The Children of Ash and Elm

In practice, the Viking raiders were never a bolt from the blue, unknown barbarian sails on a North Sea horizon. Their victims had encountered Scandinavians many times before, but as traders rather than agents of chaos; the surprise was in the violence, not the contact.

what systems theorists call singularities—relatively small social changes in themselves but with long-term and large-scale impacts. They can be hard to get a grip on, often the result of many separate elements suddenly coming together in what may be a more-or-less random manner. Once set in motion, however, they can be difficult or even impossible

the compelling intricacies of their worldview and the wonderful fact that they each carried within them the personification of luck and a female spirit-guide.

In poetry, the English called them wælwulfas, ‘slaughter-wolves’, and with good reason—but the Vikings even said it themselves. Here is the great tenth-century Icelandic warrior-poet Egil Skalla-Grímsson, describing his raiding experiences (in an effort to impress a woman at a feast, which also tells you something about him): Farit hefi ek blóðgum

The Saga of Grettir, for example, actually describes the looting of a chamber grave that is a perfect match for the archaeology. When the thief digs down through the mound, he first cuts through the roof timbers and then falls into a foul-smelling space below, landing among horse bones at one end of a chamber. Stumbling forward and groping about in

It is clear that in Valhöll are all the trappings of hall life in Midgard, but writ large. Servants gather kindling for the fires; there are pigs to be fed; horses graze outside; and hunting dogs are at the ready. The einherjar—the immortal warrior dead—drink, play board games, and fight. If they are killed, they rise again each evening in time for

Before entering the ship, the enslaved girl is lifted up by men in order to look over an odd thing—a specially built free-standing door frame that has been set up in the open air. She describes three successive visions of the next world and its inhabitants: a ‘Paradise’ beautiful and green like a garden, where the girl’s dead family is already wait

Special burial clothes are also made for the dead chieftain, on which no less than a third of his wealth is spent (this has worrying implications for the archaeologist, in that these things are made for the grave). Another third of his wealth goes to the brewing of appropriate quantities of alcohol, while only the remaining third is inherited by hi

Inside, the chambers were worlds in miniature. The dead lay in coffins, or on their backs or sides on the chamber floor (which in some cases was a proper deck of timber or at least birch bark matting), sometimes sat in chairs, or were even tucked up in a bed. Around them were often animals, including in some cases one or two horses positioned at th