I am starting a series of videos, reading from the old Norse poem Hávamál:
The Hávamál – Stanza 1-10 – The Wise Wanderer
Understanding Odin
When I was a younger man, I had a hard time relating to Odin. The Allfather, the king of the Aesir, seemed somewhat gloomy. He was to me a symbol of the past and the death that awaits all men. This has changed…
Concepts that meant nothing to a Norse heathen
Things were not always as they are today. For example, some concepts and ideas that we tend to take for granted today, weren’t even a thing back in The Viking Age.
Adopting a Viking Mentality – is it for you? Part II
We are fascinated by the Viking mentality. Their fighting spirit and their tenacity seem to have captivated the attention of an entire generation. And while I believe most people don’t really get who the Vikings were, I also believe that those of us who work with this historical era every day, need to be inclusive and stop judging people for their lack of knowledge. Even archeologists I know hesitate to call themselves experts on this subject. It’s so clouded by centuries of monotheistic dogma that it’s only now that we are really beginning to understand the Viking world.
VIKING IN A MODERN WORLD
Everybody wants to be a Viking these days. But the world around us is still the same and nobody cares if you’d rather go full Norse. Since you can’t time-travel back to the Viking Age, how do you live your Viking life in the year 2016? How do you cope with the demands of modern society, when all you want to do, is to set sail and go exploring the oceans and distant continents? It seems like Viking life has no place in modern society and that your Viking lifestyle must remain something you do in your spare time with like-minded people.
Well, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be like that.
Becoming a Viking
These days, everybody wants to be a Viking. And while I think it’s great that my ancestors’ culture is becoming increasingly popular, I feel that sometimes people are getting it all wrong. Being a Viking gets mixed up with being a Norseman or -woman. Being a Viking was a lifestyle that some Norsemen and even -women lived, while the Norse were a group of clans who shared the same culture and variants of the same language.
BJØRN ANDREAS BULL-HANSEN 