The gentle country of the northern lights

The northern lights are a magnificent sight; they become visible in a star studded heaven for those travelling in polarregions during the darkest time of the year - breaking forth at this time as a kind of consolation, for those who will allow the opening of their...

When Norwegians Went Dry: Part 1: Ancient Moonshining

While both Viking Age and 21st century Norwegians loved nothing more than a good drink, public and official attitudes towards the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages were not always so relaxed. Indeed, in the 19th and early 20th century the country was...

Northern Lights Tales from the Far North

In our science-dominated XXIst century just about everyone with access to the internet or a library can learn everything there is to know about the Northern Lights. Like so many once mysterious natural phenomena like the rainbow or thunder, the Northern Lights are now...

Jul, a Nordic Christmas pt3: The Arctic Santa War

Where does Santa live? Somewhere up North for sure, but where exactly...It´s this crucial question that the Arctic countries have been waging war against each other over for the last couple decades, a most tragic war, the Arctic Santa War!   Any kid who's asked...

In Viking times our ancestors considered Bivrost to be the bridge between Midgard and Asgard. Today we consider Bivrost to be a link to Arctic Culture and Stories.

Here are some of these stories, gathered and written by different authors:

The Legend of Norse Scotland

The Legend of Norse Scotland

According to ancient Norse tales, the first meeting between Norwegians and Scots took place in the Viking-Age, at the time when the legendary king Harald hårfagre (“fairhair”) sent a fleet against North-Sea pirates. Back then, in the late 9th-century, numerous Vikings...

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Links Between World

Links Between World

Bivrost, the Northern Lights bridge has been known to connects the land of men with the land of the Gods in Old Norse myth. Few, however, known that others bridges and paths connect the remaining lands of the mythical Viking world. According to the Norse poem...

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The Giants, Destructors of Bivrost

The Giants, Destructors of Bivrost

In Old Norse myths, one major recurring theme is the opposition between the Gods, together with their human progenies, against the Jötnar, Þursar, Rísar and Trolls, the giant-kind. Throughout the numerous Pagan poems of the Poetic Edda as well as in quite a few...

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Bivrost: The Way to Valhalla

Bivrost: The Way to Valhalla

It is time for me to ride along the blood-red roads, to set the pale horse treading the path through the sky; I must cross the wind-vault's bridge in the West, before Salgofnir awakens the victorious people. These rather cryptic words are taken from an Old Norse poem...

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Arctic Spies

Arctic Spies

A little-known aspect of the worldwide confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States of America was the surprisingly extensive Spying activities going on in the Norwegian Arctic. In this remote corner of the globe the great powers were fighting for...

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The Creepy Trolls of Lofoten

The Creepy Trolls of Lofoten

For many, the beautiful landscapes of the Lofoten islands are synonymous with holidays, celebrations, peace and the perfect embodiment of the wild Arctic nature. However, in the Middle-Ages, very different stories were circulating about the beautiful archipelago,...

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The Fjords of the Gods

The Fjords of the Gods

High up North along the coast of Arctic Norway lie two long fjords whose names call back memories of ancestral Gods and a civilization that has now become legend. These fjords are the fjords of the ancient Norse Gods.   There is a lot we modern people simply...

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The First Drop: The Discovery of Alcohol

The First Drop: The Discovery of Alcohol

Most everyone knows that Alcohol has been part of human culture and society for a very, very long time. But when was it exactly that humans drank the first drop of alcohol? Was alcohol invented? Discovered? And how much did our ancient longing for the drink actually...

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The Shimmering Colors of the Aurora

The Shimmering Colors of the Aurora

If the magnificent spectacle of the Northern Lights could be summed up in one single word it would be Colors. The powerful light-show that graces the skies of the Far North indeed takes several forms and many colors, each one even more beautiful than its predecessors....

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Arctic Pirates

Arctic Pirates

Most tend to associate Pirates with the Caribbean, warm weather, azure skies and sunny sand-beaches. However, Pirates were also found in many other places, a few of them even laid waste to the Norwegian Arctic some four centuries ago...   Thanks to movies,...

