"The ruler reddened weapons in the blood of evil people;The army suffered the king’s anger;Houses often collapsed because of fires.”* These words were created by a rarity in the Viking world–a female poet. Jorunn Skaldmaer (poet-maiden) lived in Norway in the 10th century and was a court poet, along with others, of King Harald Fine-Hair. In an age and place…
Click here for audio version We've all heard the term "resilience." It's the ability to bounce back after a setback or some kind of difficulty. How much resilience we have can determine how successful we are in life, and it's something most of us try to instill in our children. Viking age women had to be resilient. It was a…
Guest Post by Jennifer C. Wilson I’ve always said that I don’t write ghost stories – I write stories about ghosts. But a couple of years ago, our writing group was planning a Halloween reading event, with everyone writing a ghost story to take part. Given that I’d been writing stories set in the Kindred Spirits world for a couple…
Click here for audio Ever wonder why Vikings had so many nicknames? The Vikings had to use nicknames because their society was patronymic--they derived their surnames from their fathers. So, if a man named Olaf had a father named Erik, Olaf would be Olaf Eriksson (Olaf Erik's son), or if his father's name was Bjorn, he'd be Olaf Bjornsson. If…