by Neil Price

This is a brilliant and beautifully written book, as evidenced, for instance, by Price’s evocative retelling of Ragnarǫkr in Chapter 2. The first edition of Viking Way was a watershed publication for Viking archaeology, and as it has now been updated and extended, this book will only cement its position as a truly fundamental piece of scholarship painting a much richer, more complex, and more disconcerting picture of what are frequently caricatured and romanticized people. The Viking Way will undoubtedly be read, cited, and remembered for a very long time.

• List of figures and tablesAbbreviationsPreface and acknowledgements to the first editionPreface and acknowledgements to the second editionA note on languageA note on seid1. Different Vikings? Towards a cognitive archaeology of the later Iron AgeA beginning at BirkaTextual archaeology and the Iron AgeThe Other and the Odd?An archaeology of the Viking mind?2. Problems and paradigms in the study of Old Norse sorceryEntering the mythologyResearch perspectives on Scandinavian pre-Christian religionGods and monsters, worship and superstitionThe shape of Old Norse religionThe double world: seiðr and the problem of Old Norse ‘magic’Seiðr in the sourcesSeiðr in research3. SeiðrÓðinnFreyja and the magic of the VanirSeiðr and Old Norse cosmologyThe performersThe performanceEngendering seiðrSeiðr and the concept of the soulThe domestic sphere of seiðrSeiðr contextualised4. NoaidevuohtaSeiðr and the SámiSámi-Norse relations in the Viking AgeSámi religion and the Drum-TimeRydving’s terminology of noaidevuohtaWomen and noaidevuohtaThe rituals of noaidevuohtaThe ethnicity of religious context in Viking-Age Scandinavia5. Circumpolar religion and the question of Old Norse shamanismThe circumpolar cultures and the invention of shamanismThe shamanic world-viewShamanism in ScandinaviaSeiðr and circumpolar shamanism6. The supernatural empowerment of aggressionSeiðr and the world of warValkyrjur, skaldmeyjar and hjálmvitrSupernatural agency in battleThe projection of destructionBattle magicSeiðr and the shifting of shapeBerserkir and ulfheðnarEcstasy, psychic dislocation and the dynamics of mass violenceWeaving war, grinding battle: Darraðarljóð and Grottas˛ongr in context7. The Viking wayA reality in storiesViking women, Viking men8. Magic and mindReceptions and reactionsCracks in the ice of Norse ‘religion’Walking into the seiðr: contested interpretations of Viking-Age magicQueering magic?The social world of warThe Viking mind: a conclusionReferencesPrimary sources, including translationsPre-nineteenth-century sources for the early Sámi and Siberian culturesSecondary sourcesSources in archiveIndex

1. 5/5

   Balanserad och välskriven bok. Även fast detaljrikedom kring dom arkeologiska utgrävningarna bitvis kan få en att önska att författaren skulle vara mer kortfattad, för ämnet är så intressant att man hela tiden vill komma vidare. Rekommenderar läsaren att låta boken ta sin tid, när man väl läst ut den är man hungrig för mer. Min enda kritik är författarens slutsats av Egilll’s vers på sidan 37, (at least partly corrupt} för att staden Lund inte ännu existerade under denna tid. Namnet Lund kan i texten vara en hänvisning till en speciell lund, en helig plats som var välkänd för dessa personer. Ser detta som ett förståligt misstag av vad som förefaller var en mycket ödmjukt engelska talande författare.

   Jan W

   23 juni 2026

by Neil Price

This is a brilliant and beautifully written book, as evidenced, for instance, by Price’s evocative retelling of Ragnarǫkr in Chapter 2. The first edition of Viking Way was a watershed publication for Viking archaeology, and as it has now been updated and extended, this book will only cement its position as a truly fundamental piece of scholarship painting a much richer, more complex, and more disconcerting picture of what are frequently caricatured and romanticized people. The Viking Way will undoubtedly be read, cited, and remembered for a very long time.

• List of figures and tablesAbbreviationsPreface and acknowledgements to the first editionPreface and acknowledgements to the second editionA note on languageA note on seid1. Different Vikings? Towards a cognitive archaeology of the later Iron AgeA beginning at BirkaTextual archaeology and the Iron AgeThe Other and the Odd?An archaeology of the Viking mind?2. Problems and paradigms in the study of Old Norse sorceryEntering the mythologyResearch perspectives on Scandinavian pre-Christian religionGods and monsters, worship and superstitionThe shape of Old Norse religionThe double world: seiðr and the problem of Old Norse ‘magic’Seiðr in the sourcesSeiðr in research3. SeiðrÓðinnFreyja and the magic of the VanirSeiðr and Old Norse cosmologyThe performersThe performanceEngendering seiðrSeiðr and the concept of the soulThe domestic sphere of seiðrSeiðr contextualised4. NoaidevuohtaSeiðr and the SámiSámi-Norse relations in the Viking AgeSámi religion and the Drum-TimeRydving’s terminology of noaidevuohtaWomen and noaidevuohtaThe rituals of noaidevuohtaThe ethnicity of religious context in Viking-Age Scandinavia5. Circumpolar religion and the question of Old Norse shamanismThe circumpolar cultures and the invention of shamanismThe shamanic world-viewShamanism in ScandinaviaSeiðr and circumpolar shamanism6. The supernatural empowerment of aggressionSeiðr and the world of warValkyrjur, skaldmeyjar and hjálmvitrSupernatural agency in battleThe projection of destructionBattle magicSeiðr and the shifting of shapeBerserkir and ulfheðnarEcstasy, psychic dislocation and the dynamics of mass violenceWeaving war, grinding battle: Darraðarljóð and Grottas˛ongr in context7. The Viking wayA reality in storiesViking women, Viking men8. Magic and mindReceptions and reactionsCracks in the ice of Norse ‘religion’Walking into the seiðr: contested interpretations of Viking-Age magicQueering magic?The social world of warThe Viking mind: a conclusionReferencesPrimary sources, including translationsPre-nineteenth-century sources for the early Sámi and Siberian culturesSecondary sourcesSources in archiveIndex

