). This is a wonderful question, because the term “Viking” is now a convoluted mess of our own creation. The “Vikings” never addressed themselves as “Vikings” in the sense of ethnicity. It was…
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Visuals and References for Viking Age Crafts
Anonymous asked: I am more visual and I cannot find or I find but I cannot tell if they are realistic or not for the actual viking crafting styles, I don’t mind modern replicas for examples, but can you find and show more visual photos of crafts, or link a site/blog which has relatively really good…
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Language in Medieval Iceland
“There was a man named Thorarin who lived at Sunnudale. He was an old man with failing eyesight. He had been a fierce viking in his youth and though he was now old he was still not easy to deal with.” (Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs – Miller, 52.) They called their language the Dönsk Tunga, the Danish Tongue.…
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Land-Taking in Medieval Iceland
“Floki took three ravens with him on the voyage. When he set the first one free it flew back from the stern, but the second raven flew straight up into the air, and then back down to the ship, while the third flew straight ahead from the prow, and it was in that direction that they…
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Strong Women and Battle in the Viking Age
unamoosedwerewolf asked: Hello! I have his question that I’ve been wondering about for a long time. So my friend once told me that there were more woman in battle than men. She said she got it of Internet (which isn’t such a reliable place either). However, I once read a book about runes and all the…
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Primary Sources for Women in the Viking Age
tatterhood asked: Hello, I have a ‘quick’ question regarding your most recent post about Women in the Viking Age. You list your sources at the bottom, but do you know what (primary) source they use? (You have a truly wonderful source-list page, but there wasn’t a ‘Law and Society’/’Women’ section, so I thought I’d ask) Thanks!…
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Medieval Iceland: A Unique Settlement
“Medieval Iceland is an almost unique instance of a community whose culture and creative power flourished independently of any favoring material conditions, and indeed under conditions in the highest degree unfavorable. Not ought it to be less interesting to the student of politics and law as having produced a Constitution unlike any other whereof records…
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Old Norse Greetings
Anonymous asked: Hi, could you please do a specific post on the use of greeting words? Prime examples are “hail” “hailsa” etc… lots of people getting into “vikings” use them without seeming to know the origins, meanings or proper usage… I will most gladly provide a detailed post on Viking Age greetings. Though, I think the…
