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The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia
Magic, sorcery and witchcraft are among the most common themes of the great medieval Icelandic sagas and poems, the problematic yet vital sources that provide our primary textual evidence for the Viking Age that they claim to describe. Yet despite the consistency of this picture, surprisingly little archaeological or historical research has been done to explore what this may really have meant to the men and women of the time.
This book examines the evidence for Old Norse sorcery, looking at its meaning and function, practice and practitioners, and the complicated constructions of gender and sexual identity with which these were underpinned. Combining strong elements of eroticism and aggression, sorcery appears as a fundamental domain of women's power, linking them with the gods, the dead and the future. Their battle spells and combat rituals complement the men's physical acts of fighting, in a supernatural empowerment of the Viking way of life.
What emerges is a fundamentally new image of the world in which the Vikings understood themselves to move, in which magic and its implications permeated every aspect of a society permanently geared for war.
In this fully revised and expanded second edition, Neil Price takes us with him on a tour through the sights and sounds of this undiscovered country, meeting its human and otherworldly inhabitants, including the Sami with whom the Norse partly shared this mental landscape. On the way we explore Viking notions of the mind and soul, the fluidity of the boundaries that they drew between humans and animals, and the immense variety of their spiritual beliefs. We find magic in the Vikings' bedrooms and on their battlefields, and we meet the sorcerers themselves through their remarkable burials and the tools of their trade. Combining archaeology, history and literary scholarship with extensive studies of Germanic and circumpolar religion, this multi-award-winning book shows us the Vikings as we have never seen them before.
This book examines the evidence for Old Norse sorcery, looking at its meaning and function, practice and practitioners, and the complicated constructions of gender and sexual identity with which these were underpinned. Combining strong elements of eroticism and aggression, sorcery appears as a fundamental domain of women's power, linking them with the gods, the dead and the future. Their battle spells and combat rituals complement the men's physical acts of fighting, in a supernatural empowerment of the Viking way of life.
What emerges is a fundamentally new image of the world in which the Vikings understood themselves to move, in which magic and its implications permeated every aspect of a society permanently geared for war.
In this fully revised and expanded second edition, Neil Price takes us with him on a tour through the sights and sounds of this undiscovered country, meeting its human and otherworldly inhabitants, including the Sami with whom the Norse partly shared this mental landscape. On the way we explore Viking notions of the mind and soul, the fluidity of the boundaries that they drew between humans and animals, and the immense variety of their spiritual beliefs. We find magic in the Vikings' bedrooms and on their battlefields, and we meet the sorcerers themselves through their remarkable burials and the tools of their trade. Combining archaeology, history and literary scholarship with extensive studies of Germanic and circumpolar religion, this multi-award-winning book shows us the Vikings as we have never seen them before.
398 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
126 people are currently reading
2265 people want to read
About the author
Neil Price
26 books280 followersNeil Price is an English archaeologist specialising in the study of Viking Age Scandinavia and the archaeology of shamanism. He is currently a professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Born in south-west London, Price went on to gain a BA in Archaeology at the University of London, before writing his first book, The Vikings in Brittany, which was published in 1989. He undertook his doctoral research from 1988 through to 1992 at the University of York, before moving to Sweden, where he completed his PhD at the University of Uppsala in 2002. In 2001, he edited an anthology entitled The Archaeology of Shamanism for Routledge, and the following year published and defended his doctoral thesis, The Viking Way. The Viking Way would be critically appraised as one of the most important studies of the Viking Age and pre-Christian religion by other archaeologists like Matthew Townend and Martin Carver.
Born in south-west London, Price went on to gain a BA in Archaeology at the University of London, before writing his first book, The Vikings in Brittany, which was published in 1989. He undertook his doctoral research from 1988 through to 1992 at the University of York, before moving to Sweden, where he completed his PhD at the University of Uppsala in 2002. In 2001, he edited an anthology entitled The Archaeology of Shamanism for Routledge, and the following year published and defended his doctoral thesis, The Viking Way. The Viking Way would be critically appraised as one of the most important studies of the Viking Age and pre-Christian religion by other archaeologists like Matthew Townend and Martin Carver.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 5, 2022
This is a meticulous, thorough and riveting non-fiction read on the way the Vikings associated with magic, culture as well as their mindset. Every sentence is backed up with research based on firsthand archaeology, literature from the sagas and eddas as well as experimental archaeology. So much fun to read, so much information stuffed between the pages.
