Want to learn more about Norse Vikings? We provide information and insight for people interested in Viking Age Scandinavia. The present web site is a dynamic resource that treats on current and past issues related to Norse cultural heritage. The Viking Rune offers unique online features: free Rune Converter and Motto Generator. We are committed to greater access to knowledge about the Vikings, which is the only way to dispel the myth about Norse warriors as cruel and bloodthirsty raiders who did nothing but kill, pillage and rape. The Viking Rune is always up-to-date with the latest developments in North Germanic studies, including hot archeological finds in Scandinavia and elsewhere.


Viking Age

Runestones of the Viking Age

July 8, 2010 Rune Stones
Runestone

Runestones are stones with runic inscriptions. The eldest runestones, inscribed with Elder Futhark inscriptions, date from the 4th century. However, the most of the runestones were created during the late Viking Age and thus inscribed with the Younger Futhark runes. The runestones were usually erected to commemorate one or several deceased kinsmen, and in most [...]

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Beheaded Vikings in Weymouth Execution Pit

March 23, 2010 Viking Burials
Viking skull

In June 2009 a thousand-year-old execution pit was discovered at Ridgeway Hill, on a hilltop by the ancient main road from Dorchester to Weymouth. The pit contained the remains of 51 robust young warriors, most of whom were in their late teens to early 20s. Since no pins or toggles were found, it is suggested [...]

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Viking Words in English

October 1, 2009 Old Norse
Old Norse dictionary

How many loanwords from Old Nose are there in the standard English language? Viking origin of the words ‘ransack’ and ‘slaughter’ probably would not surprise anyone, but very “peaceful” words like ‘leg’, ‘sky’ or ‘window’ are also of Scandinavian provenance. The verb ‘get’, one of the most used in English, was actually borrowed from Old [...]

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Marriage Imperative of the Viking Age

September 22, 2009 Vikings
Viking woman

In September 2008 Dr James H. Barrett, who is deputy director of Cambridge University’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, published a paper that provoked lively discussion. The paper was entitled “What caused the Viking Age?”. It was published in Antiquity v.82 n.317, pages 671-685 (available for subscribers here). The Viking Age began dramatically in 793, [...]

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Viking Food – Scandinavian Cuisine

September 22, 2009 Vikings
Viking food

Climate, lifestyle and isolation: these three factors largely shaped Scandinavian cuisine. Lengthy, dark and cold winter has always been and still is one of the basic facts of life in the Nordic countries that have to be dealt with seriously. Surviving through the winter depended on food supplies stored during the short growing season. Lack [...]

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Create Life Mottos in Old Norse Online

July 20, 2009 Old Norse
Vikings attacking

Just added a new feature: the Old Norse motto generator. This allows to create viking mottos or slogans online through a user friendly interface according to five grammatical patterns. The first one is «(noun) and (noun)». Choosing words in drop down menus allows to create such Old Norse phrases as «blood and death», or «sword [...]

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Top Ten Viking Hoaxes

May 13, 2009 Vikings
Hawaii Viking ship hoax

1. Vinland Map. The so called Vinland Map is a medieval style map of the old world. It is said to date to the 15th century, when it was purportedly redrawn from a 13th century original. In the western Atlantic it has a large island identified as Vinland, which is the name given to an [...]

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Viking Graffiti in Hagia Sophia

March 30, 2009 Vikings History
Viking graffiti

Tagma ton Varangion, the Varangian Guard, was first created in the Byzantine Empire under Basil II Bulgaroctonus (Slayer of the Bulgars), one of the outstanding Byzantine emperors. After the death of John I Tzimisces in 976, who governed the empire before Basil, two powerful generals revolted and received military support from Georgia and Baghdad. Basil [...]

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The Genes of Mice Reveal Viking Secrets

March 19, 2009 Viking DNA
Mouse

The house mice (mus musculus domesticus) are largely dependent on dense human settlement for food, so they may serve as a good indicator of human migrations and trading links. The study by Professor Jeremy Searle, from York University, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences in October 2008, analyses the genes of [...]

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Vikings Filed Their Teeth

March 18, 2009 Vikings
Teeth

Caroline Arcini, an anthropologist at the National Heritage Board in Lund, Sweden, analized 557 skeletons from four major Viking burial sites in Sweden. The skeletons date from AD 800 to AD 1050. The results of the study, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 2006, revealed that 24 of them (10 per cent [...]

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The Vikings Reloaded

March 15, 2009 Vikings History
Viking

Today is the third and the last day of the conference Between the Islands: Interaction with Vikings in Ireland and Britain in the Early Medieval Period hosted by the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic of the Cambridge University. “The rehabilitation of the Vikings is nothing new to academics, but it is surprising how enduring [...]

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Viking Society in Iceland – Key Concepts

March 10, 2009 Vikings History
Thingvellir

Viking society of the 10th century in Iceland was a democracy of free men, böndr (singular: bóndi) who worked on the land that they owned. As it seems, rural community, hreppr, originally united people who first came to Iceland on the same ship. From among chieftains, höfðingjar (singular: höfðingi) a priest, goði (plural: goðar), was [...]

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Vikings in England – A Historical Commentary

March 9, 2009 Vikings History
Vikings in England

Comments by Professor Jobling and Dr King quoted in my earlier article on the Viking genetic heritage in northern England may need some explanation. Danelaw, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, is the territory in Britain, where the laws of the Danes for a certain period dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons (see the map). The first [...]

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Dr Jobling Traces Viking DNA

February 22, 2009 Viking DNA
Viking

Professor Mark Jobling of Leicester University, who now seems to be the ultimate authority on Viking bloodlines in northern England within the national project to create a genetic map of the UK, has launched a new exciting study. Men whose fathers’ fathers were born in Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, North Yorkshire, Durham or Northumberland are wanted [...]

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