Midgard Talks 2025 under Midgardsblot

Bli med på noen uforglemmelige dager med omvisninger og aktiviteter med Midgard Talks 2025!

Midgard vikingsenter

13. – 16. aug. 2025

Finally, Midgardsblot is back, and people from all over the world flock to Borre and its unique historical environment!

This year's festival runs from Wednesday14th of August to Saturday 17th of August. There will be concerts, happenings, workshops, good food and drink and a Viking market.

The seminar Midgard Talks takes place every day with lectures and panels relating to Viking history, culture and music. The festival collaborates with the Midgard Viking Centre.

We set up extra activities on the playground for children and extra guided tours during the festival.

Wednesday August 13th

11.00 Allison Fox –– Curator, archaeology, Manx National Heritage. “Ships, mounds and holes in the ground - various ways to bury a Viking in the Isle of Man”
12.00 Lars Bill – Chair – Oseberg Viking Heritage Foundation. “Follow the Vikings - as far as we can!”
13.00 Samuel Høiland - Conservator, Tingvatn fornminnepark, Vest-Agder-Museet IKS. «The Immortals - The Vikings before the Vikings. The Migration Period in Agder and in Norway”
14.00 Anne Irene Risøy - Professor, University of Southeast Norway. “The Kings of Stadt” (preliminary title)
15.00 Charlotte Wenke - PhD Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research, University of Greifswald, Germany. “Viking Gold. Treasure Politics since 1800”

About the Wednesday speakers

Allison Fox

Title: Ships, mounds and holes in the ground - various ways to bury a Viking in the Isle of Man

Allison has a Bachelor of Science degree in Archaeological Sciences and a Master of Arts degree in Museum Studies.  She is an associate member of both the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and the Museum Association.  Her role as curator involves helping to care for and explain the rich archaeological heritage of the Isle of Man, of which the Viking Age is a major part. Curator: Archaeology, Manx National Heritage, Isle of Man

Summary

At the heart of the British Isles, the Isle of Man was a vital trading post for the Vikings and by the late 800s, they had chosen to settle on the Island.  After death, some were laid to rest according to the traditions of the Viking homelands, and some were buried amongst their Christian contemporaries.  This talk will explore the wide range of Viking Age burial practices on the Island, highlighting two burials in particular – that of a male Viking trader buried in his ship and also a pagan female laid to rest inside a Christian cemetery –  and consider whether they became part of the Manx community.

Lars Bill

Title: Follow the Vikings - as far as we can!

Lars has been an active volunteer in the Oseberg Viking heritage Foundation for the last 15 years.
Currently Lars holds the position as Head of Board in the foundation in addition to the role as
project manager for the epic voyage of the Viking ship Saga Farmann.

Summary:
Saga Farmann, an archeological reconstruction of the Knarr "Klåstadskipet" is sailing in the wake of the Vikings for the third consecutive year.
An epic voyage that started in 2023 with the goal to revisit sites and cities where the Vikings once lived, traded or worked.
So far, Saga Farmann has travelled through Europe from Norway to Istanbul and further on to the harbour of Rome in Italy.
This year the ship heads for London where the welcome will be slightly different from when the vikings battled the anglo-saxons in 1014 AD.

Modern vikings experience modern obstacles when sailing around in Europe, but also tasks and issues well known to the original vikings, we believe.

Follow the ship: www.sagafarmann.com

Samuel Høiland

Title: The Immortals - The Vikings before the Vikings. The Migration Period in Agder and in Norway

Samuel Høiland works as a project manager for “Future for the Past” at Vest-Agder Museum. His work is focused on the Migration Period in Agder and disseminate it to the public on different arenas. He holds a degree in History from the University of Agder (2018).

Summary

In 1933, four farmers made a remarkable discovery while ploughing a field at the farm Snartemo in Agder, southern Norway. They had discovered a princely tomb of a chieftain from the last decades of the Migration Period (375-550 CE). Most famous is the gold-grip sword – The Snartemo Sword. Ten km from Snartemo, at Tingvatn, a new exhibition about this rich period has opened. The western parts of Agder, Lister, is especially rich with finds from the period. Learn about this forgotten golden age, over two centuries before the Vikings sailed the seas.

Anne Irene Risøy

Title: The Kings of Stadt

Charlotte Wenke

Title: Viking Gold. Treasure Politics since 1800.

Wenke is a PhD researcher at the University of Greifswald (Gremany). After studying Art History and Scandinavian Studies, she is now investigating gold treasure finds from the Scandinavian Viking Age and their modern perceptionas objects of identity in museums of the Baltic Sea Region. Together with her team, she curated the digital exhibition "Viking Gold. Treasure Politics since 1800". Apart from her research she is involved in a metal radio program and loves coming to Midgardsblot.

