Norse and Viking Ramblings

Door from Rauland church with runic inscription on the upper iron fitting.

Photo of Bryne by Rune Sattler CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org One of the most famous footballers today is the still very young Erling Braut Haaland, born in Leeds, but firmly rooted in his home town of Bryne, south of Stavanger, in the Jæren reg…

Illustration by Wilhelm Wetlesen for Harald Hardrådes saga, Heimskringla 1899-edition: «Kvinner frå Nidaros står og ser på at skipet vert drive fram med sytti årer.»

Erling Skjalgsson by Theodor Kittelsen (public domain) It seems to be Erling Haaland weekend.

The following is an extract from something I am working on at the moment - an analysis of the killing of Earl Rǫgnvaldr of Orkney, as reported in chapter 103 of Orkneyinga saga, on the 20th of August, in 1158 (all translations my own): Replica of a statue…

It's good to be in Norway again on Norse and Viking business and today I had a free day in Oslo.

On academic business in London the other day, I chanced upon Tooley Street, just near London Bridge Underground station.

Doorway in Kirkwall photo by Judith Jesch Today is the feast day of Óláfr Haraldsson, king of Norway and saint, who died in battle, killed by his political enemies at Stiklestad, on this day in 1030.

Christine Fell in 1965 from a photo kindly provided by Gillian Fellows-Jensen One of my most treasured possessions is my copy of Sigurður Nordal's scholarly edition (1913-16) of Orkneyinga saga, which has been my constant companion for over two decades no…

For International Women's Day it is always useful to remind ourselves that, even in the Viking Age, women were approximately half of the population.

Shameless self-promotion has not generally been the main purpose of this blog.

In what now seems like a completely other world, less than a year ago I wrote a blog post listing some recommended Viking reading.

Back in the day when this blog was nobbut a baby blog, one of my first posts gave a quick mention to the Odinic obsessions of a certain Julian Cope, ageing musician and antiquarian who grew up in Tamworth.

The 29th of this month would have been Terje Spurkland's 72nd birthday.

Here in dismal, grey, snowless Oslo it was a delight to visit the Historical Museum and especially its exhibition called Víkingr.

The church at Orphir.

Reproduction dice and a gaming piece made by Adam Parsons (c) University of Nottingham CC-BY-4.0 In my previous blog post, I looked at two recent television programmes on this perennially popular topic.

MM131 Andreas II Viking Age runic cross from the Isle of Man, commemorating a certain Arinbjǫrg I never for a moment thought the fascination with the possibility of female Viking warriors would go away.

Rune-stick N B644 (late 12thc.) from Bryggens Museum, Bergen.

Lighthouse at the Point of Ardnamurchan As I have previously pointed out, many of the poetic-sounding names of the shipping forecast have Viking associations, as does the Point of Ardnamurchan, in the inshore waters section.

Viking ship model in Repton.

In a blog post last year, I questioned whether the meat of the polar bear was especially edible.

My recent visit to the Westfjords, and to Hrafnseyri in particular, sent me back to re-read Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar.

Although the Westfjords (Vestfirðir) of Iceland are sparsely populated nowadays, they do figure quite largely in a variety of Old Icelandic texts.

As regular readers of this blog know, I quite often go to academic conferences in the Viking diaspora and usually manage to stay on for a few days to have a bit of a busman's holiday.