Ásatrúarfélagið Temple at Reykjavík Construction to Begin in February

in

Reykjavík, Iceland: The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (Ríkisútvarpið; RÚV) reports that Iceland's Ásatrúarfélagið, the largest Germanic neopagan organization in Iceland, will begin construction of its first structure for worship, a modern temple (or, less ambiguously, a modern hof), in February in Reykjavík.

Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, allsherjargoði of the Ásatrúarfélagið, says that the erection of such a temple is a historic event because no such temple has been erected in Northern Europe since the Temple at Uppsala in 1070 ("Í Norður-Evrópu hefur ekki staðið hof síðan hofið í Uppsölum í Svíþjóð var byggt 1070, þannig að þetta er heimssögulegur viðburður").

BBC and Carnival Films Announce "The Last Kingdom"

in

Per Variety.com, a new eight-episode television drama from the BBC and Carnival Films set in the 9th century and focusing on interactions between the Anglo-Saxons and their Viking Age Scandinavian cousins is on its way:

The BBC and “Downton Abbey” producer Carnival Films have teamed up to produce historical drama series, “The Last Kingdom,” BBC America announced Wednesday.

[...]

Set in the year 872, when many of the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen to the invading Vikings, the great kingdom of Wessex has been left standing alone and defiant under the command of King Alfred the Great. Against this turbulent backdrop lives “The Last Kingdom’s” hero, Uhtred. Born the son of a Saxon nobleman, he is orphaned by the Vikings and then kidnapped and raised as one of their own. Forced to choose between the country of his birth and the people of his upbringing, his loyalties are ever tested. What is he — Saxon or Viking? On a quest to claim his birthright, Uhtred must tread a dangerous path between both sides if he is to play his part in the birth of a new nation and, ultimately, seek to recapture his ancestral lands.

[...]

Much like History Channel’s “Vikings,” “The Last Kingdom” will combine real historical figures and events with fiction, exploring themes like religion, politics, warfare and the quest for identity.

"Fibula, Fabula, Fact - The Viking Age in Finland" by Joonas Ahola & Frog with Clive Tolley

in

"Fibula, Fabula, Fact - The Viking Age in Finland" by Joonas Ahola & Frog with Clive Tolley is now available via the Finnish Literary Society's online bookshop. Per the publisher's description:

'Were there Vikings in Finland?’ Fibula, Fabula, Fact – The Viking Age in Finland is intended to provide essential foundations for approaching the Viking Age in Finland. The volume consists of a general introduction followed by nineteen chapters and a closing discussion. The nineteen chapters are oriented to provide introductions to the sources, methods and perspectives of diverse disciplines. Discussions are presented from fields including archaeology, folklore studies, genetics, geopolitics, historiography, language history, linguistics, palaeobotany, semiotics and toponymy. Each chapter is intended to help open the resources and the history of discourse of the particular discipline in a way that will be accessible to specialists from other fields, specialists from outside Finland, and also to non-specialist readers and students who may be more generally interested in the topic.

United States Army Further Recognizes Germanic Neopaganism

in

Readers studying or practicing Germanic Neopaganism will be interested in a recent decision by the United States Military. As Karl E. H. Seigfried reports at Norsemyth.org:
 

"The United States Army has finally added Ásatrú and Heathen as options in its religious preference list. This follows two recent victories for Heathens in the Armed Forces: the 2013 addition of Thor’s hammer to the official list of “available emblems of belief for placement on government headstones and markers” by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the 2014 addition of Ásatrú and Heathen to the Air Force’s religious preference list."

Looking Back at 2014: Additions to the Viking Age Archaeological Record

in ,

In 2014, at least a handful of articles were published on Viking Age archaeological discoveries. These articles included such finds as:

* Near Køge, Denmark: An apparently 10th century ring fortress was discovered; "the first discovery of its kind in Denmark in over 60 years".

* Vadstena, Sweden: A "major Viking hall" around 50 meters in length has been detected with ground penetrating radar; "archaeologists have now revealed that [a mound at the site] is a foundation platform for a long building, most likely dating from the Viking Period".

* Arctic Canada: 2014 saw reports on new Viking Age finds in this region, which "may be the earliest evidence of high-temperature nonferrous metalworking in North America to the north of what is now Mexico."

* Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland: The Dumfriesshire Hoard was unearthed, consisting of "more than 100 gold and silver objects from the Viking Age".

I employ "at least" because these articles, by way of social media and word of mouth, are what trickled down to me during the course of the year of 2014. There may well have been more (an issue that I hope that this site will assist in addressing). Over the next few months, I will look back at 2014 and provide posts covering relevant topics that readers may have missed during the year.

Pre-Order for Jackson Crawford's Translation of the Poetic Edda and Recent Poetic Edda Editions

in

Jackson Crawford's English translation of the Poetic Edda is now available for pre-order at amazon.com.The edition is projected for publication on March 15, 2014  (source).

Jackson's translation is the most recent in a wave of new English language translations of the Poetic Edda. Other recent translations include the Jeramy Dodd's 2014 translation, the late Ursula Dronke's 2011 edition (volume III of, I believe, III volumes) and Andy Orchard's 2011 translation. In addition, a revised and expanded second edition of Carolyne Larrington's 1996 translation was also released in 2014.

The Poetic Edda (or, nowadays more rarely, the Elder Edda) is a 13th century compilation of Old Norse poems that are infamously difficult to translation yet are supremely important to the study of what we nowadays know as "Norse mythology", the religious narratives of the North Germanic peoples.

First Post: An Index of Active Publications Relevant to Ancient Germanic Studies

in

Our first post is something that the site will be doing on the side, and that is providing resources that may be useful for readers. One such resource is an index of links, in this case an ongoing index of active academic periodicals relevant to ancient Germanic studies. This may be viewed here.