The Berserkers (also known as ‘berserks’) were elite Norse warriors who fought during the Viking Age on the battlefield with intense rage and bravery. The very word ‘berserk’ (as well as ‘berserker’) entered the English language via Old Norse, its etymology attesting the ravaging physical power of these Norse champion fighters. In the Old Norse…
Did the Vikings actually celebrate Halloween? Well, certainly not. At least, not as we know the holiday today. Halloween, or the ‘Day of the Dead’, is a holiday observed on October 31 in such countries as Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, or Canada. Halloween as we know it today was initially rooted in…
The Norse-Gaels (alternatively known under the terms ‘Hiberno-Norse’ or ‘foreign Gaels’) were a people who originated in the Norse settlements established during the Viking Age in Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, and the Hebrides who resulted from the intermarriage between the Norse colonists and the native Gaelic populations. In early medieval Ireland, the Norse-Gaels primarily…
Background Much of Viking Age architecture that was initially rooted in central and southern Scandinavia and then subsequently applied in the Norsemen’s North Atlantic colonies can be traced back to the late Iron Age. Several types of structures built during the Viking era bear significant resemblances to the rural and urban settlements established by the…
Below you can read a brief analysis of the Norse hierarchy during the Viking Age. Additionally, you can also get some insight with respect to the social classes that the Norse society consisted of. Society in the Viking Age was far more complex than most people assume, given the vast majority of the myths and…
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