The houses date back between A.D. 500 and A.D. 950 to the Iron and Viking Ages. They were uncovered in the village of Vinjeøra and were likely part of funerary rituals that allowed the living to ...

Held on the last Tuesday of January in Lerwick, on Scotland’s remote Shetland islands, the festival officially dates to 1870, even if the Viking rituals make it look much older. Marking the end ...

Up Helly Aa echoes the long rule of the Kingdom of Norway over Shetland and the return of the sun following the darkest ...

What did the Vikings believe? The Vikings were very superstitious people. They believed that they shared their world with a whole range of gods and mystical creatures. Valhalla was the Viking ...

The enclosure, in addition to resembling a Viking hall, could also be interpreted as a ritual stone boat, related to the mythology of giants. The domestic animals may have been sacrificed as a ...

Viking funerals, at least for the high and mighty, were massive, elaborate affairs with rituals lasting weeks at a time. Of course, the dead had to be placed aboard because it was them who were ...

Viking-inspired fire festival of Up Helly Aa, described by organizers as “a northern Mardi Gras,” was held in the town of Lerwick in Scotland’s Shetland Islands on Tuesday,8.The festival involves a ...