The Vikings did not celebrate Hallowe’en or the Celtic Samhain holiday. They did have an important festival this time of year, called Vetrnætr (Winter Nights). While there is scanty information in the primary sources, what can be distilled paints a fascinating picture. The Norse calendar was based on a lunar system rather than the solar…
The subject of the October issue of Historical Times Magazine is Vikings, including one from me on women warriors. It’s an online, interactive magazine and it’s FREE, so be sure to check it out at this link: Historical Times Magazine
By Johanna Wittenberg Vikings are often portrayed as illiterate brutes, but that is inaccurate. They shared a written language with their Germanic cousins. The earliest examples of runic writing dates back to the second century AD, though experts are unsure where and when the runes originated. The runic alphabet is referred to as the Futhark,…
The sagas and histories of Viking times tell many tales of astral travel. The Vikings believed that a person had two parts, a hamr (literally: skin, shape, body) and a hugr (mind, spirit). A person who could travel astrally was said to be hamramr, (shape strong). The ability to leave the body and enter an…