Viking Lives

The great arc of Viking history told through a chain of life stories, presented by broadcaster Richard Fidler and author Kári Gíslason.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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26 episodes
weekly
Avg 42 min
English

Episodes 26

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Monday · 31 min
Leif the Lucky
Richard has the story of the epic voyage of Leif Erickson, son of Erik the Red, who sailed west out of Greenland and travelled across the North Atlantic all the way to North America. Known as Leif the Lucky, he became the first European to set foot in the Americas, some five centuries before Christopher Columbus. His journey can be traced through two accounts: the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 15 · 42 min
Erik the Red
This is the first in a series of episodes following the Viking explorers and settlers who sailed west into the unknown and formed settlements in the New World. We begin with Erik the Red, who was sent into exile from Iceland for his crimes, and sailed all the way to the island of Greenland, where he founded two Viking colonies in the tenth century. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 8 · 43 min
Thorgeir the Lawspeaker
At the turn of the first millennium, the Viking kingdoms of Scandinavia were abandoning the old Norse religion and officially adopting Christianity. Norway sent missionaries into Iceland and in the year 1000 AD, a meeting was held at Iceland’s open-air parliament, the Althing, to decide whether they too would become baptised Christians. But tensions were running high between the converts and those loyal to the old gods. And so the decision fell to one man: the lawspeaker Thorgeir Thorkelsson… who had to find a way to avert civil war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 1 · 42 min
Hallgerd Longlegs: Part 2
This is the second part of the story of Hallgerd Hoskuldsdottir, known as Hallgerd Longlegs. Hallgerd, already widowed twice, went to the annual assembly at Thingvellir, where she met the handsome and charismatic Gunnar of Hlidarendi, who had just returned to Iceland after finding great success in Norway. The two were considered the most attractive people on the island, and they were instantly and powerfully attracted to each other. They settled on Gunnar’s farm in the south of Iceland, but Hallgerd’s arrival upset the settled friendships in the area, and her fierce temper brought both of them into a deadly feud. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 25 · 34 min
Hallgerd Longlegs: Part 1
This is the first of two episodes on the life of Hallgerd Hoskuldsdottir: the most dangerous woman in tenth century Iceland. Hallgerd was a striking figure; she was tall, with hair so long it could cloak her whole body. She was married three times, and was both a victim and an instigator of violence. This episode follows her childhood and her first two arranged marriages, in which she’s both formed and deformed by her pride, and the Viking honour culture that surrounds her. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 18 · 43 min
Hrafnkel the Priest of Frey
This episode tells the story of a Viking named Hrafnkel, a powerful chieftan who lived in an isolated part of Iceland. Hrafnkel was rich and arrogant. One day he killed a shepherd for mishandling his most prized horse, which he associated with a Norse god. The result was a bitter feud between clans that Hrafnkel lost...but then won in murderous circumstances. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 11 · 29 min
The Lost Brother
The first episode of series three of Viking Lives comes to you from Oxford in the UK. Our Viking is an unknown man, killed in the St. Brice’s Day massacre that took place there in the year 1002 AD. This was a murderous attack on a community of Norse settlers in Oxfordshire, incited by the English king Aethelred the Unready. The bones of the slaughtered victims were tipped into a pit on the grounds of St. John’s College, where they lay for a thousand years until discovered by chance in 2008. Richard & Kári came to see Angie Bolton, Curator of Archaeology at Oxfordshire County, who is custodian and caretaker of these bones, including one individual identified as SK1756, the man we call the Lost Brother. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 14 · 36 min
Snorri the Priest
For the final episode of series 2, Kári has the story of an Icelandic chieftain who came to be known as Snorri Goði - Snorri the Priest of Thor: a manipulative and shrewd leader who devised a cunning plan to lure two extremely violent Swedish berserker warriors to their death. Viking Lives will return with series 3 on Tuesday 11 August. In the meantime, Richard and Kári will be presenting 'Viking Lives: Ghost Stories' live on stage at this year’s Byron Writers’ Festival in NSW on 14 August. Tickets available here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 7 · 48 min
Thordis the Wronged
This episode features the life of Thordis Sursdottir, a Viking woman from the tenth century. Thordis’s family was forced to escape Norway after her brother Gisli killed two men who wanted to marry her. The family set up a farm in the northwest fjords of Iceland, where she married her husband Thorgrim. But when Thorgrim was murdered in the middle of the night – again by Gisli – Thordis took her revenge against her brother, forcing him to become a fugitive. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 30 · 29 min
The Prague Castle Warrior
