I discovered my interest for vikings and scandinavian mithology after my first visit in Norway and at Lofotr Viking Museum when I was 13 year old. From that day I tried to study and discover always more and more informations about viking age and time before that age. Scandinavian culture and mythology are among the oldest in the world; tales and sagas about the ancient gods are much older than the Viking Age, but, fortunately, this knowledge is still alive today.

Did you know that Tolkien created his own imaginary world by the Norse mythology and culture? Let's see how that influenced this great author.

In his novels, in fact, there are a lot of similarities with the Old Sagas of the Scandinavia heritage. We can start with the name of the main world, the Middle-Earth. This is the place where most of the events happening in Tolkien's novles are set, and it derives from the name of the central of the nine worlds in the nordic mythology, Midgard, where the human kind live. Then we have the "Old Straight Road" used by the elves to sail to Valinor, the realm of immortal Valar. This road can be compared to Bifrost, the brige used by the Gods to travel from their world Asgard to human world Midgard.

Another comparison we can note is the balrog destroying the bridge of Khazad-dûm in the Lord of the Rings, while the fellowship of the ring is excaping from Moira located in the Central Misty Mountain; this scene can be related to the distruction of Bifrost during Ragnarök by the jötunn Surtr, the strongest of the fire giants, as is said in Völuspá from the Poetic Edda, when the völva gives to Odin informations about the future.

In the Tolkien's world there are also different races: we have Dwarves, Elves, Trolls and other creaturs and animals that we find in the Nordic mythology too. An important character is the figure of Beorn. He is mentioned in the Hobbit novel, a shape-shifter warrior, who helps the Thorin Oakenshield's company, with the magical attitude to change his aspect because he is a half man and a half bear. This character comesprobably by the figure of the viking berserker, a great and strong fighter.

Before I mentioned the Valars and their realm, Valinor. These immortal figures remind the Æsir, the ancient Gods of Asgard led by the wise Odin, also called the Allfather. As a nature lover, I really like the importance that both Valar and Æsir give to nature, and the connection that the characters have with it.

One more thing I want to mention is the presence of magical items in Tolkien's Middle-Earth that are very similar in other Sagas. For example we have the One Ring made by Sauron to subjugate the whole world, a golden jewel with a dark power. It is possible to find in the Völsung saga the same golden and magical ring called Andvaranaut. But there is also a broken and reforged sword, called Gram or Balmug, that Sigur uses to fight and kill the dragon Fafnir; exactly like in the Lord of the Rings, where we have the sword Narsil, reforged as Anduril and then given to Aragorn in the Return of the King book.

To conclude this post, I left a topic dear to me for last, the Runes. The runes are the way used by the old scandinavian populations to comunicate. There are two different kind of runic alphabet: the Elder Futhark (or Old Futhark), and the Younger Futhark (the one used during the viking age). There is also the Anglo-Saxon rune alphabet, the one mostly used by Tolkien to create his own languages in his imaginary world. The runes were used by the Dwarves, generally to write secrets or impartant things. For example we can find them in the Thror's Map in the Hobbit, or on the secret door to enter in Moira in the Lord of the Rings.

These are just few elements of the Norse mythology that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien in his studies and novels. Let me know what you think about this topic, and if you would like more of these arguments in my posts.

(138th and 139th Stanza from Hávamál)

In Hávamál has been told that Odin the wise, the allfather, have carved the runes for the whole nine worlds after having hanged himself to Yggdrasil and being pierced by a spear, but what are these symbols? We generally associate them to something mystical and magical, but they were mainly the means of communication for norse populations. There are two tipes of runic alphabet: the elder futhark (or older futhark) mybr by 24 letters; and the younger futhark made by 16 letters, this one was the most widespread and used during the Viking age. Every runes represents a letter (sometimes more than 1 letter), but each one have also a particular and deep meaning. Runes are also written in different ways dependig by the land where they are from (for example the ones in the photo is a stick pyrographed by me with youger futhark runes from used in Norway). Some examples of runes and their meaning:

- ᚠ = Fe or Fehu (f) means wealth, not only about money, in fact in means also cattle, beacuse a man with    a good number of animals was considered rich.

