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 Raids

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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The 13th Warrior: Ten Years Later

September 28, 2009 Viking Movies
Viking ship

The 13th Warrior was released in 1999. Rumored to be a loss of $100 million at the box office worldwide, it is not the best film by McTiernan (Die Hard, The Thomas Crown Affair) in any sense. However, it was rather entertaining to watch it again, taking a few notes in the process. From the [...]

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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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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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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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Viking Burial Site in Cumwhitton, Cumbria

February 21, 2009 Viking Burials
Cumbria

In March 2004 amateur archeologist Peter Adams found two Viking copper brooches on a farmland in Cumwhitton, near Carlisle, Cumbria, using a metal detector with permisson from the landowner. Mr Adams immediately reported this important find under the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This led to the discovery of six Viking graves, dating from the early 10th [...]

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Viking Blood in Wirral and Lancashire Men

February 20, 2009 Viking DNA
Viking armor

The results of the study led by Professor Mark Jobling of Leicester University, Professor Stephen Harding and Professor Judith Jesch of Nottingham University, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution in February 2008, show that up to 50% of the blood of men in Wirral in Merseyside and West Lancashire is specifically linked to Scandinavian ancestry. [...]

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Viking Raven Banner

January 8, 2009 Viking Weapons
Sutton Hoo raven

Viking warlords led their armies under a banner (merki) or war flag (gunnefane). For instance, king Olaf Tryggvason had a dragon banner. However, raven was the most common image on such standards. Under the year 878 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions a viking banner called Hræfn (‘Raven’). Harald Hardrada’s banner called Landøyðan (‘Land-Waster’), mentioned in the [...]

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Viking Runes on the Piraeus Lion in Venice

November 9, 2008 Runic Inscriptions
Piraeus Lion

The Venetian Arsenal is guarded by four statues of lions. One of them, a nine feet high marble beast, bears on its mighty shoulders two lengthy runic inscriptions. These are carved within the intricate ornaments that represent writhing lindworms, characteristic for classical runestone design. The holy patron of Venice is St. Mark; the vicissitudes of [...]

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