Missed the era of video dating? Fear not, here's a taste.
posted by piratebowling on Sep 18, 2009 - 58 comments

Belated Flash Friday | Funny Viking strategery game. It makes me so happy I finished the levels and go back to do better... [more inside]
posted by maggieb on Feb 14, 2009 - 24 comments

Want to fight like a Viking , hahaha? When was the last time you were attacked by someone dressed in hot pants, wearing leather gloves, hahaha? Berzerker Viking Fighting Arts, for all your frozen carrot fighting needs (hail Thor) [more inside]
posted by Smedleyman on Mar 27, 2008 - 29 comments

Not just for PTSD.
posted by gman on Dec 10, 2007 - 39 comments

Why is there so much Viking-themed architecture in Boston? The answer lies in racism and baking powder. Eben Horsfeld revolutionized bread-making in the 1890s when he developed Rumford's Baking Powder. Inspired by a Norwegian superstar and nationalist and a mysterious stone, he became convinced that the Viking Lief Ericson had landed in Cambridge, which he called Norumbega, and funded monuments and research to that effect. The Boston elite, threatened by new Irish immigrants, quickly seized on this concept, since it showed that the cleaned-up Viking, and not Catholic Columbus, that had first settled their sacred city. A century later, it was discovered that the Vikings did reach America first, though never Boston.
posted by blahblahblah on Oct 3, 2007 - 34 comments

In 1840, the Cuerdale Hoard - the greatest Viking silver treasure trove ever found outside Russia - is found in Lancashire. 2007: a father and son find an amazing Viking hoard while metal detecting in in Harrogate. The most important find of its type in Britain for over 150 years, it reveals a remarkable diversity of cultural contacts in the medieval world, with objects coming from as far apart as Afghanistan in the East and Ireland in the West, as well as Russia, Scandinavia and continental Europe.
posted by chuckdarwin on Jul 20, 2007 - 20 comments

Longboat! The Sea Stallion, a reconstruction of a ship scuttled off Roskilde will sail from Denmark to Dublin, where tests on timbers from the wreck show the original was built in the mid-eleventh century. (Pillaged from a centre of Irish learning)
posted by Abiezer on Jun 30, 2007 - 23 comments

"Oh, boy, sleep! That's where I'm a viking!" From the Simpsons episode "Lisa the Vegetarian," one small Ralph Wiggum line that's sparked some big debate on the internet. Does Ralph use "Viking" to mean "One who excels"? Or does Ralph dream of being a Scandinavian warrior? Not content to keep it online, people are calling radio shows (June 5th's episode, around the 49 minute mark) to gain support for their opinion. Perhaps only the show's writer, David Cohen, can settle this.
posted by Greg Nog on Jun 10, 2007 - 467 comments

Kerouac's essential On The Road is celebrating it's 50th year in publication next September. To commemorate, Viking Press plans to publish the raw, unedited "scroll version" that's been touring around the country. The hardcover -- due out somtime next year -- contains "some sections that had been cut from the novel because of references to sex or drugs" along with real names of characters, and "a different first sentence than the published novel, as well as a more abrupt ending."
posted by nitsuj on Aug 1, 2006 - 20 comments

On July 20, 1976 something really cool was accomplished.
posted by Heywood Mogroot on Jul 20, 2006 - 24 comments

Contrary to popular belief, Vikings did not wear horned helmets, if the Viking Answer Lady is to be believed. Apparently, the whole kerfuffle was instigated at least in part by these guys.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jun 6, 2006 - 28 comments

This painting will not set you agog until you realize it's an early design for a self-righting ship by a man somewhat obsessed. Similarly, this cap pattern is pretty simple, but it represents some deep geek knowledge. In other words, digital artisans can seem pretentiously empty under the physical weight of a carefully considered compulsion.
posted by If I Had An Anus on Jun 6, 2006 - 19 comments

Northvegr: The Northern Way is a site devoted to the practice, promotion and development of the Northern spiritual faith, which we call Hindrvitni or the Northern Way, aka the Norse ancestral faith, though the authors are careful to distinguish this from neopaganism, particularly Odinism and Asatru. Once you're on board, be sure to Buy Heathen!. [more inside]
posted by dhartung on Jun 10, 2003 - 17 comments

If you can't stand the heat, better stick to the kitchen of your dreams... Reading about the new industrial home chic in last week's Time and The Wall Street Journal, with its Viking and SubZero worship, how couldn't one be reminded of Mark Shatzker's now classic "My Dream Kitchen" piece for McSweeney's? In the light of all this fetichism, it deserves to be read afresh. For a sobering dessert, may I propose a look at Julia Child's kitchen, now in the Smithsonian?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Oct 15, 2002 - 34 comments

Did the Viking landers find life on Mars 25 years ago? Some scientists think so. I have too much faith in planetary scientists and the newly minted field of exobiology, to believe this is a just a ploy to rekindle waning public interest in space exploration. I think this is genuine 20/20 hindsight coupled with better scientific understandings of life existing in the extreme hinterlands of possibility. . .
posted by crasspastor on Jul 30, 2001 - 29 comments

The Kensington Runestone. In 1898 a farmer in Minnesota named Olaf Ohmann, dug up from his property a stone covered in runes (viking enscriptions). When it was deciphered it read:

8 Goths (Swedes) and 22 Norwegians on a voyage of discovery from Vinland (of) the West...

Read more inside.
posted by lagado on Dec 12, 2000 - 22 comments