Today’s episode comes from forecourt of Prague Castle in the Czech Republic, recorded while Richard and Kári were in Europe. It was here, under the pavement, that the bones of a medieval warrior were excavated in 1928 … with a Viking sword buried beside him. The discovery set off a fierce struggle between Hitler and Stalin to claim his ancestry. Was this man a Germanic Viking? Or was he a Slavic warrior in the court of the king of Bohemia? The answer, they believed, would determine the rightful owners of the entire city. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 23 · 48 min
Gunnlaug Serpent Tongue
Gunnlaug Serpent Tongue was an arrogant and impetuous Viking, famed for his ability to compose brilliant poetry spontaneously for the kings of medieval Sweden and England. But in doing so, he became the deadly rival of another poet, who spitefully married the woman Gunnlaug had known since childhood. Relations between the two men became poisonous, and they descended into a cycle of pointless violence that neither could escape until one of them was dead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 16 · 52 min
Egill the Broken
Egill Skallagrimsson was both a vicious, murderous Viking raider and a poet of great sensitivity and feeling. He fought on behalf of an English king who rewarded him handsomely, but the queen of Norway detested him and tried to kill him. Eventually Egill retired to his family farm in Iceland, where a terrible loss brought out one of the saddest poems of the Viking Age. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 9 · 52 min
Gudrun of the Springs (with Hannah Kent)
Hannah Kent, author of the international bestseller ‘Burial Rites’ joins Richard and Kári to tell the story of our favourite Viking woman: Gudrun Osvifsdottir. Gudrun was an Icelander of the tenth century, who was famous for her high-mindedness and fine manners. But when her honour was slighted, and her heart was wounded, she brought down the man she loved, hated and needed all at the same time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#15
June 2 · 41 min
Aud the Deep Minded
The Vikings came to Ireland at the end of the eighth century, first as raiders, then as settlers, and they founded the cities of Dublin, Wexford and Limerick as slave trading centres. In this episode, Kári and Richard tell the story of a Viking queen of Dublin known as Auð the Deep-Minded, who was forced to flee to Iceland, where she became one of its most powerful chieftains. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#14
May 25 · 43 min
Melkorka the Silent
Melkorka was an Irish woman who was enslaved by Vikings in the ninth century AD. She was brought to Scandinavia, where she was bought by an Icelandic farmer named Hoskuld, who made her his concubine. But Melkorka was mute, and so Hoskuld knew nothing of her origins, until he caught her talking by a stream one day. Special guest Lisa Bennett, author of Viking Women: Life & Lore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#13
May 19 · 42 min
Ingolf the Icelander
In this episode, Kári tells the story of the foundation of Iceland as a new kind of Viking society on the rim of the Arctic Circle, and of Ingolf, the man who led a party of settlers to the smoky bay he named Reykjavik. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#12
May 12 · 43 min
Harald Finehair
In the first episode of series 2 of Viking Lives, Richard has the story of Harald Finehair, the Norwegian chieftain who swore he would not cut his hair or beard until he became king of all of Norway. But his heavy-handed rule goaded people to board their longships and establish new Viking colonies elsewhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#11
April 14 · 44 min
Sol the Charioteer
To conclude our first series of Viking Lives, Richard & Kári are bringing you a special episode: we’re tracking the strange ride of the goddess Sól across the skies of the Norse world. The Vikings of Scandinavia lived through unimaginably harsh and dark winters, confined to their cramped longhouses for weeks at a time while blizzards raged outside. Then, when the world warmed up and the sea ice broke, they could sail out once more into the wider world. Kári also recounts here some of the rituals he remembers from his boyhood in Iceland that marked the shift from the long winter dark into the eternal light of summer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#10
April 7 · 51 min
Bjorn Ironside
In this episode we follow the fleets of the Viking raiders as they break into Muslim Spain, North Africa and Italy for the first time. Richard and Kári present the story of Bjorn Ironside, famed for his brutal skill as a warrior that made him virtually invulnerable to the weapons of his enemies. In 859 AD, Bjorn led a Viking fleet on an extraordinary voyage into the Mediterranean. They seized loot and slaves wherever they went. And then, when they landed in Italy, they hatched a mad scheme to make Bjorn the emperor of Rome. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#9
March 31 · 39 min
Lagertha the Shield Maiden
Lagertha the Shield Maiden appears only briefly in the medieval Viking stories, but she retains a powerful hold on the modern imagination. In this episode, Richard and Kári are joined by Dr. Lisa Bennett, author of Viking Women, to explore the concept of the Norse shield maiden, and to examine the evidence for the existence of these fierce Viking warrior-women. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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