1. 5/5

   Balanserad och välskriven bok. Även fast detaljrikedom kring dom arkeologiska utgrävningarna bitvis kan få en att önska att författaren skulle vara mer kortfattad, för ämnet är så intressant att man hela tiden vill komma vidare. Rekommenderar läsaren att låta boken ta sin tid, när man väl läst ut den är man hungrig för mer. Min enda kritik är författarens slutsats av Egilll’s vers på sidan 37, (at least partly corrupt} för att staden Lund inte ännu existerade under denna tid. Namnet Lund kan i texten vara en hänvisning till en speciell lund, en helig plats som var välkänd för dessa personer. Ser detta som ett förståligt misstag av vad som förefaller var en mycket ödmjukt engelska talande författare.

   Jan W

   23 juni 2026

by Neil Price

This is a brilliant and beautifully written book, as evidenced, for instance, by Price’s evocative retelling of Ragnarǫkr in Chapter 2. The first edition of Viking Way was a watershed publication for Viking archaeology, and as it has now been updated and extended, this book will only cement its position as a truly fundamental piece of scholarship painting a much richer, more complex, and more disconcerting picture of what are frequently caricatured and romanticized people. The Viking Way will undoubtedly be read, cited, and remembered for a very long time.

• List of figures and tablesAbbreviationsPreface and acknowledgements to the first editionPreface and acknowledgements to the second editionA note on languageA note on seid1. Different Vikings? Towards a cognitive archaeology of the later Iron AgeA beginning at BirkaTextual archaeology and the Iron AgeThe Other and the Odd?An archaeology of the Viking mind?2. Problems and paradigms in the study of Old Norse sorceryEntering the mythologyResearch perspectives on Scandinavian pre-Christian religionGods and monsters, worship and superstitionThe shape of Old Norse religionThe double world: seiðr and the problem of Old Norse ‘magic’Seiðr in the sourcesSeiðr in research3. SeiðrÓðinnFreyja and the magic of the VanirSeiðr and Old Norse cosmologyThe performersThe performanceEngendering seiðrSeiðr and the concept of the soulThe domestic sphere of seiðrSeiðr contextualised4. NoaidevuohtaSeiðr and the SámiSámi-Norse relations in the Viking AgeSámi religion and the Drum-TimeRydving’s terminology of noaidevuohtaWomen and noaidevuohtaThe rituals of noaidevuohtaThe ethnicity of religious context in Viking-Age Scandinavia5. Circumpolar religion and the question of Old Norse shamanismThe circumpolar cultures and the invention of shamanismThe shamanic world-viewShamanism in ScandinaviaSeiðr and circumpolar shamanism6. The supernatural empowerment of aggressionSeiðr and the world of warValkyrjur, skaldmeyjar and hjálmvitrSupernatural agency in battleThe projection of destructionBattle magicSeiðr and the shifting of shapeBerserkir and ulfheðnarEcstasy, psychic dislocation and the dynamics of mass violenceWeaving war, grinding battle: Darraðarljóð and Grottas˛ongr in context7. The Viking wayA reality in storiesViking women, Viking men8. Magic and mindReceptions and reactionsCracks in the ice of Norse ‘religion’Walking into the seiðr: contested interpretations of Viking-Age magicQueering magic?The social world of warThe Viking mind: a conclusionReferencesPrimary sources, including translationsPre-nineteenth-century sources for the early Sámi and Siberian culturesSecondary sourcesSources in archiveIndex

1. 5/5

   Balanserad och välskriven bok. Även fast detaljrikedom kring dom arkeologiska utgrävningarna bitvis kan få en att önska att författaren skulle vara mer kortfattad, för ämnet är så intressant att man hela tiden vill komma vidare. Rekommenderar läsaren att låta boken ta sin tid, när man väl läst ut den är man hungrig för mer. Min enda kritik är författarens slutsats av Egilll’s vers på sidan 37, (at least partly corrupt} för att staden Lund inte ännu existerade under denna tid. Namnet Lund kan i texten vara en hänvisning till en speciell lund, en helig plats som var välkänd för dessa personer. Ser detta som ett förståligt misstag av vad som förefaller var en mycket ödmjukt engelska talande författare.

   Jan W

   23 juni 2026