PODCAST · history
Vikingology Podcast
by The Art and Science of the Viking Age
Terri and C.J. are first and foremost educators passionate about the Viking Age and Viking history. Theirs was a meeting foretold in the myths of old. Both are historians of Viking history, both live in Oregon in the U.S., and both share the same birthday. It seemed only natural they team up for something epic. The Norns have woven this fate. vikingology.substack.com
Episodes
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The Sons of Ragnar
It’s our 70th episode and we have a treat for you! If you are or were a fan of the original History Channel series Vikings (now on various streaming services), you’ll likely remember the early protagonist of the show, Ragnar Lothbrok. If you hung on until the series ended 6 seasons later, you’ll...
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The Anatomy of a Raid
In the popular imagination vikings are usually portrayed as badass warriors whose primary occupation is to go out raiding and pillaging, but have you ever wondered exactly how a raid is put together? This time we chatted with Romney Smith, a medievalist historian at Australian National University...
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Denmark’s Viking Age Ring Fortresses
We are thrilled to welcome Søren Sindbæk back to the show! Last time we talked about the many things that make vikings human, and this time we sort of continued that thread with our discussion about the large and impressive ring fortresses that dot the Danish landscape. How could Viking Age...
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The Vikings in Francia
Our regular listeners and viewers will know that we have been chasing vikings in the Frankish Empire for a while on Vikingology. C.J., as a Frenchman, has researched them extensively, Matt Ponesse who specializes in the monasteries they raided in France was one of our very first guests, and...
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Treasures of the Vikings
In the spirit of the World Cup, we have a Vikingology hat trick! We happily welcome Tom Horne back to the show for a third time. He’s now in contention with Clare Downham for our Golden Boot, er, shall we say Golden Mead Horn? This time we were excited to hear about Tom’s new book Treasures of…
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Viking Logistics
The logistics of what it took to be a good (read: successful) viking are only coming into view in recent years for historians and archaeologists. And what we see is that it didn’t matter if it was how to haul your ship from point A to point B over land or choosing which targets to hit for raids,...
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The Saga of the Earls of Orkney
We are so thrilled to have back on the podcast Prof Judith Jesch, one of the world’s foremost scholars of Old Norse language, literature, and runes. Last time we spoke with her we talked about vikings and their skaldic poetry, and also the years-long project she was working on — a new translation...
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The Secret Code of the Vikings
This is not your eye doctor’s vision test chart. These are runes — the secret code for unlocking the mysteries of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking worlds. And this time we are thrilled to have on the show Dr. Jasmin Higgs, a runologist from the UK who told us all about them. Jasmin specializes in the...
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Playing in the Halls of Asgard
There is a special kind of magic that happens when a creator breathes new life into the Viking Age in new forms. For those following the Vikingology journey, we remain fascinated with how the Viking Age continues to resonate in today's world as a source of inspiration. In this latest episode…
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For the love of Beowulf
For centuries explorers have been searching for El Dorado, the famed ‘city of gold’. Ditto the lost city of Atlantis. Many long believed the historical city of Troy was not real until archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann proved them wrong. And now we have Hans Wanneby and Rikard Evertsson who also...
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A milestone episode with Jackson Crawford
It’s our 60th episode! And what better way to spend our Diamond Jubilee than a long-awaited chat with Old Norse scholar Dr. Jackson Crawford? Many of you will be familiar with him through his immensely popular YouTube channel, where you can experience the intersection of cowboy cool and the...
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Myth and belief in the Viking Age and beyond
We were honored to finally chat with Carolyne Larrington, Professor and Emeritus Research Fellow of Old English and Old Norse literature at St. John’s College, Oxford. She is one of the world’s foremost experts on mythology with many many books and publications, including her most recent books…
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The Art of Viking Death
This time we are excited to welcome back to the show experimental archaeologists and living history experts Kevin Alexandrowicz and Devon Rawlings of Regia Anglorum and Jarnborg Vikings. They have collaborated on a new book project that brings Viking Age death to life in a stunningly visual and...
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Viking Ghost Stories
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…
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Viking Law and Order: English Edition
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...
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It's a Saga Thing!
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…
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Catching up with Clare
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…
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A Norse is a Norse, of course. Or is it?
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...
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Of shieldmaidens and stories...
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...
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"Valkyrie" sets sail!
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...
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Meet the Normans
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...
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The Headless Norsemen
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...
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Vikings in Cornwall?
Here at Vikingology we spend what we often think is an outsized amount of time focusing on viking activity on the eastern shores of England. From the raid on Lindisfarne monastery in 793 — the so-called start of the Viking Age — and into the creation of the Danelaw, to the Battle of Stamford…
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Norse Mythology for Smaht People
This time on the podcast we laughed a lot with Rowdy Geirsson, the author of several books and articles based in the Viking Age, both its history and mythology. Like us, Rowdy is an American who has a passion for the Norse — he even spoke to us from Sweden where he is soaking up local viking...
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Law & Order: Viking Edition
Everyone knows that Viking Age Scandinavia was a barbaric and lawless place, right? With all that stealing, killing, property destruction, and selling of people into slavery, who else could get away with all that mayhem if not people with a complete disregard for law and order? Well, if that’s…
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Catching up with C.J. and Terri
Góðan Daginn, Bonjour, and Hello! This post is a quick update for our subscribers. Learn about our new projects and podcast guest teases for May. There’s lots of good Viking stuff coming up. Thanks for reading, watching, and listening. We appreciate your support! You’ll find C.J.’s Substack here....
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Forgotten Vikings
In this episode we have one of our most wide-ranging conversations yet, and if you follow us at all you’ll know that’s saying something because we are very prone to ranging wide! We chat with Alex Harvey, an archaeologist from Yorkshire, England, who has written several books on medieval history....
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Viking Blood and Blade
When one of Peter Gibbons’ book reviews reads, “A great read full of blood and gore,” you know you’re in for an interesting ride! And so it was that we had a great ride (and time) talking with Peter about his best-selling book series set in the Viking and Saxon worlds: The Saxon Warrior and…
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Icelandic Magic and Aliens?
Do you believe in elves or magic spells? In Iceland those things have been part of the traditional folklore for a very long time. To learn about what that meant, and continues to mean, we spoke with experts in Old Norse religion and folk beliefs Kári Pálsson and Giorgia Sottotetti. They worked...
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A new book looks at inclusivity and extremism in modern Paganism and its connection to the Viking world
This time we sat down with Ross Downing to talk about the new book he co-wrote and edited with Kaarina Aitamurto, Germanic and Slavic Paganisms: Security Threats and Resiliency, which through a collection of essays looks at the various ways the Viking past is interpreted and misinterpreted in...
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The Vikings in Poland
We are delighted to welcome back to the show Dr habil. Leszek Gardeła. It’s been two years since our last conversation with him, and so we were excited to get a chance to speak with him again and hear about his new book The Vikings in Poland (hardback now available, paperback to be released…
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In Search of the Great Viking Army
The search for the Great Viking Army is both literal and figurative. For years, scholars have tried to answer the questions surrounding this supposed “army” — What, exactly, was it? How big was it? Who fought in it? Who commanded it, and what were their goals? In this episode we welcome back…
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Monarchs and Hydrarchs
What comes to your mind when you think of Vikings? If it’s a bunch of hairy thugs in boats with swords and axes coming to steal your things, you are only partially correct. In this chat with Dr. Christian Cooijmans we found out that Viking activity in Francia — which encompassed a large swath of...
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Bro, you wanna be a Viking?...
Have you ever thought, like really thought, about what it would be like if you took a time machine to the Viking Age? Where would you get food? How do you make clothes? What do you brush your teeth with, or do you brush them at all? And what on earth do you do without cellphones and the internet?...
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Oh, the humanity!
This time we are thrilled to welcome Dr. Eleanor Barraclough to the show. We nerded out in a previous episode about her book Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas, which is a great read we highly recommend, so we were very excited to speak with Eleanor about her new book...
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News and Musings
It’s been a minute, but Terri and C.J. are finally back together, so in this episode it’s time for life updates from Vikingology. First up, Happy Birthday! We were both born on September 18, so shout out to us for recently completing another turn around the sun. Terri is just back from Iceland,...
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Burning Down the House
"Let us burn him house and all," said Mord. Then they took the vetch-stack and set fire to it, and they who were inside were not aware of it till the whole hall was ablaze over their heads. Then Flosi and his men made a great pile before each of the doors, and then the women folk who were inside...