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The 12th Man: The Escape of Jan Baalsrud

The 12th Man: The Escape of Jan Baalsrud

  Norway was one of the focal points of both the allies and the axis during the second World War. Numerous battles and other capital events took place on Norwegian soil but none is more harrowing than the Arctic escape of sergeant Jan Baalsrud in 1943. In April 1940,...

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The Reindeer, an Arctic Symbol

The Reindeer, an Arctic Symbol

  Who doesn't know about Reindeer? The horned animal is considered by many a symbol of the Arctic which can be found all over the Arctic and has become entwined with the way of life of Polar peoples in various fascinating ways. Fifteen-thousand years ago, Scandinavia...

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The Return of the Northern Lights

The Return of the Northern Lights

August nights in Arctic Norway don't tend to be particularly dark. During the last days of the month, it can only be truly called night for a few hours around midnight. Still, in this darkness, a new light arises, a light that hasn't been seen in many months, the...

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Galactic Auroras !

Galactic Auroras !

We are, as earthlings, lucky to be able to witness the spellbinding beauty of the Auroras. While it is much easier for us to see this fascinating phenomena from our Blue planet, Northern Lights are by no means an exclusively earthly phenomena and can be seen from...

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The King in the North

The King in the North

Despite being isolated from mainland Europe, North-Norway has managed to attract a surprisingly large amount of kings, princes and other emperors. So why exactly do royals keep on visiting the Norwegian Arctic? Depends, some come for war, others for love, and a good...

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The Crossing of Greenland

The Crossing of Greenland

More than a century ago, the Norwegian Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen led a group of bold adventurers where, literally, no-one had gone before: across the ice-sheet of Greenland.   Greenland was first discovered in the last years of the Xth Century by Norwegians...

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The Tale of Pietro Querini

The Tale of Pietro Querini

Almost 600 years ago an Venetian vessel sank by the treacherous reefs of North-Norway. After escaping the wreck and coming ashore, the crew discovered a landscape full of drying fish, bone-chilling cold and primitive buildings. This strange encounter would ultimately...

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Those who Harvest the Sea

Those who Harvest the Sea

For Millenia the inhabitants of Arctic Norway have lived by and for the sea. In the unforgiving northern landscape where the soil gives only meager means for survival, the men and women of this land lived to harvest the sea.   In the Bronze and Iron Age, more...

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The Aurora through Medieval Arab Eyes

The Aurora through Medieval Arab Eyes

Intellectuals from the Medieval Islamic world were among the wisest and most knowledgeable of their time and some were extremely well-informed about the mysterious North, the land of the Northern Lights and the Polar Night. In the year 922, the Iraqi dignitary and...

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The Triumphant Midnight Sun

The Triumphant Midnight Sun

The summer in the Arctic Region is dominated by the towering sight of one of the greatest phenomena in the world: The Midnight Sun.   The Midnight Sun is an astronomical phenomenon that can be observed in the Arctic and the Antarctic beyond each of the Polar...

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The Northern Lights that Cross the Earth

The Northern Lights that Cross the Earth

It's hard to understand how huge Northern Lights actually are. The beautiful beams of light can indeed stretch thousands of kilometres across the skies and be simultaneously seen in many different lands.   Even after witnessing the beauty of the Polar Aurora, it...

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Norway’s National Day – An Arctic Story

Norway’s National Day – An Arctic Story

The seventeenth of May is Norway's National day, celebrated all over the country and throughout the world wherever there are Norwegians, but the meaning of this day is somewhat different for those living in the Norwegian High North...   1814 was a very special...

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What’s up with the Northern Lights?

What’s up with the Northern Lights?

Some absolutely amazing Auroras illuminated the nights of Arctic Norway this winter, but now that spring is here and summer is coming next, where has the Aurora gone?   In Tromsø, in the heart of North Norway, the last Northern Lights of the season appeared in...

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The North-Norwegian who saved the King

The North-Norwegian who saved the King

North-Norwegian heroes are not only found in centuries-old sagas, some accomplished feats of incredible courage in very historical times, just a few generations back. One of them is Colonel Birger Eriksen who saved the king of Norway during the War. Birger Eriksen was...

