The Viking World

Name: The Viking World
Rating: 4.6 (50 reviews)

An Introduction to the Vikings

Created byKristen Lindbloom

Last updated 4/2021

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Viking Age history, language, runes, Old Norse mythology, magic and cult practices

Course content

5 sections • 21 lectures • 1h 17m total length

Introduction2:04
This course will cover Viking Age history, the Old Norse language, the runic alphabet, textual sources about the Viking Age, magic and cult practices and Norse mythology.
Who were the Vikings?3:23
Explore who the Vikings were as pagan Norsemen who raided monasteries and settled across Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the British Isles, Ireland, Orkney, and Greenland.
Viking Age Myths2:49
Explore Viking age myths and their role in shaping the Viking world by examining legends, beliefs, and cultural narratives.
The Viking World

History of the Viking Age: Introduction0:19
History of the Viking Age: Beginnings4:13
The Viking age began with the 793 A.D. raid on Lindisfarne, as Norse raiders exploited monasteries for wealth and used strategic plunder to expand power across Europe.
History of the Viking Age: Viking Era Trade3:31
The Vikings built a vast trade network from Europe to the Far East, centered in fortified ports like Ryba and Rheba, with protection, taxes, and weight-based shelver as currency.
History of the Viking Age: The End of the Viking Age3:38
Explore the end of the Viking age, from the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 to the shift from raiding to farming as centralized kingdoms and Christianization reshape Scandinavia.
History of the Viking Age

Viking Language and Writing: Introduction1:25
Explore how proto Norse evolved into Old Norse and diversified into modern Scandinavian languages, and compare runic writing with the Latin alphabet introduced by Christianity, including rune stones as memorials.
Viking Language and Writing: Old Norse3:48
Viking Language and Writing: The Runic Alphabet5:18
Viking Language and Writing: Viking Runestones5:07
Viking runestones memorialize loved ones with inscriptions, sometimes mark property or inheritance, and evolve through eight styles from Rock Ark to Cross Band across Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
Viking Language and Writing

Written Records of the Viking Age: Introduction1:41
Explore the Icelandic sagas and the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda as key sources for Norse mythology and Viking history, and learn how Artemis Magnusson preserved Icelandic medieval manuscripts.
Written Records of the Viking Age: The Sagas of the Icelanders4:37
Written Records of the Viking Age: The Eddas4:21
Explore how Norse myths survive in the poetic Edda and the Rosetta, with Odin, Thor, and Loki, through Codex Regius and Snorri's prose for poets.
Written Records of the Viking Age: Árni Magnússon: Manuscript Collector4:17
Explore how Icelandic manuscripts preserve Viking age records and how Árni Magnússon built a vast manuscript collection, aided by Hartney Magnússon and royal patrons during the 17th century.
Written Records of the Viking Age

Norse Mythology and Magic: Introduction1:09
Explore Norse mythology and magic with an introduction to the Norse gods and goddesses, Viking age Iceland magic and cult practices, and a traditional Norse story.
Norse Mythology: The Gods and Goddesses5:53
Norse Mythology and Magic: Cult and Magic Practices6:09
Explore Norse mythology's Seether, a magic blending shamanism, witchcraft, and clairvoyance used to foretell the future, heal the sick, or alter circumstances, taught by Freya to humans.
Norse Mythology and Magic: Written Accounts of Old Norse Religion3:45
Explore written accounts of Old Norse religion through Tacitus and Adam of Bremen, tracing Nerthus worship, Norse fertility rites, and the Uppsala temple’s Thor, Odin, and Freya cultic practices.
Norse Mythology and Magic: Tales from Old Norse Mythology6:16
This lecture retells the lay of Trim, an old Norse tale from the Poetic Edda, where Thor disguises as a bride to recover his hammer Molnár, with Loki and Freya.
Norse Mythology and Magic
The Viking World: Congratulations and Concluding Remarks0:28
Celebrate completing the Viking world course; the instructor enjoyed creating it and hopes you learned a lot. Share feedback, ask questions, and suggest future topics.

Requirements

A passion for knowledge and a willingness to learn

Description

This course will cover five elements of the Viking age.

We will begin with an overview of myths and misconceptions about the Vikings.

This will be followed by a brief history of the rise and fall of the Viking Age, why the Viking Age occurred, and what brought this glorious age to an end.

The next section will explore language and writing during the Viking Age, which includes topics such as Old Norse language, the runic alphabet, and Viking runestones. A brief linguistic history of the Germanic languages and Old Nose will be given. Students will learn how to write in runes, how runes were used, and how design work on runestones changes over time.

Next we shall delve into the written records of the Viking Age and the historical texts from which scholars draw their information about the Vikings. This section will cover the Sagas of the Icelanders (a body of prose literature from medieval Iceland), the Prose and Poetic Eddas (our main sources of Norse mythology), and an important figure in the field of medieval manuscript collection.

Last, we will learn about the gods and goddesses of Norse mythology, cult and magic practices in Iceland and Scandinavia, and the reading aloud of a text from Norse mythology. Students will be given a brief overview of the main Norse deities. They will also learn about the cult and magic practices that are found in the Old Norse texts and other historical documents. This section will conclude with the reading of Þrymskviða, a comical tale from Old Norse mythology.

Who this course is for:

Anyone interested in the Vikings and the Scandinavian Middle Ages

The Viking World

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction to the Viking World3 lectures • 8min

History of the Viking Age4 lectures • 12min

Viking Language and Writing4 lectures • 16min

Written Records of the Viking Age4 lectures • 15min

Norse Mythology and Magic6 lectures • 24min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: