The Sorceress

Mystery and magic are at the core of the podcast this week. We return to the Oseberg Viking Ship, Norway’s most magnificent historical treasure. But there are also many questions connected with it, including these three: Which great Viking leader was honoured with this most magnificent of ship burials? Why was this ship of death anchored to a huge boulder? Why was there a long wooden wand on board, identical to wands used in the Viking Age for sorcery? In this podcast, I travel back to the Oseberg burial mound, and we also hear the results of the latest scientific DNA analysis of the two skeletons found on board. The burial took many months, a gathering of the elite-of-the-elite in the early Viking world. But was the burial motivated more by FEAR of the deceased than respect?

CONTACT
Twitter: @northbynorway
Email: northbynorway@gmail.com

EPISODE PHOTO
The prow of the Oseberg Ship with its enormous anchor stone. From the excavation of the Oseberg burial mound, 1904.
Photographer : Olaf Væring. Owner: Universitetsmuseenes fotoportal. (Licence:CC BY-SA 4.0)

THANKS
to actor Solveig M. Boyle for her vocal contributions

LINKS & SOURCES
https://www.nb.no/items/83fd1babb025b0f5d55f4d92888207f4?page=227&searchText=arne%20emil%20christensen

https://www.nb.no/historier-fra-samlingen/oseberg-kvinnenes-dramatiske-reise/

https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/religion-magic-death-and-rituals/the-magic-wands-of-the-seeresses/

https://www.khm.uio.no/besok-oss/vikingskipshuset/utstillinger/oseberg/to-velstaende-kvinner/

https://www.vtfk.no/meny/tjenester/kultur/kulturarv/kulturarvartikler/oseberg/

Neil Price: The Viking Way (Oxbow Books, Oxford 2017)

MUSIC
00:00 North by Norway
written on GarageBand by Andrew J. Boyle, using the Norwegian folksong ‘I Ola-dalom, i Ola-tjønn’

01:45  Cattle Call, op. 66
Edvard Grieg 

08:00  Dronningen
Andrew J. Boyle

14:20  Sagasøyla
Andrew J. Boyle/Garageband

16:40 Torbjørg
Andrew J. Boyle/Garageband