Thursday August 14th

11.00 Christian Cooijmans, Postdoc – Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. “The Endless Viking Age: Global Perspectives on a Premodern Past”
12.00 Terje Gansum: Director - Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU). “The gold foil figures – their archaeological contexts and possibly use”
13.00 Kari Marie Helland: Specialist in historic food and fiber technology, Midgard Viking Centre. “Food and drink in the Iron Age. Brown goo or tasty morsels?”
14.00 Ingrid Sommerseth: Professor in archaeology, University of Tromsø. “Sámi Bear Graves – Rituals and Burial Practices in Northern Landscapes: One of Northern Europe’s Longest-Practiced Burial Traditions (300 CE to 19th Century)”
15.00 Göran Joryd, project manager, The Museum of the Viking Age, Museum of Cultural history, University of Oslo. “Getting ready to host the Viking ships”

About the Thursdays speakers

Christian Cooijmans

Title: The Endless Viking Age: Global Perspectives on a Premodern Past

Dr Christian Cooijmans is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History. His work focuses on the reach, repercussions, and (pre)modern reception of viking activity across northwestern Europe.

For many decades, the viking past has held a strong grip on public imagination, being at turns romanticised, sensationalised, commercialised, and politicised. Despite this popularity, very few studies have considered the perception and consumption of this history on a truly global scale. By drawing on the results of the recent Great Viking Survey – to which over ten thousand people contributed – unprecedented new insights are formed into how vikings are regarded and (re)imagined in the present day. This talk presents the first findings of this research, exploring the many ways in which the Viking Age continues to resonate the world over.

Terje Gansum

Title: The gold foil figures - their archaeological contexts and possibly use.

Terje Gansum (b. 1967) is an archaeologist and Director of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) since 2024. He holds a Magister degree in Norse archaeology (1995) and a PhD from the University of Gothenburg (2004) on burial mounds as cultural constructions. Gansum has led heritage management in Vestfold and Telemark County and was affiliated with the Midgard Viking Centre. He has published widely on the Viking Age, burial customs, and landscape archaeology. His research combines georadar, environmental monitoring, and cultural history. Gansum is known for his engaging, interdisciplinary approach to heritage communication. Outside of work he is also a guitarist in the band Lampefeber.

Kari Marie Helland

Title: Food and drink in the Iron Age. Brown goo or tasty morsels?

Join me on a journey into the kitchens and feasting halls of the Norse world. By weaving together clues from archaeology, climate, geography, ancient texts, and pre-industrial Scandinavian food traditions — along with hands-on experimentation and a dash of informed speculation — I’ll bring to life the lost cuisine of the Viking Age.

This is not just about food; it's about understanding a way of life. Discover what cooking, eating, and survival looked like a thousand years ago — as vividly, accurately, and deliciously as possible.

Ingrid Sommerseth

Title: Sámi Bear Graves – Rituals and Burial Practices in Northern Landscapes: One of Northern Europe’s Longest-Practiced Burial Traditions (300 CE to 19th Century).

In Norway, we have documented 31 bear burial sites, dating from 300 to 1800, reflecting an ancient Sámi ritual tradition. Most of them are located in natural cavities, which is similar to the pre-Christian Sámi burial practice for humans. Most bear graves date to the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. The Sámi revered the bear as a family member and linked it to Leibolmai, the god of the hunt. Rituals included careful handling of bones, metaphorical naming of the bear, and burial in sacred places. Sámi place names further emphasize the cultural and spiritual significance of the bear in Sámi society.

Göran Joryd

Friday August 15th

11.00 Josh Rood - PhD Candidate Háskóli Íslands. “When The Raven Sings, I listen: Celebrating Huginn and Muninn”
12.00 Morten Ramstad, Head of Cultural Heritage Management - University of Bergen. “The Forgotten Ships – New Narratives from Norway’s Viking Age West Coast”
13.00 Jes Martens – Associate Professor - Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. “Sem - A kingly manor from the third century AD”
14.00 Amina Otto – Phd Candidate, University of Glasgow. “The myth and the interpretations of the folklore motif of the Wild Hunt”
15.00 Frøydis Veset: MA University of Oslo. “Out of the forge: How blacksmiths shaped everyday life in Medieval Telemark”

About the Friday speakers

Josh Rood

Title: "When The Raven Sings, I listen”: Celebrating Huginn and Muninn

Odin’s ravens, named Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory) are two of the better known animals from the Nordic Story-worlds. They fly over the world and gather news each day and whisper it in his ears and in one story Odin says that he fears that he might lose them one day. But what can we know about Odin’s ravens? Why are they named after thought and memory? Why does Odin have them? And more importantly, what can they whisper into our own ears about the world today? To commemorate this special occasion (which you can elaborate on), Josh Hróðgeir Rood, is going to introduce us to Huginn and Muninn with a blend of storytelling and knowledge sharing. When he is done perhaps we will understand not only a bit more about Odin’s ravens, but we might even have a better understanding of the Ravengod himself.

