The Boners of Östergötland

In Östergötland, Sweden there are many boners carved into the surfaces of large rocks that protrude up through the ground. And, while we’re on the topic, I am sure there are many other boners in Östergötland of another sort as well…that also do their own sort of protruding. But those […]

Icelandic Lava Beer

Finally! The Icelanders have begun smoking their beer (in addition to smoking their whales and their puffins). I personally can’t think of a more befitting national, Viking-appropriate meal for Iceland than one composed of smoked endangered animal, smoked cute little penguin-type thing, and smoked beer inspired by volcanic eruptions. How […]

Heimdall Blows

When Heimdall blows his horn it can only mean one of two things: the world is coming to a terrible, violent end and you might as well give up on whatever it is that you’re doing because you’re about to be set on fire, or you’re in central Stockholm on […]

Leif Eriksson on the Rocks

Highland Park has gone and done something wonderful: they have produced Scotch in honor of Leif Eriksson. Why did no one think of this sooner? It took the discoverer of North America approximately 1012 years before he had a Scotch whiskey named in his honor? Sometimes I am ashamed of […]

Death in Digital Fire / World Reborn

During the middle of the month, this site was sacked, pillaged, and put to the sword. My poor little Viking-toy-avatar-thing was passed around like an unfortunate Irish woman during the great Norwegian conquest of what was to become Dublin. But as the great story says, that which was the end […]

Victorious March!

I’m not sure whether this painting is saying, “We are coming to destroy everything in our path!” or “We have just destroyed everything in our path!”, but either way, if this isn’t a victorious march of some sort, then I don’t know what is. John Charles Dollman wasn’t dicking around […]

Glory in a Bottle

The Norsky brewers up at HaandBryggeriet are clearly modern day recipients of Odin’s wisdom and have held a cherished spot on my Viking Barley Brew list ever since I first compiled it. But they wanted to outdo themselves and so they started to age some of their brew in aquavit […]

The Saga of Biôrn

I discovered this video while browsing the web for matters of importance and came across it over at the Norse and Viking Ramblings blog. The video itself though is a student project made by members of the class of 2011 at The Animation Workshop in Denmark, and it’s about Biôrn’s […]

Viking Classic Rock Parody

This one was brought to my attention by the good mead-brewing Stenhugger from Illinois. Apparently part of a television series in the UK called Horrible Histories, it’s called Literally: The Viking Song and is an amusing take on the Viking raids on England delivered in the form of music video.

Happy Up Helly Aa!

On the last Tuesday of every January, the honorable jarls up in Shetland celebrate the end of the yule season by setting everything on fire. It’s called Up Helly Aa and not only is it a glorious homage to Viking glory, but it’s also the biggest fire festival in Europe. […]