June 9, 2021
I don't usually abandon books 80% of the way through them, but that is precisely how long it took me to realize that the argument and analysis that I had been waiting for since page one would never arrive, and that indeed, what Price was doing throughout this book was itself meant to be the argument. I realized that after reading through dozens of pages on shamanism, which presented a bewildering and disorganized array of facts pertaining to the practices of various Siberian, Mongolian, and Pacific Northwestern groups. I read through them patiently, waiting for Price to make some - any - connection to the nominal subject of the book, but that connection never came. And then, at last, he wrote "Now that I have completed my comparative analysis, I can move on to the material archaeology...."
That's when I realized the joke was on me. Again and again, I thought to myself reading this book, the real argument is coming - the part where the author actually tells us what he thinks about all this, and what connections he sees, and what conclusions he draws. But no, this is Tristram Shandy scholarship. It is all digression preliminary to the argument, and no actual argument. And it reads like an enormous literature review.
This book is overflowing with facts, but I did not come out of it with the slightest increase in my understanding of Norse culture or religion.
That's when I realized the joke was on me. Again and again, I thought to myself reading this book, the real argument is coming - the part where the author actually tells us what he thinks about all this, and what connections he sees, and what conclusions he draws. But no, this is Tristram Shandy scholarship. It is all digression preliminary to the argument, and no actual argument. And it reads like an enormous literature review.
This book is overflowing with facts, but I did not come out of it with the slightest increase in my understanding of Norse culture or religion.
January 15, 2022
This is a (dense, very well researched) book that deserves more than three stars. Sadly, it just didn’t do it for me. I appreciated it but did not necessarily enjoy it.
July 27, 2016
I read The Viking Way a long time ago, and I'd have to go back to it write a real review. I hope I will do that sometime. But I notice that it is due to be published this year by Oxbow, and in honor of that I have to put in a good word for it. It is simply an insanely fascinating book that deserves to have been commercially published long before now. (The version I read and to which this review is attached was published by Uppsala University Press.)
The Viking Way is about sorcery, magic, prophecy and the like in Viking Age Scandinavia, and its deep connections both to spirituality and to violence/warfare. To explore this topic, the book examines sources from archaeology to mythology, the sagas and other medieval written sources; from studies of shamanism to readings on soldiery and warfare; from theories on gender to all kinds of other things! At this point my poor memory won't let me list them all, but suffice it to say that Price brings in all sorts of knowledge to make his case for ritualized violence(s) as the basis for spirituality in late Iron Age Scandinavia. It's a long and involved read but a must for anyone interested in these topics! I can't wait to finally get my own copy!
The Viking Way is about sorcery, magic, prophecy and the like in Viking Age Scandinavia, and its deep connections both to spirituality and to violence/warfare. To explore this topic, the book examines sources from archaeology to mythology, the sagas and other medieval written sources; from studies of shamanism to readings on soldiery and warfare; from theories on gender to all kinds of other things! At this point my poor memory won't let me list them all, but suffice it to say that Price brings in all sorts of knowledge to make his case for ritualized violence(s) as the basis for spirituality in late Iron Age Scandinavia. It's a long and involved read but a must for anyone interested in these topics! I can't wait to finally get my own copy!
September 29, 2018
Well-written and very detailed monograph concerning Viking Age beliefs and complex magic practices named seiðr. This book includes comparative meticulous analysis of Old Norse written sources and graves discovered in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and in so-called 'Viking diaspora'. It also discussed Sámi shamanism with magic practices in Viking Age Scandinavia. Above that every chapter contain numerous illustrations (e.g. artefacts), and on the end of this publication was placed detailed list of literature. In my opinion, it is one of the most important book concerning this very problematic topic. I think it will be fantastic lecture for every Viking Age passionate.
Read
September 8, 2025Not rating, as I don't think I have the qualifications to evaluate this. It's definitely a university textbook, with all that implies including a high level of detail and untranslated Old Norse.
That said, I did find myself a little disappointed. The book is largely a list of things, without much analysis or synthesis. It doesn't leave me with anything like a clear idea of how vikings thought about magic or spirit, which was my goal.
That said, I did find myself a little disappointed. The book is largely a list of things, without much analysis or synthesis. It doesn't leave me with anything like a clear idea of how vikings thought about magic or spirit, which was my goal.
Currently reading
June 19, 2019I have just read the acknowledgements - just to prepare myself for what lies ahead - and it has made me realise the magnitude of the scope of research this tome has condensed. At this early "pre-reading" stage I think it deserves mention in the context of this "pre-review".
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Ah...that new book smell - the smell of sweaty men working a webpress for days at a stretch, printing minuscule typeface on an A5 sized book of glossy paper. FINALLY after 4, 5 years of waiting I have this masher-basher in my possession, as hot off the press as Royal Mail will allow.
If you need to cudgel someone in the Viking spirit, this is your book. I will be reading it next after I finish Elder Gods (100 pages to go!) and Pagan Britain. ... and I will replace this review by the year's end. For now - rejoice! Forget the hype. The book has arrived.
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T00 P0LITICALLY INC0RRECT to be published. This is what history has become.
2nd Edition was never published. Oxbow has no release date. ARCs went out years ago now. MS is ready for publication by an eminent expert. Original release date was 2013.
The new narrative currently being pushed by Uppsala University is Scandinavia was settled by Moslems following Islam - supported by evidence proven a fraud, advanced by a questionable professor, and aided by the destruction of archeological artifacts. Google this story if you find it too hard to believe (and I would not blame you one iota).
Neil.price@arkeologi.uu.se
= = = = = = = = = =
Ah...that new book smell - the smell of sweaty men working a webpress for days at a stretch, printing minuscule typeface on an A5 sized book of glossy paper. FINALLY after 4, 5 years of waiting I have this masher-basher in my possession, as hot off the press as Royal Mail will allow.
If you need to cudgel someone in the Viking spirit, this is your book. I will be reading it next after I finish Elder Gods (100 pages to go!) and Pagan Britain. ... and I will replace this review by the year's end. For now - rejoice! Forget the hype. The book has arrived.
= = = = = = = = = =
T00 P0LITICALLY INC0RRECT to be published. This is what history has become.
2nd Edition was never published. Oxbow has no release date. ARCs went out years ago now. MS is ready for publication by an eminent expert. Original release date was 2013.
The new narrative currently being pushed by Uppsala University is Scandinavia was settled by Moslems following Islam - supported by evidence proven a fraud, advanced by a questionable professor, and aided by the destruction of archeological artifacts. Google this story if you find it too hard to believe (and I would not blame you one iota).
Neil.price@arkeologi.uu.se
July 25, 2021
An excellent update to the first edition of Price's far-ranging but firmly corralled study (and thesis) of how magic informed the lives of those who lived the Viking life in what we now call the Scandinavian countries. Price includes evidence from nearly every discipline available, unlike other scholars, which results in a much more thorough interpretation of how and why Viking people though and behaved the way they did. Though this is certainly an academic tome, it's written so that an interested non-academic can read it with a little help from dictionaries and Wikipedia. I got onto this book from watching the History Channel series "Vikings" (via an interview with, as I recall, series writer Michael Hirst), and I'm so glad I did. I've learned so much!
August 30, 2020
One of THE best books about Norse history I've ever read. With its unique focus on sorcery and shamanism, it offers up an amazing array of details about life in ancient Scandinavia. Very thorough and has beautiful images.
December 31, 2022
This book is a deep dive into the Viking worldview. It is the best information about seidr out there. That being said, whew. I graduated with my MA 15 years ago, and I must admit I'm not used to reading scholarly tomes from cover to cover anymore. This made my brain hurt.
November 14, 2021
Outstanding
July 26, 2022
I would give this 6 stars if I could
June 12, 2023
Neil Price never misses
January 27, 2025
This a fascinating and informative book. His insights informed my novel. I hope this added a layer of authenticity to the magic I described.
March 30, 2025
Can I give a book six stars? Not the most readable, but an absolutely mind-blowing take on circumpolar shamanism and Norse religion.
May 20, 2025
This isn’t a start reading and read all the way through book. It’s like a huge text book…but the level of detail is insane and so interesting.
May 2, 2025
Wow, I now know WAAAY more about Viking Era staffs than I ever thought I would.
This work is well written and meticulous, albeit pretty dense. I'm not going to lie - it reads like a Masters level textbook (hell, it probably IS just that), and as such, it is not necessarily exciting reading, but academic texts usually are not - that's not their point. Their point is solid, well researched information, and there was an abundance of it here. I whole-heartedly agree with a previous reviewer - I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I certainly appreciated it. On a side note, I did immensely enjoy Price's Children of Ash and Elm. That is a history book written for those interested in the Viking Age. This book is a deep dive into a specialized aspect of that age and full of current theories on a subject that can really only be speculated on.
This work is well written and meticulous, albeit pretty dense. I'm not going to lie - it reads like a Masters level textbook (hell, it probably IS just that), and as such, it is not necessarily exciting reading, but academic texts usually are not - that's not their point. Their point is solid, well researched information, and there was an abundance of it here. I whole-heartedly agree with a previous reviewer - I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I certainly appreciated it. On a side note, I did immensely enjoy Price's Children of Ash and Elm. That is a history book written for those interested in the Viking Age. This book is a deep dive into a specialized aspect of that age and full of current theories on a subject that can really only be speculated on.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews