Viking Ships

Could a medieval church really protect a killer from the law?From the 40-day asylum of parish churches to the more permanent protections claimed by Westminster Abbey, sanctuary was never simply an escape route, it was a contested space where mercy and authority met.Dr. Eleanor Ja ...  Show more

How could a love song become a political weapon? How were scandals, wars and crusades turned into some of the most influential poetry ever written?The songs of the troubadours - celebrities in their day - helped define the emotional landscape of the Middle Ages and left a legacy ...  Show more

Support this podcast on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/historyofvikingDuring the Middle Ages, seafaring Scandinavian marauders wrought havoc in lands both near and far—from Iceland to Finland, and Córdoba to Constantinople. These were warriors who belonged to an altogether viol ...  Show more

Today I chat with Dr. Christian Cooijmans, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Liverpool and author of Monarchs and Hydrarchs: The Conceptual Development of Viking Activity across the Frankish Realm (c. 750–940)Referenced in Today’s Episode:Monarchs and Hydra ...  Show more

Today I chat with Dr. Mathias Nordivg who teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Nordic Studies Program. He teaches Pre-Christian Nordic mythologies, Scandinavian folklore, North Atlantic and Greenlandic literature, reception history of the Viking Age, and much more ...  Show more

Viking exploration changed the course of history in the northern hemisphere. As raiders and pirates, they dominated the seas of northern Europe for centuries. Their fearless and brutal reputations struck fear into hearts from Constantinople to Canada, while their folklore and myt ...  Show more