Back to Blood: Pursuing a future from the Norse Past

Jane Skjoldli's study asks how modern Norse-inspired Heathens employ, interpret, and experience descriptions of Vikings and Norse religion in digital games, movies, TV-shows, and music. Skjoldli uses a mixed-methods approach, with digital survey with a qualitative media analysis and fieldwork, and the study will result in a monograph.

The project revolves around the concept of reception in the widest sense, signifying selective and creative processes of recycling pre-existing material, and the construction of religious worlds and values. How do modern Heathens interact with products of popular culture that both stem from and contribute to the commercialization of materials that are so near and dear to many? What topic-related music do Heathens listen to; what movies and series do they watch; what games do they play? What do Heathens consider more or less relevant and compatible with how they view Norse religion, Vikings, and styles of reception of and about the Norse past?

Fredrik Gregorius’ project looks at places associated with Viking culture and religion and how the descriptions and meaning given to these places reflect ideological constructions about our relationship to Old Norse culture and how this is impacted by ideas about Scandinavian ethnic identity and cultural heritage. 

The study explores how government-funded museums and archaeological projects present the Viking Age, but also how Heathens and Nationalistic groups view these same sites and what ideological narratives that are constructed around it. Due to the recent years’ ongoing debate about the role of women in Viking Age society, questions about gender and changing ideals of masculinity and femininity are addressed as a central theme as well as changing ideas about culture and ethnic identity. A central question is why these places are still so contested. In addition to historical research, the project employs fieldwork in both Sweden and Norway. Among the sites researched, are Uppåkra Archaeological Center, Lofotr Vikingmuseum and Old Uppsala, and the study will result in articles and a monograph.

The subject of Tao Thykier Makeeff's Post Doc project (2020-2022) is Viking martial arts and how this is related to themes like embodiment, gender, diginity and belonging, spirituality, sacred place, landscape and nature, and borders drawn towards nationalist agendas. 

The project will investigate the interplay of martial arts teachers’ use of Nordic history and the varied constructions of religious and spiritual identities among contemporary Heathens, re-enactors and other individuals who may not fit into established, analytical categories. In the project, Makeeff scrutinizes how training one’s body within historical martial arts may create emotions of embodied ties to the past, to nature and to the land one lives in, and how this may comprise methods for sacralizing room, experience unity with others and with landscape, and for finding new dignity through embodied, historical and environmental narratives. These perspectives will shed new light to how religion, ritualization and physical training interact, and address current issues like ecological awareness, gender and political views. The project will result in three academic articles.

In Anna Økstra’s PhD project (2020-2024), she delves into the realm of historical handicrafts, examining how the actor-networks surrounding a select few archaeological finds have evolved since their discovery. Leveraging her dual identity as both anthropologist and a handicrafter/weaver, her work takes on an interdisciplinary approach.

Through the lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), she explores the intricate connections between human and non-human actors, and analyses the dynamic relationships that shape the narratives surrounding archaeological objects. These artefacts serve not only as tangible representations of human ingenuity but also as agents in their own right, influencing the trajectories of archaeological research and interpretation.

Her project goes beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries, seeking to uncover the complex interplay between material culture, social relations, and knowledge production. By adopting a reflexive methodology, she aims to elucidate how these actor-networks have expanded and transformed over time. The project contributes to the field of understanding the entangled nature of material culture and human interaction, highlighting the role of ANT in unravelling the stories woven into historical handicrafts and their evolving significance in contemporary discourse.

This project analyzes how the combined Viking and metal festival Midgardsblot in Borre, Vestfold, represents new realizations of spirituality and ecological awareness, and the bureaucratic and political processes these interact with. This is thus an investigation into how secular and public sector (like county administration) cooperates with artistic, popular cultural and spiritual actors and trends, and how those involved assess these processes and the festival as an event based arena within the framework of a Norse site like Borre.

The study explores archive material from the Midgardsblot start in 2015 and onwards and fieldwork on and around the festival in 2018, 2019 and 2021, with digital survey for 2020 when the festival was cancelled (due to Covid 19). The participants at Midgardsblot come from all over the world, and further questions of this study is how a regionally negotiated and important festival impacts global, digital communication and identity construction beyond the festival weeks. The study will result in articles and a monograph.