How To Become A Modern Viking

In this book, you will learn how to build the mindset and body of a Viking warrior and how to apply your increased masculinity in the modern world.

A complete guide to using the best ingredients and minimal equipment to create fun and flavorful brews Ancient societies brewed flavorful and healing meads, ales, and wines for millennia using only intuition, storytelling, and knowledge passed down through generations—no fancy, expensive equipment or degrees in chemistry needed. In Make Mead Like a Viking, homesteader, fermentation enthusiast, and self-described “Appalachian Yeti Viking” Jereme Zimmerman summons the bryggjemann of the ancient Norse to demonstrate how homebrewing mead—arguably the world’s oldest fermented alcoholic beverage—can be not only uncomplicated but fun. Armed with wild-yeast-bearing totem sticks, readers will learn techniques for brewing sweet, semi-sweet, and dry meads, melomels (fruit meads), metheglins (spiced meads), Ethiopian t’ej, flower and herbal meads, braggots, honey beers, country wines, and even Viking grog, opening the Mead Hall doors to further experimentation in fermentation and flavor. In addition, aspiring Vikings will explore: • The importance of local and unpasteurized honey for both flavor and health benefits; • Why modern homebrewing practices, materials, and chemicals work but aren’t necessary; • How to grow and harvest herbs and collect wild botanicals for use in healing, nutritious, and magical meads, beers, and wines; • Hops’ recent monopoly as a primary brewing ingredient and how to use botanicals other than hops for flavoring and preserving mead, ancient ales, and gruits; • The rituals, mysticism, and communion with nature that were integral components of ancient brewing and can be for modern homebrewers, as well; • Recommendations for starting a mead circle to share your wild meads with other brewers as part of the growing mead-movement subculture; and more! Whether you’ve been intimidated by modern homebrewing’s cost or seeming complexity in the past—and its focus on the use of unnatural chemicals—or are boldly looking to expand your current brewing and fermentation practices, Zimmerman’s welcoming style and spirit will usher you into exciting new territory. Grounded in history and mythology, but—like Odin’s ever-seeking eye—focusing continually on the future of self-sufficient food culture, Make Mead Like a Viking is a practical and entertaining guide for the ages.

From a New York Times best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist, a sweeping epic of how the Vikings and their descendants have shaped history and America

Being Viking provides a rigorous ethnographic account of the Asatru religion in America, also known as Heathenry or Heathenism. Arising from five years of original ethnographic fieldwork among American Asatru adherents, the book expands our understanding of this religious movement as part of the American religious context.

This is the fascinating story of the International Christian Leadership Movement and its founder, Dr. Abraham Vereide. I.C.L. is known around the world especially for its sponsorship of the annual Presidential Breakfasts in Washington, D.C., and this book contains many interesting sidelights on these famous events and personalities. Political leaders in Washington are warm in their praise of Dr. Vereide and his work: Congressman Charles E. Bennett says, “Abraham Vereide originally envisioned this Group—the House Breakfast Group which meets every Thursday morning for prayer, discussion and Christian fellowship—the most significant thing I know on Capitol Hill. I consider him to be one of America’s greatest citizen-leaders and one of our Master’s greatest tools for good.” “Reading the life story of Abraham Vereide is like boarding a fast-moving train,” writes the reviewer in Faith at Work magazine, “for here is a man who has been hurtling through life since childhood and now, in his mid-seventies, is still going strong. Though Vereide is Norwegian by birth, it is difficult to think of him except as the American pioneer, and the various stages and episodes in his life epitomize the best of the forces that shaped this nation. “The story of the development of International Christian Leadership is only slightly less interesting than the story of Vereide himself. And the names that dot the pages!—presidents of the United States, kings and queens, French diplomats, members of Parliament, African and Indian leaders, millionaires, governors, and great Christians of all kinds: Graham, Sunday, Peter Marshall, Schweitzer, Shoemaker, Bob Pierce, Peale. No less interesting are the anonymous men and women whose stories gleam through the swift-paced narrative: the mining camp rowdies, alcoholics, taxi-drivers, churchmen. All in all, this volume is a significant achievement.”

Never be lost for words again...with this book of lost words.Have you ever wanted to wield the silver tongue of Loki - or to hammer home your point like a Thundergod?Old Norse is the language of legends and the stuff of sagas, the inspiration for Tolkien and Marvel, for award-winning manga and epic videogames. It is the language of cleverly crafted kennings, blood-curdling curses and pithy retorts to Ragnarök.Old Norse for Modern Times gives you the perfect phrase for every contemporary situation - from memorable movie quotes ("We're going to need a bigger boat." Þurfa munu vér skip stærra) to battle-cries to yell on Discord ("Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" Sýnisk Þér ek vera í skapi til leika?), from mead hall musings ("This drink, I like it! ANOTHER!" Líkar mér drykkr Þessi! ANNAN!) to tried-and-tested pickup lines ("Nice tattoo!"? Fagrt er húðflúrið"). With over 500 phrases inside (plus the chance to add your own!) it is the perfect guide for Vikings fans, whether they are re-enactors, role-players, or simply in love with Ragnar.

