I would start by saying that if you can get together with other heathens and have a community (sometimes called a Kindred or a Tribe), that is the best way to do heathenry. You can also join a national organization, like The Troth or Awaken The North, where you also can arrange to meet other […]
Is Harald Fairhair considered “The first Viking King”
This meme is shared on Facebook. It claims that “Harald Fairhair is often conseidered the first Viking King” Haraldr hárfagri (Harald Hårfagre/ Harold Fairhair)is a legendary king of Norway. In the later Icelandic sagas he is said to have unified Norway in around 871 as the meme says. If it is true, we do not […]
Are you a Viking descendant?
On many Facebook groups you will see people claiming to be descendants of “The Vikings”. The definition of a Viking is a bit defuse. In the viking age a Viking was a word that meant the same as Pirat does today. In popular books, they may also use the word viking to denote anyone of […]
Viking Drinking horns at The National Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark
At the moment the post abowe are being shared on different Facebook groups Let’s start by giving a definition of a “Viking Drinking horn”. The article must refer to drinking horns from the Viking Age that start in around 792 and end around 1066 depending on definition. In Scandinavia we difine The Middle Age as […]
An abandoned Viking Village in Iceland?
This post seem to permeate the “viking” groups on Facebook and it claim to show an abandoned Viking Village in Iceland. It doesn’t look anyway like Viking age houses and it doesn’t look abandoned at all. A quick Image Search confirm that it’s a Scottish Village on The Isle of Lewis named “Gearrannan Blackhouse Village”. […]
The song My mother told me
Two words of the song annoy me. One is Galleys and the other are Braque. Both words are mainly about ship types from other times and places, although the English language are a bit unclear about that. The song are a part of the poem from Egils Saga Skall-Grímssonar or Egill’s Saga in English. Song […]
The Gungnir spear meme
The meme has the following claims: Its a magical weapon made by dwarves on the order of Loki, who gave the spear as a gift to Odin It never misses its mark when thrown That any oaths made with a hand on the upon its point cannot be broken So here are the claims one […]
Viking age cleanliness
This meme are being circulated at the moment. It has several statements: “According to historians, Vikings were actually quite hygienic and cleaner than most Europeans of the time. They took baths at least once a week, changed their clothes rebury and cleaned their face and hands once a day”. This is fairly common knowledge and […]
Was the rune calendar from The Viking Age?
You can find memes like the one below claiming that it depicts a “Viking rune stone calendar” When I first looked into the rune calendars some years ago I also found the same picture on eBay. Notice that it is called a “replica”. So, we now know that the picture depict a replica. Actually, the […]
Did the Viking Age Scandinavians use Ravens in navigation?
I have been seeing this meme (or memes with the same claim) repeatedly over the years where claims that “The Vikings used ravens to find land”. This isn’t the case. We do know a story about one Viking using ravens in that way. In the Book of the Settlers/ Landlamabók is says: Floki took three […]
“Viking Prayer” memes
This Meme (and others with similar texts) is often shared on “Viking” or Heathen Facebook pages. If you look in the bottom it says that it is a “Viking (Norse) prayer 4 B.C. – 4 A. D”. Let us start there. The Viking Age was started in the 8th century to the 11th century, so […]