Friday, August 19, 2005

a-viking we will go

Currently reading Viking: Odinn's Child By Tim Severin - full of meticulously-researched material, based on the sagas, and really atmospheric. Also, as you might expect from Tim Severin (re-enactor of Sindbad's voyage among other things) there is a wealth of detail about ships etc. There is also a fictionalised version of a volva's visit to a Greenland farm, remarkably close to the original account (detailed in Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism by Jenny Blain). There are also details of late Irish paganism (or the remnants of it that survived in hiding).

The only problem is that the book is unputdownable!

2 comments:

The Silver Eel said...

Check out this one, which really does have to be seen to be believed. Came across it (in fact it was the first site Google came up with) when looking for stuff on Ibn Fadlan (Eaters of the Dead, The 13th Warrior):
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/

Yewtree said...

Yes, watched 13th warrior again the other night, it's a lot of fun. A rahter clever merging of Ibn Fadhlan's account of the Viking ship funeral with the story of Beowulf. And I do like Antonio Banderas...