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Odin, the God of Wine Lovers

Odin, the God of Wine Lovers

Óðinn is often described as the chief God of the Norsemen and what’s more fitting for a chief than drinking fine wines? A noble activity that was enthusiastically embraced by his many followers as well.   Vikings and other Norsemen loved their alcohol and...

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Paul the Deacon Describes the Northern Lights

Paul the Deacon Describes the Northern Lights

An Eighth-century scholar from Northern Italy tells the Northern Lights tales of his people. Most people nowadays have never heard about Paulus Diaconus (Paul the Deacon) but back in the days, he was one of the most influential men of letters in Europe. Paul the...

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The name Aurora Borealis

The name Aurora Borealis

In 1618 three comets were seen in passage, leading to a heated debate as to their origin amongst learned scholars in southern and central Europe. Galileo Galilei was one of these and here he refers to the northern lights with the Latin term Aurora Borealis or the red...

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The Proud Vikings of Lofoten

The Proud Vikings of Lofoten

  During the glorious Viking-Age of Scandinavia, Norse warriors raided, explored, fought and discovered new lands with their courage and wits as their only help. The Northern parts of Norway and especially the Lofoten islands produced quite a lot of those mighty...

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When the Aurora Appears

When the Aurora Appears

  Only a tiny percentage of people on Earth have ever had the chance of seeing the magnificent Northern Lights. However, with the aid of modern digital photography and the internet, many have been able to look at pictures of the phenomenon. Still the experience...

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An Introduction to the Lofoten Islands

An Introduction to the Lofoten Islands

What is Lofoten? In short, Lofoten or the Lofoten is an archipelago situated above the Arctic Circle in North Norway within the limits of the county (fylke) of Nordland. Lofoten is a regional union (Interkommunale regionråd) comprising six municipalities (kommune)...

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Drinking Customs of the Vikings

Drinking Customs of the Vikings

For the ancient Norsemen, drinking was much more than just consuming alcoholic beverages. Drinking ale and mead was instead part of their ancestral lifestyle and had deep cultural and religious significance. Why do people tend to associate Vikings and drinking? In our...

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Northern Lights Tales from the Far North

Northern Lights Tales from the Far North

In our science-dominated XXIst century just about everyone with access to the internet or a library can learn everything there is to know about the Northern Lights. Like so many once mysterious natural phenomena like the rainbow or thunder, the Northern Lights are now...

read more
Arctic Vikings

Arctic Vikings

More than a millennium ago, within the barren wastes of the cold Arctic North, lived a people of great courage and strength whose remarkable feats have been recorded in countless tomes of ancient Sagas. Prepare to meet the hardiest Northmen of the Medieval ages, the...

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Mørketid: The North-Norwegian Polar Night

Mørketid: The North-Norwegian Polar Night

  If you thought that winter in Arctic Norway was all doom and gloom, think again! There may be no sun at all for many weeks up beyond the Polar Circle, but the night shines instead with much more than just one light.   It is pretty safe to say that the huge...

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The gentle country of the northern lights

The gentle country of the northern lights

The northern lights are a magnificent sight; they become visible in a star studded heaven for those travelling in polarregions during the darkest time of the year - breaking forth at this time as a kind of consolation, for those who will allow the opening of their...

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The Aurora Otherworld of North-America

The Aurora Otherworld of North-America

  North-America has traditionally been inhabited by countless indigenous peoples, each of them with their own homelands, languages or dialects and of course also mythologies. As a result of this impressive diversity, tales and legends of the Northern Lights tend...

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The Inuits and the Aurora Spirits

The Inuits and the Aurora Spirits

Among the peoples of the Arctic, the Inuits are by far the Northernmost. Originating from the Bering Strait a thousand years ago, the first Inuits spread across the North-American Arctic and established their homelands in what later became known as Greenland, Northern...

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The Vikings and the Northern Lights Bridge

The Vikings and the Northern Lights Bridge

What did the Viking believe about the Northern Lights? Do the tales of the God-Bridge Bivröst reflect the Norsemen's visions of the Aurora Borealis?   The Vikings never wrote books, but their descendants produced thousands of manuscripts during the middle-ages....

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