The Scandinavian History Podcast

017 Sagas and Runes

Even though the Vikings had a rich literary tradition, it was mostly oral. The sagas that have survived were written down after the Viking Age is conventionally considered to have ended and the Middle Ages begun. But the Vikings weren’t illiterate. They used their own unique alphabet—the runes—and they've left us plenty of runic inscriptions all over the place. Except in Iceland.

018 Old Norse Religion

The pre-Christian religion in Scandinavia is largely shrouded in mystery—not least because of the Church’s best efforts to eradicate the memory of its predecessor. Nonetheless, thanks to some eyewitness accounts from horrified Christian missionaries, snippets from sagas and the work of modern-day archeologists, we still know a thing or two about Old Norse religious practices, ceremonies and sacrifices.

019 Old Norse Mythology

Even today, almost a thousand years after the Scandinavians abandoned the old gods for Christianity, people are fascinated by the stories about the heroic and hammer-wielding (albeit slightly thick) Thor, his dad Odin—the one-eyed King of the gods—and Loki, Odin’s evil blood brother.

020 A New Religion

Various European rulers started to send missionaries to Scandinavia already before the violent Viking raids really became a thing. But it was slow going in the first century or so. Even though a handful of Scandinavians did switch to Jesus, Christianity only took off when local kings started to put pressure on their subjects to be baptized.

021 Harald Fairhair

Harald Fairhair gets the credit for uniting Norway under one crown. According to the legend, he did so because a woman he fancied made this her condition for marrying him. Not because he was a ruthless and vain brute. Once Harald achieved his goal, he persecuted his opponents, raised taxes and got a haircut. Lucky for him, his nickname is based on the last of those activities.

022 Fairhair's Heirs

Harald Fairhair used his many sons as local rulers in his name. This worked well as long as he was still alive, but when he died, many of his sons found it hard to accept that their brother Erik should be the king of them all. It didn’t help that Erik didn’t do a very good job as king—or that he had a tendency toward fratricide, which earned him the nickname Bloodaxe.

023 Harald Bluetooth

Under Harald Bluetooth, Denmark became a powerful unified kingdom. But not powerful enough to take on the Germans. Harald strengthened the southern border defenses and erected the trelleborg fortresses all over his realm. This shows not only that the Danes had impressive engineering know-how and considerable political, financial and military resources--but also that Harald was scared enough of the Germans to pay for it all. In the end, though, his downfall would come from much closer to home.

024 Harald vs Harald

When Harald Greycloak became king of Norway, Harald Bluetooth of Denmark expected his nephew to be thankful and obedient. After all, it was the Danish king who had paid for the three invasion fleets needed to put Harald Greycloak on the throne. But the new Norwegian king had other plans. Plans that didn’t include his overbearing uncle.