"Lo there do I see my mother, Lo there do I see my father, Lo there do I see the line of my people. Lo there do they call to me. They bid me to take my place among them, in the hallowed halls of Valhalla, where the brave shall live forever."
The Vikings were brutal, sea-borne raiders from Scandinavia who conquered large swathes of land all over Europe. Between 800 and 1000 AD, their violent raids on England so terrified its Anglo-Saxon residents that they described them as pagans, barbarians, and 'a most vile people'.
Yet the Norse raiders had a culture as rich and complex as their Christian victims. They believed in a universe made up of nine worlds inhabited by gods and goddesses, giants and giantesses, men, dwarves and elves. They passed on these beliefs through elaborate and eloquent poems and sagas.
Vikings were given courage in battle by their belief in a glorious afterlife. They thought brave warriors had a good chance of reaching Valhalla, a great hall presided over by the god Odin, the treacherous god of battle and poetry. Here they would enjoy a long age of fighting and feasting. This belief shaped the way the Vikings lived their lives, faced their deaths and honoured their fallen.
incense, absinth, lime, patchouli, rose, saffron, tolu balsam, Swedish ash tree, labdanum, vanilla
Alexander Olsson