- ᚦ = Turs or Thurs (d, th) is referred to jatte, troll, living creatures of the ground, giants like Ymir and              Skrymir (Utgard-Loki) in Jötunheimr.

- ᚯ,ᚫ = As or Ansuz (a, o, e) in old Icelandic and Swedish is referred to the god prince of Ásgarðr
  and lord of Valhalla (Oss = Odin).

- ᚱ = Reid or Raido (r) means literally riding a horse, but the rune have the meaning of journey, travel and     change of things, an important rune I would say, on of my favourite.

- I = Is or Isa (i) means ice, referred also to death, preserving things. It can be the opposite of ᚱ somehow.

- ᛏ = Tyr or Tiwaz (t) is the rune associated with the god Týr

There is a whole world of knowledge behind the runes, a lot to say and yet to learn. I have always been attracted by runes since childwood, I like them and they mean a lot to me and I often contemplate them, specially during my hikes in the nature.

To start, for those who are interested, as Grimfrost ambassador, I can suggest to read the following book = A Little Book About the Runes – Grimfrost

Vikings were known to be great and brave warriors, hard to defeat in battle because of their advanced military tactics and use of weapons. Generally, when we think about a battle or a duel, we are used to imagine warriors grabbing their swords and shields starting to fight until death to gain fame and glory, but the equipment of a warrior used based on his wealth and economic capacity. Swords, at that time, were mostly for noble people, only few warrior could efford that weapon, maybe because they were kings, or jarls, or maybe because they were great and famous fighters and have had a sword as reward for their services from a noble man. Mostly of common warrior were equipped with axes or spears, specially for one reason, these weapons were made mainly by wood and only the head on the weapon was made with metals, and these were often used also as tools during their common life, like lumberjacks or hunters. That's why a sword was only for few ones, because it was made mostly with iron or steel, expensive goods that were also in short supply in Scandinavia.

In the photos (taken by myself) the mine Grimfrost's Ásgautr sword, a fedel reconstruction based on the find in the Rosenlund grave in Denmark.

Drakkar, the Dragon Ships, for many years they have been the nightmare of many countries in Europe. The origin of the word "drakkar" comes from the union of the two Old Norse  words "dreki" that means "dragon" and "kar" that means "ship". These vessels were very innovative at that time, because thanks to their shallow hull they could sail both in seas and rivers and thanks to their symmetric shape, sailors could row in a way and easily change direction rowing in the opposite way, without the need to turn the ship. Norse populations were great, maybe the best sailors at that time, with their ships they sailed in many countries and continents, in fact, Vikings were the first to reach the North America (not Columbus), discovering Iceland and Greenland too. They also saild in the Mediterranean Sea arriving in Spain, Sicily, Africa and Costantinople (now known with the nameof Istanbul). The ability in sailing therfore made the Norse great and famous merchants and explorers too. Nowdays, parts of the Viking longships are still present in  numerous museums in all Scandinavian coutries, some of which have survived to these days in good conditions. The most famous is the Oseberg longship in the Vikingskipshuset (Viking Ship Museum) in Oslo (Norway).

In the photos (taken by myself) above from left: a piece of an old ship exposed at Bryggens Museum in Bergen; reconstractions of Viking ships in a Viking living history exibition at Lofonten Islands.

(in the photo the longhouse of Lofotr Vikingmuseum)

Generally, media and most of modern books (specially and sadly school books) describe Vikings as brutal barbarians or warrior that went raiding and pillaging everywhere they could. But, obviously, Nordic culture and people weren't all this. During the history a lot of country, populations or impires went raiding and conquering other territories, like Romans, Mongols, Huns, Egyptians, etc. So Vikings did nothing different by other populations in the past. The Viking Age began with an attack (year 793) on the Lindisfarne monastery in England, which is considered the first known Viking raid made by Dans (population of actual Danemark) and it had its end in the year 1066 with the battle of Stamford Bridge. But Nordic culture is not referred only to this period of history, but it is one of the most acients, advanced and important cultures in the world history. Today, we can find a lot of knowledge  around of all Scandinavian countries visiting museums with a lot of artefacts, and living villages. The Nordic people weren't only warriors, but also great and famous sailors and craftsman, great merchants, with a complex and organized society, and with their own means of communicating (talked and written) and their own religion.

This page is in progress!