The Duality of Viking Life: Familiarity Amidst Brutality

We know the Vikings best as brutal, seafaring, pagan raiders – and that’s an important part of their lives and histories. But it’s only one aspect: what about their love lives, experiences of travels, and attitudes to religion? Speaking with James Osborne, Eleanor Barraclough unpicks the day-to-day lives and culture of the Vikings across their vast – and complicated – geographic domain and timeline.

(Ad) Eleanor Barraclough is the author of Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age (Profile Books, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Embers-Hands-Intimate-History-Viking/dp/1788166744/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty.

The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.

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