Burning Down the House

"Let us burn him house and all," said Mord.

Then they took the vetch-stack and set fire to it, and they who were inside were not aware of it till the whole hall was ablaze over their heads.

Then Flosi and his men made a great pile before each of the doors, and then the women folk who were inside began to weep and to wail.

Njal’s saga, chapters 76 and 128

This time on the podcast we are thrilled to welcome back William Short and Reynir Óskarson of Hurstwic. They were our very first guests way back in December 2022 when they told us about their experience and expertise in Viking Age weaponry.

This time they are here to tell us all about a Viking battle tactic found in several sagas: burning an enemy’s house. If a certain Talking Heads song is in your head right now, it should be.

But this is not your usual historical discussion. William and Reynir are renowned for their years of mixing research of the written sources such as sagas and law codes with experimental archaeology to try and determine firsthand in real time what aspects of life in the Viking Age were like. So, in early July they didn’t just publish an academic paper or write a book about a burn, they actually performed one on a recreated Viking Age house (well, half of one anyway) near Eiríksstaðir in Iceland.

Take a listen to hear all about what went into planning this experiment, how it was carried out, and some of what they learned from it. You won’t want to miss this one. It’s about as raw and close to the past as you can get!

You can also check out more about Viking weapons and tactics in their book Men of Terror: A Comprehensive Analysis of Viking Combat

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