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The Irish vs. Vikings: The Battle of Clontarf
We are so happy and excited to welcome Professor Clare Downham back to the show. If you didn’t catch our first episode with her, you should. We had a great chat about lots of Viking, historical, and philosophical stuff. But this time we decided to do something a little different and engage in a…
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Were Vikings the founders of Russia??
For much of the English-speaking world, the “Viking Age” ostensibly got its start with the infamous raid on Lindisfarne in A.D. 793. But did you know by that time there was already a half century of Viking activity in the East in what is now the Baltic States and all the way south to Ukraine? And...
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"A Base Camp on the Moon"
Move over Christopher Columbus. Leif Eriksson got there first. To celebrate our 30th episode we’ve pulled out all the stops! We are finally getting to talk about the Norse in North America during the Viking Age. If you’re into Vikings, you probably know they made contact almost 500 years before…
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What if we gave a TED talk about Vikings?...
This time on the podcast C. J. and Terri muse about what a TED talk on Vikings might look like. We get philosophical — as we often do — about how people engage with the Viking Age past and history in general, and we try to thread the needle between our tendency to overly romanticize Vikings with...
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Entering the Vikingverse
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost For an exciting change of pace we sat down with Ian Stuart Sharpe, the creative mind behind the multifaceted...
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Remembering Not to Forget
If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll remember our fascinating chat last year with Mathias Nordvig. He’s an expert in Norse mythology, folklore, and the Nordic Story World. Some people may think that those myths are just cool, fanciful stories about the exploits of gods like Odin and Thor or...
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Age of Wolf and Wind
Brothers must battle one another, become each other’s slayer, and sisters’ sons will sever the bonds of kinship. There will be hardship in the world and much whoredom, axe-age, sword-age, shields smashed to pieces, wind-age, wolf-age, until the world falls, no man will spare another. Völuspá,...
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Vikings, then and now
So far, 2024 has been exciting for us at Vikingology, and our good fortunes continue with this chat we had with Professor Clare Downham of the University of Liverpool. She is the leading scholar in the world regarding Vikings in Ireland, but as you’ll see we talked about much, much more. From…
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From Heathen to Heaven...
This time we had the very great privilege and pleasure of welcoming Dr. Anders Winroth to the show for our first episode on one of the most important game changers in the Viking Age Nordic world — the introduction and acceptance of the Christian faith in Scandinavia. The Vikings would never be…
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The Most Iconic Viking Ships Ever
This time we had the lovely opportunity to sit down with Ellen Marie Næss, an archaeologist and lecturer at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Norway. She is someone very passionate about Viking ships and has worked for many years at Oslo’s famous Vikingskipshuset which houses three…
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The Story of the Vikings is the Story of Us
If you know anything about the study of the Viking Age or have listened to our podcast this year, the name Søren Sindbæk will not be foreign to you. A Danish archaeologist and professor at Aarhus University, Søren has been researching and writing about Vikings for many years, particularly about…
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The Business Habits of Highly Successful Vikings
This time we dive into the economics of the Viking world by chatting with Dr. Tom Horne, an archaeologist and historian in Glasgow, Scotland, who specializes in Viking trade networks. The nuts and bolts of commerce may not sound like the sexiest topic, but we certainly had a laugh and learned a...
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Terri's Search for Vikings in Denmark: An Update
If you saw our recent post about Terri heading to Denmark in search of Vikings, you may be wondering what she found. Wonder no more! In this Vikingology Podcast episode, C.J. and Terri talk about the places that resonated the most for her, all of which she has been teaching about for years but...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Terri and C.J. are first and foremost educators passionate about the Viking Age and Viking history. Theirs was a meeting foretold in the myths of old. Both are historians of Viking history, both live in Oregon in the U.S., and both share the same birthday. It seemed only natural they team up for something epic. The Norns have woven this fate.
vikingology.substack.com
HOSTED BY
The Art and Science of the Viking Age
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Vikingology Podcast have?
Vikingology Podcast currently has 64 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Vikingology Podcast about?
Terri and C.J. are first and foremost educators passionate about the Viking Age and Viking history. Theirs was a meeting foretold in the myths of old. Both are historians of Viking history, both live in Oregon in the U.S., and both share the same birthday. It seemed only natural they team up for...
How often does Vikingology Podcast release new episodes?
Vikingology Podcast has 64 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Vikingology Podcast?
You can listen to Vikingology Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Vikingology Podcast?
Vikingology Podcast is created and hosted by The Art and Science of the Viking Age.
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