We are committed to helping people learn more about Viking and Old Norse culture and Alaska’s magnificent outdoors, and that learning happens in two places. You can explore Viking culture here on this website today, for free; later, you will learn it with your own hands in the living Viking village we are working to build in the wilds of Alaska.
Where we are now: Asgard Alaska is in Phase 1 of our Roadmap, where we are raising the Land Fund to secure the site. The village is not open yet, but everything in the next section is open to you now.
Learn About Viking Culture Online
So you do not have to wait for the longhouse to start learning. Everything in this section is free and open to anyone, whether you are a student, a teacher planning a lesson, or simply curious about the people who sailed out of Scandinavia more than a thousand years ago. Much of what we know about their gods comes from a handful of medieval Icelandic manuscripts, like the Codex Regius pictured here, which preserves most of the poems of the Poetic Edda. To get you started, here are ten words at the heart of Viking culture, taken from our Norse Mythology Vocabulary, a free A to Z glossary of the gods, giants, and wonders of Norse mythology drawn from the Eddas and sagas.
- Aesir – A group of warrior gods led by Odin who inhabit Asgard.
- Vanir – Gods linked with fertility, wealth, and magic, including Njord, Freyr, and Freyja.
- Thor – God of thunder and strength, protector of gods and humans against the giants, and wielder of the hammer Mjölnir.
- Valhalla – Odin’s enormous hall, roofed with shields, where half of those slain in battle feast and train for Ragnarök.
- Valkyries – “Choosers of the slain.” Warrior women who serve Odin and bring chosen heroes to Valhalla.
- Einherjar – The band of dead warriors in Valhalla awaiting Ragnarök.
- Bifrost – A shimmering, rainbow-colored bridge from Asgard to Midgard, guarded by Heimdall.
- Yggdrasil – The great ash tree whose roots and branches bind the nine worlds together.
- Norns – The three women who shape destiny at the Well of Urd beneath Yggdrasil.
- Sleipnir – The eight-legged horse ridden by Odin.
Good Places to Begin
If you are new to the Vikings, start with these reader favorites; each one leads on to more.
- Names of Odin and What They Mean Uncover the more than 150 names of the All-father. Wanderer, war-father, poet, hanged god: each name shows a different face of the most complicated god in the Norse world.
- Viking History Timeline Follow three centuries of raids, kings, and voyages, from the attack on Lindisfarne in 793 to the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.
- The Asgard Alaska Blog Dig deeper into Norse mythology, with myths retold from the old sources, and Viking history; we add new articles regularly.
What Is a Viking?Thor, Odin, and Loki in Norse Mythology
How Did Vikings Get Their Names?
Viking Longhouse: Size, Interior and MaterialsHow Do We Know? Vikings in WritingViking Helmets: Did They Have Horns?Try a Viking Tool
If you want to know what the Norse would have called you, our free Viking Name Generator builds a name the way the Norse did, from a real Old Norse first name plus a parent’s name, or a nickname.
Viking Culture Comes to Life in Alaska
Everything from here down is what we are building. In other words, it is our plan for the village, not a place you can book yet.
Outside activities in our living Viking village invite you to immerse yourself and use all of your senses to experience how they lived. As a result, you will gain a greater understanding of what it means to be connected to the land and to your own power by taking part in activities of the Old Norse civilization. So come to the wilds of Alaska and find yourself in our safe, fun, inclusive, educational setting.
Our plans call for a working Viking-Age settlement: a longhouse, a longship, a blacksmith’s forge, a bakery, a pit-house, a poultry house, and a marketplace. In short, think of it as a living museum you can camp in. Some guests will sleep in timber cabins modeled on Viking-Age buildings; others will pitch a tent at rustic campsites and stay up for storytelling around the fire.
Cultural Exhibits
Living history will be the heart of Asgard Alaska. Watch a smith draw an axe head out of glowing iron. Smell flatbread baking on a hot stone. See a longship pull out onto the lake, oars flashing. Sit with a storyteller as Odin trades an eye for wisdom, and watch weavers work a warp-weighted loom the way Norse women did a thousand years ago. Then cheer on the fighters as they square off in games of skill and strength.
Watching is good, but doing is better. We plan hands-on classes in blacksmithing, baking, axe throwing and shield work, so you can feel the weight of a Viking-Age tool in your own hands and understand the people who built the Norse world at its height.
Create Viking Art
Volunteer craftspeople will demonstrate woodworking and metalworking with traditional tools, and show how those techniques have changed from the Viking Age to today.
Vikings didn’t leave their everyday things plain. They carved gripping beasts and coiling serpents into ship prows, sledges, and door frames, engraved silver and bronze, shaped amber into beads and amulets, and wove tapestries in bold colors (fragments of one survived in the Oseberg ship burial). In fact, the people remembered for raiding were also superb artists. At Asgard Alaska, we hope you’ll try your own hand at it.
Archery
Archery was a working skill in the Viking Age: bows and arrowheads turn up at sites across Scandinavia, and the god Ull was famed as a bowman. Bows were usually carved from a single stave of yew or elm, and the most complete surviving example, found at Hedeby, stood taller than most of the men who drew it. Archers hunted deer, birds, and small game for the table, and in battle they loosed their volleys before the shield walls met. The sagas still remember Einar Thambarskelfir, the young archer whose bow broke under an enemy arrow at the Battle of Svolder around the year 1000. So we plan an archery trail winding through the woods, with targets at varied distances set against Alaska’s mountains, plus a beginners’ range where instructors will have first-timers landing arrows on target.
Group Adventures
Asgard Alaska’s unique environment offers groups the opportunity to experience the Alaska outdoors in a totally different way. For that reason, school groups, scouts, and other nonprofits are welcome to join us for a day or more of fun experiences they will remember for a lifetime.
We also hope to host retreats: businesses looking for team-building with a Viking twist, congregations seeking fellowship, and families planning a reunion no one will forget. Between fishing, archery, and axe throwing, groups will pick up a little of the Viking way and carry it home. Finally, guests who want to go all in will be welcome to dress the part and join in.
Viking Culture: Questions and Answers
Start with Asgard Alaska’s free Norse Mythology Vocabulary. It is an A to Z glossary of the gods, giants, and wonders of Norse mythology, drawn from the Eddas and sagas.
It is usually dated from the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 to the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. Our Viking History Timeline walks through the years in between.
Not yet. For now, Asgard Alaska is working to secure land for its living Viking village and campground. Meanwhile, you can learn with us online, introduce yourself, or follow our progress in our newsletter.
Try Asgard Alaska’s free Viking Name Generator. It builds a name the way the Norse did, from a real Old Norse first name plus a parent’s name, or a nickname.
Creating the Dream
Asgard Alaska is about doing hard, old things with our own hands: forging, baking, building, rowing. In the end, skills like these remind us what people are capable of, and how much stronger we are together.
None of this exists yet, and it won’t without you. Introduce yourself and tell us what you would like to help with.