‘Donald is a writer not only at the top of his game, but of the game’ Giles Kristian, author of the Raven series ‘Donald delivers a masterclass’ Theodore Brun, author of A Burning Sea 'A gory, gleeful treat' The Times The greatest warriors are forged in the flamesTwo pagan fighters 771AD, Northern Europe. Bjarki Bloodhand and Tor Hildarsdottir are journeying south into Saxony. Their destination is the Irminsul, the One Tree that links the Nine Worlds of the Middle-Realm. In this most holy place, they hope to learn how to summon their animal spirits so they can enter the ranks of the legendary berserkir: the elite frenzied fighters of the North. One Christian king Karolus, newly crowned King of the Franks, has a thorn in his side: the warlike Saxon tribes on his northern borders who shun the teachings of the Church, blasphemously continuing to worship their pagan gods. An epic battle for the soul of the North The West’s greatest warlord vows to stamp out his neighbours’ superstitions and bring the light of the True Faith to the Northmen – at the point of a sword. It will fall to Bjarki, Tor and the men and women of Saxony to resist him in a struggle for the fate of all Europe. Praise for The Last Berserker ‘Donald has taken the legendary berserkers, those frothing-at-the-mouth shield-biters, and made them human, which once again proves that Donald is a writer not only at the top of his game, but of the game ... It is a wonderful, rich and violent brew. I welcome Angus Donald to the shield wall of Viking fiction like a thirsty man welcomes a mead-brother to the feast ... A tale worthy of the skalds’ Giles Kristian, author of the Raven series ‘With The Last Berserker, Donald has given us the first cut of some serious Dark Age beef. By turns heart-racing, intriguing, and touching, this is not a book for the faint-hearted – I can’t wait for more’ Theodore Brun, author of A Burning Sea ‘The Last Berserker strikes with the thundering power of Thor's hammer... rich with the earthy depth, historical detail, intrigue, violence and adventure that we expect from Donald. But it is Bjarki and Tor that make The Last Berserker stand out... Donald's masterful creations will live on in the imagination long after the final page’ Matthew Harffy, author of the Bernicia Chronicles 'A wonderful, blood-soaked tale of redemption and revenge, set amidst the eighth century clash of civilisations between Pagan Vikings and Christian Franks, by a master of the genre’ Saul David, author of Zulu Hart 'Loved this tale of a berserker facing up against the tidal wave of Charlemagne’s expansion. Great characters, brilliantly paced and explosive, gritty battle-scenes. Highly recommended' John Gwynne, author of Malice ‘Well researched detail and stunning battle scenes make The Last Berserker a white knuckle ride. A thrilling, up-all-night read’ C. R. May, author of The Day of the Wolf 'I loved it. Bjarki and Tor are great characters, instantly relatable. The depth of the immersion in their world and their values gives the book authenticity and weight' Cecelia Holland, author of The Soul Thief

"To a faithful friend, straight are the roads and short."—Odin, from the Hávamál (c. 1000) Friendship was the most important social bond in Iceland and Norway during the Viking Age and the early Middle Ages. Far more significantly than kinship ties, it defined relations between chieftains, and between chieftains and householders. In Viking Friendship, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson explores the various ways in which friendship tied Icelandic and Norwegian societies together, its role in power struggles and ending conflicts, and how it shaped religious beliefs and practices both before and after the introduction of Christianity. Drawing on a wide range of Icelandic sagas and other sources, Sigurðsson details how loyalties between friends were established and maintained. The key elements of Viking friendship, he shows, were protection and generosity, which was most often expressed through gift giving and feasting. In a society without institutions that could guarantee support and security, these were crucial means of structuring mutual assistance. As a political force, friendship was essential in the decentralized Free State period in Iceland’s history (from its settlement about 800 until it came under Norwegian control in the years 1262–1264) as local chieftains vied for power and peace. In Norway, where authority was more centralized, kings attempted to use friendship to secure the loyalty of their subjects. The strong reciprocal demands of Viking friendship also informed the relationship that individuals had both with the Old Norse gods and, after 1000, with Christianity’s God and saints. Addressing such other aspects as the possibility of friendship between women and the relationship between friendship and kinship, Sigurðsson concludes by tracing the decline of friendship as the fundamental social bond in Iceland as a consequence of Norwegian rule.