Josh Hróðgeir Rood is a musician, researcher, goði (Nordic ritual specialist) who teaches how the Old Nordic knowledge systems can inform our own ways of being in the modern world. He is the singer of the Icelandic extreme metal band Nexion, is a PhD candidate at the University of Iceland where he specializes in Old Norse Religion, a goði for the Norwegian organization Bifrost, which is dedicated promoting modern spiritual thinking inspired by Old Norse Religion, and he is behind the platform which you can find on IG and Facebook called Eagle On The Ash.

Morten Ramstad

Title: The Forgotten Ships – New Narratives from Norway’s Viking Age West Coast

Morten Ramstad is an archaeologist and Head of the Cultural Heritage Section at the University Museum of Bergen. He has previously worked as a researcher at both the University Museum of Bergen and the Arctic University Museum of Norway in Tromsø. Ramstad has broad experience in heritage management, research, and public outreach. His research has primarily focused on themes related to hunting, fishing, and trapping in the past, as well as how global climate change affects cultural heritage, with particular attention to the North Atlantic region.

Vestland County is home to two little-known Viking ship finds: the Myklebust ship from Nordfjordeid and the Rong ship from Øygarden. These ships have long been forgotten, but new archaeological investigations are now providing fresh insights into both the ships themselves and the societies they were part of. This lecture highlights topics such as burial customs, sacrificial rituals, maritime technology, warfare, and unrest, showing how these finds shed new light on the Viking Age along Norway’s western coast.

Jes Martens

Title: Sem - a kingly manor from the third century AD

Eexecutive officer (archaeologist) at the Swedish National Board of Antiquities (Riksantikvarieämbetet) in Lund (1996–1999).

Held scholarships at the University of Copenhagen  (1992–1996) and the National Museum of Denmark (1990–1992).

Martens finished his MA at the University of Aarhus in 1990, including a year at the University of Warsaw (1982–1983). The PhD was obtained at the University of Copenhagen in 1998. Martens has held several scholarships such as the Carlsberg foundation, Deutsche Akademische Austausch Dienst, NorFa, the Danish Research Council of the Humanities and Queen Margrethe II foundation.

Martens has taught archeology at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oslo and has delivered guest lectures at a number of universities in Northern Europe. Martens has functioned as censor at the Universities of Copenhagen, Oslo and Tromsø.

Amina Otto

Title: The myth and the interpretations of the folklore motif of the Wild Hunt.

Amina earned her bachelor’s degree at CU Boulder where she studied French and Humanities and, under Dr Mathias Nordvig, Nordic Studies. She then achieved a master’s in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge, followed by a second master’s in Celtic Studies from the University of Glasgow where she is currently a PhD researcher in Celtic and Gaelic. Amina’s research includes Norse-Gaelic identity formation and cultural hybridity in the Early Medieval era, as well as archaeology, language, literature, mythology, and folklore in both the Celtic and Norse spheres.

Frøydis Veset

Title: Out of the forge: How blacksmiths shaped everyday life in Medieval Telemark.

Historian and archaeologist with a master’s thesis titled "Blacksmiths as Infrastructure: Roles, Networks, and Meeting Places for Economic Cooperation in Upper Telemark in the Later Iron Age and Middle Ages." Special interest in how everyday life, trade, and social structures were shaped by the work of blacksmiths. Sometimes also found behind a bookstall

The wielder of iron must rise early: out of the forge, into the lived reality of blacksmiths Iron age blacksmiths are often tied to aspects that are either practical-technical or magical-mythological, and therefore reduced to a limited set of roles within a narrow spatial context: the forge. Blacksmiths, however, lived in a reality beyond the forge, in a world of farms, resource extraction, trade, burials, and worship. Everyday life was bound together by law, hierarchical structures, family, honor, and friendship. What can we learn if blacksmiths are set in motion and moved out of the forge? Heggtveit, a farm in upper Telemark, forms the backdrop for an exploration of the lived reality of blacksmiths.

