ABSTRACT
At the Seljord Folkehogskole in the picturesque town of Seljord in central Norway, students can enroll in a nine-month-long "craftscourse" on how to live like a tenth-century Viking. This includes how to build an authentic Viking house, how to sail in a Viking longship, how to make authentic Viking clothes, armor, and other handicrafts. Looking at it from the other side of the coin, Viking paganism, albeit recorded by later Christianized writers such as thirteenth-century Icelandic historian, Snorri Sturluson, reveal none of the missionary fervor and bias towards other religions. Instead, pagan Viking religious attitudes were mainly characterized by an air of eminent practicality and flexibility, some might say in contrast to Christian intolerance of rival beliefs. The chief virtue of paganism for understanding the Viking raids is as a reflection of the unique Viking culture that was quite different from its Christian counterpart in Europe and that explains much of the Vikings' success.
