Viking Ghost Stories

About this episode

This episode explores Norse beliefs about ghosts and the afterlife during the Viking Age through an interview with scholar Irina Manea.

The Norse during the Viking Age inhabited a world that was both utterly foreign to us and yet humanly familiar. Like us, they believed in ghosts. But maybe unlike us they believed in revenants and other supernatural creatures of all kinds. It seems their world was pretty porous when it came to the line between the living and the dead. In this episode we chatted with Irina Manea, a scholar of Norse myth and the saga literature, to get a sense of the viking mind regarding death and the afterlife. How did they deal with dead bodies? Where did they believe people went after death? Were ghosts and revenants welcomed or shunned? Were the dead scary or benevolent? Did they take steps to protect against them? And how much did the Christianization of Viking Age Scandinavia change those beliefs? It’s a fascinating topic that we hadn’t delved into much on the show. We learned a lot, including the fact that maybe an important way to keep bad spirits away is to cover your anus. To be safe, you’d better watch or listen and find out why :) Thanks Irina! We must do it again soon. You can find Irina on her Shield of Skuld newsletter right here on Substack. Do check it out. Lots of great viking…

People in this episode

Guest: Irina Manea

Topics covered

• Norse mythology
• Viking Age
• ghosts
• afterlife
• supernatural creatures
• Christianization

Keywords

• Viking ghosts
• Norse beliefs
• revenants
• death
• afterlife
• Christianization
• supernatural

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Shield of Skuld

More episodes of Vikingology Podcast

• The Saga of the Earls of Orkney · April 29, 2026 · 1h 14m
• The Secret Code of the Vikings · April 10, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Playing in the Halls of Asgard · April 6, 2026 · 1h 1m
• For the love of Beowulf · March 27, 2026 · 1h 21m
• A milestone episode with Jackson Crawford · February 14, 2026 · 1h 33m
• Myth and belief in the Viking Age and beyond · January 24, 2026 · 1h 10m