Events

Join historian Dr Eleanor Barraclough for a new history of the Vikings, told through the objects that defined the lives of its people – from powerful leaders to naughty teenagers. Imagine a Viking, and a certain image springs to mind: a nameless, faceless warrior, leaping ashore from a longboat, and ready to terrorise the hapless local population of a northern European country. Yet while such characters define the Viking Age today, they were in the minority. This is the history of all the other people – children, enslaved people, seers, artisans, travellers, writers – who inhabited the medieval Nordic world. Encompassing not just Norway, Denmark and Sweden, but also Iceland, Greenland, parts of the British Isles, Continental Europe and Russia, the Viking Age was filled with people of different ages, genders and ethnicities. In this talk, Eleanor will focus on the fascinating traces they left behind, from hairstyles to place names, love-notes to gravestones.

Reconstructing the lives of Viking Age women from the fragile remnants of their textiles. Join historian and broadcaster Dr Eleanor Barraclough to discover how fragile remnants of textile-making tools and fragments, like those found preserved deep in frozen Greenlandic soil or high in the glaciers of Norwegian mountains, can bring to the forefront the narratives and lives of women in the Viking Age. Learn how the most tiny artefacts, from remnants of a Viking sail ship, to a woven loop of blond human hair tucked into the wall of a weaving room, can shed light on the stories of these people who are so often unjustly omitted from the grand narratives of history.

Eleanor Barraclough reveals the real people who lived and died during the Viking Age. Everyone can picture a nameless, faceless Holywood Viking, leaping axe in hand from a longboat to terrorise the hapless locals, but warriors were the minority. Barraclough has unearthed hidden histories that show what it was like to live during those times, away from the grand sweep of history. She brings us tales about everyone else – children, enslaved people, seers, artisans, travellers, writers and others, who lived in the medieval Nordic world. Here are the lives of people of different ages, classes, ethnicities, sexualities and abilities, as revealed via the traces they left behind. From hairstyles, place names and love notes, to musical instruments and children’s toys.

Eleanor Barraclough is a historian, writer and broadcaster, and the author of Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas. Now based at Bath Spa University, she has previously held positions at the universities of Oxford and Durham. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a BBC New Generation Thinker. Introducing her new book, Embers of the Hands, is the story of all the Viking people who don’t fit the warrior stereotype – children, enslaved people, seers, artisans, travellers, and writers – but who shared their world nonetheless.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough explores some of the truths behind the Vikings’ lurid reputation, and shows the evidence to be found in the rare documents on display in the British Library.

Thrilled to be a judge for the Costa Book Awards. I’m judging the Biography Prize — the most wonderfully life-affirming way to weather the storms of 2020. 

Returning to judge the BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards 2020. A great year for Northumberland, with the 400m-long lady of Northumberlandia winning Landmark of the Year, Alnwick’s Poison Garden winning Garden of the Year, and Northumberland National Park winning National Park of the Year.

In 2017 I was chosen as one of Hay’s ‘30 at 30’. For the festival’s 30^th anniversary they selected ‘30 young novelists, scientists, philosophers, performers and activists who are astonishing and inspiring to join us here at Hay. These writers and thinkers will help imagine and shape the world in the next 30 years.’

Travelling into the heart of European history, from Old Norse sagas to Homeric epics, with Nicholas Jubber (author of Epic Continent) and Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough (author of Beyond the Northlands).

From raiders and traders to settlers to rulers, the Norse played a unique role in the history of the medieval world, travelling from North America to Russia, the Arctic to the Middle East. Using York as a starting point, Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough explores the Viking Age in England and further afield. Featuring a poet with a terrible case of writer’s block, seriously good hair, and a huge fossilised poo.

Judge for the BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards 2019. A complete pleasure from start to finish, and delighted to see my favourite, the Gertrude Jekyll Garden on Lindisfarne, chosen as Garden Of The Year.

Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms Exhibition

From Raiders to Rulers: The Vikings in Anglo-Saxon England

In a wide-ranging overview, Eleanor Barraclough explores some of the truths behind the Vikings’ lurid reputation, and the evidence to be found in the rare documents on display in the British Library exhibition. She is joined by Richard Dance, who brings the language of the time to life.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough explores the history of the Norse in Anglo-Saxon England, introducing us to a host of colourful characters including invaders, explorers, poets, warriors, traders and more.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough has explored the Old Norse world on horseback and travelled with a caribou hunter in Greenland, hunted runes in Sweden, and retraced the footsteps of Nordic pilgrims in Rome. She illuminates the saga accounts and traces the extraordinary influence of the Vikings from Byzantium to America.

A trip through the dramatic landscapes that inspired the Old Norse sagas.

Wigtown Literary Festival 2016

Iceland: The Storytelling Island

I was delighted to deliver this year’s Magnus Magnusson Lecture, on Iceland’s rich storytelling culture going back to the first settlers.

Tìrean Deighe is Teine: Lands of Ice and Fire. Lands of Ice and Fire juxtaposes ancient and modern myth and reality. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough follows the Vikings on a journey Beyond the North Lands. 

Galloway Hoard

Discussion about the recently discovered Galloway Hoard.

Beyond the Northlands

In Beyond the Northlands, Eleanor Barraclough takes her own trip through the dramatic landscapes that inspired these sagas – enabling us to understand the Norsemen like never before.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough set out to explore the Norse sagas and the far-northern world that produced them by travelling thousands of miles in the footsteps of the Vikings. She uses her experiences and the weird and wonderful artefacts she discovered to illuminate the medieval Nordic world and their rich storytelling culture.

Saga Travels

The Vikings voyaged to all corners of the medieval world and beyond – from the Arctic Circle to Constantinople, North America to Kievan Rus – and wrote up their, somewhat embellished, journeys in their sagas. Durham medievalist Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough follows in their wake in Beyond the Northlands, casting off fantasy and tying down historical fact.

Ancient Technology Centre, Dorset

Vikings and Anglo-Saxons Weekend

A celebration of Vikings and Anglo-Saxon as part of the Festival of British Technology, with a talk in the fabulous reconstructed Iron Age roundhouse.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough talks to Joanne Harris

Expert in medieval literature Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough explores the world of the Norse sagas with the acclaimed novelist Joanne Harris, whose many works include fantasies based on Norse myth.

Ice and Fire

Exploring the Old Norse world through the sagas.

Beyond the Northlands

A talk in Heffers Bookshop exploring the world of the Vikings through archaeological finds, runestones, medieval world maps, encyclopedic manuscripts and texts from as far away as Byzantium and Baghdad.

Sage, Gateshead

Bloodaxe, Boneless and Hairy-Breeches: What Did The Vikings Ever Do For Us?

An exploration of the power battles between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, leading ultimately to the famous battles of 1066.