Saturday August 16th

11.00 Ragnar Orten Lie: Project Manager, Cultural Heritage Section, Vestfold County Municipality. “Kaupang’s dead - boats, a sorceress, men, horses and a dismembered dog”
12.00 Ragnheidur Traustadottir – Director of Antikva ehf, Iceland. “Beneath the Landslide: Viking Age Burials and Medieval Settlement at Fjörður, Iceland”
13.00 Kari Palsson: MA Háskóli Íslands. «Obtaining Knowledge from the Earth Dweller: Dreams, Earth and Healing Charms from the Icelandic Grimoire Jarðskinna”
14.00 Giorgia Sottotetti: MA Háskóli Íslands. "The Galdrabók: spells and formulas in the magical material of 17th century Iceland”
15.00 Clare Mulley: PhD University of Oxford. “Performance Archaeology: The Method behind the Madness”

About the Saturday speakers

Ragnar Orten Lie

Title: Kaupang’s dead - boats, a sorceress, men, horses and a dismembered dog

Ragnar Orten Lie has a Cand.philol in History of religion, and works for the Department of Cultural Heritage in Vestfold County Municipality. There he is the project manager for Vikingveien/ The Viking Route. He is also receiving all metal detecting finds in the county, and involved in the process of getting the Viking Age ship graves on Norway’s tentative list for Unesco world heritage. He has many fields of interests in Viking history, some of them being hawking and the Viking age smith.

By the viking age trade site at Kaupang 29 boat graves are known, most of which are concentrated in a small area known as Bikjholberget. The boats are sometimes placed on top of each other and there are also cases of reuse of the boat, while older graves have been moved out and new graves have been inserted. In between and under the boats unmarked cremations and coffin burials were found. Density and variation – what can we make out of Bikjholberget?

Ragnheidur Traustadottir

Title: Beneath the Landslide: Viking Age Burials and Medieval Settlement at Fjörður, Iceland.

Ragnheiður Traustadóttir is an archaeologist and director at Antikva ehf. Since 2020, she has led the archaeological excavation at Fjörður in Seyðisfjörður, where extensive investigations have revealed human occupation remains from the Settlement Age to the 20th century. From 2002 to 2013, she directed the Hólar project at Hólar University, overseeing excavations at Hólar, Kolkuós, and Keldudal, as well as running a field school in archaeology in collaboration with the University of Iceland and the University of Oslo. Previously, she worked at the National Museum of Iceland from 1994 to 2006, where she was involved in a wide range of projects, including archaeological surveys, development-led excavations, and research excavations across the country.  

Kari Palsson

Title: Obtaining Knowledge from the Earth Dweller: Dreams, Earth and Healing Charms from the Icelandic Grimoire Jarðskinna.

Kári Pálsson is an Icelandic folklorist, antiquarian, and musician. Kári specializes in Old Icelandic literature, pre-Christian Religions of the North, and Icelandic folk beliefs. He holds an MA in Old Norse Religion from the University of Iceland. He recently published the book The Galdrabók: Forbidden Icelandic folk magic containing the first publication of the Jarðskinna manuscript which is the subject of this talk.

Giorgia Sottetetti

Title: The Galdrabók: spells and formulas in the magical material of 17th century Iceland.

A passionate speaker at the National Museum of Iceland, Giorgia Sottotetti is an Italian archaeologist who holds a MA in Viking and Old Norse Medieval Studies obtained at the University of Iceland. Her main area of research lies in material culture, the archaeology of religion and ritual, Old Norse Religion(s), and multidisciplinary approaches. 

The Galdrabók: spells and formulas in the magical material of 17th century Iceland

"In my talk I will introduce the Galdrabók manuscript, explain its historical context, its content, and its connection with other magical/occult material circulating in Europe during this time-period. After this introduction, I will dive into the Galdrabók by reading some selected spells and contextualize them."

Clare Mulley

Title: Performance Archaeology: The Method behind the Madness.

Clare Mulley is a published poet and spoken word artist, moonlighting as a researcher and tutor at the university of Oxford, where she recently completed a PhD in Old Norse Mythology, Empowerment and Women's Writing. Her current project investigates the unseen side of the transmission of Old Norse works through performance and recitation, using her own poetic translation and peformance of the eddic poem Vǫluspá as a research tool.

Performance archaeology: what the heck is it, does it even work, and how do we even begin to use it in research on Medieval Scandinavia? Join Clare Mulley for a fascinating short dive into this experimental and creative form of scholarship. The talk will introduce some of the methodologies, practices and controversies surrounding the field, and Clare's own approach to researching eddic poetry through performance. (Content warning: orality, general silliness and some weirdly organic French theory about potatoes.)