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“...Orm always afterwards used to say that, after good luck, strength, and skill at arms, nothing was so useful to a man who found himself among foreigners as the ability to learn a language.”
― Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships

“A sword age, a wind age, a wolf age. No longer is there mercy among men.”
― Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology

“The Vikings thought they were big shots because they had boats. You know how obnoxious people get when they own a boat. They always want to go on the boat. "We're taking the boat out this weekend. It's supposed to be beautiful. Why don't you come? You never come. You're always working. You know how many people wish they would get invited to come on the boat? And you turn it down.”
― Colin Quinn, The Coloring Book: A Comedian Solves Race Relations in America

“It is a man’s world in which we live, Skraeda. Let them think us lambs, when truly, we are wolves.”
― Demi Winters, The Road of Bones

“Even in terms of fiction, nothing in their lives became them like the leaving of it. King Fjolnir rose in the night to make water, fell into a vat of mead and drowned instead; Sveigdir ran after a dwarf when drunk and vanished into a boulder; Vanlandi was trampled to death by a nightmare; Domaldi was sacrificed for good seasons; Dag was struck on the head with a pitchfork when seeking revenge for his sparrow; and so on down to the fifth century.”
― Gwyn Jones

“Welcome to warrior paradise, where you can listen to Frank Sinatra in Norwegian FOREVER!”
― Rick Riordan, The Sword of Summer

“You’ve broken me…bewitched me…I know nothing except that I am miserable. All I can think of are your lips; the smell of your hair. How you felt in my arms; the way you made me feel so alive.”
― Demi Winters, The Road of Bones

“I don't know where the idea of Vikings having horns on their helmets came from, but it's a brilliant one. In every possible way, other than the literal truth, they totally had horns on their helmets. Horned helmets was absolutely their vibe and I feel we all have a right to that deeper artistic truth. They had limited technology and manufacturing helmets was pretty tricky for them, I imagine, so putting horns on them wouldn't have been workable, and wouldn't ave increased the functionality of the helmets, but I swear they'd have given it a go if they'd thought of it.”
― David Mitchell, Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens

“Thousands of year ago, a Viking warrior was laid to rest in a grave adorned with a sword, an axe, a spear, armor piercing arrows, a battle knife, two shields, and two horses, all suggestive of a professional, high-ranking commander. When the grave was discovered in the late nineteenth century, experts agreed this must be the burial site of an esteemed MALE warrior. It wasn't until the 1970s that some scientists looked more closely at the remains and asked: Could these small, gracile bones be the remains of a woman?
The greater scientific community balked; the very idea of a female warrior was too ridiculous to entertain. And yet, fifty years later, a DNA analysis of the Viking skeleton by Stockholm Unversity osteologist Anna Kjellstrom conclusively proved it accurate. It only took so long, and required so much, because the bones told a different story than the medical institions and experts of the 1800s did. The skeleton was clearly female - but the men saw what they wished to see, what they'd been taught to see.”
― Elizabeth Comen, All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today

“You think yourself better than me because you smile and pretend the world is filled with good men? Because you believe everything will work out for the best? Your optimism is shallow and false, and one day, Sunshine, it will get you killed.”
― Demi Winters, The Road of Bones

“I’m not a good man, Curls. But you make me feel as though I could be one.”
― Demi Winters, The Road of Bones

“Did you ever hear tell,'
said Jimmy Farrell,
'of the skulls they have
in the city of Dublin?

White skulls and black skulls
and yellow skulls, and some
with full teeth, and some
haven't only but one,'

and compounded history
in the pan of 'an old Dane,
maybe, was drowned
in the Flood.'

My words lick around
cobbled quays, go hunting
lightly as pampooties
over the skull-capped ground.

-Viking Dublin: Trial Pieces”
― Seamus Heaney, North

“By the time the Franks could respond by sending troops, the Danes had already left (to add to the disappointment, the emperor's pet elephant suddenly died at the same time----one of those useless bits of historical information that tell us that the past was real.)”
― Neil Price, Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

“Promise me, Moonflower. If we are attacked, you will run. Do not try to fight. Do not let them take you.”
― Demi Winters, The Road of Bones

“Silla had stepped off the cliff, the world was whizzing past her, and though she looked for a branch to grab, there were none to be found. There would be no turning back. It was time for her to fly.

Or to fall flat onto her face.”
― Demi Winters, The Road of Bones

“The rabbit comes easily to the clever wolf who waits.”
― Demi Winters, The Road of Bones

“If one wants a symbol of Atlantic man, as opposed to Mediterranean man, a symbol to set against the Greek temple, it is the Viking ship. The Greek temple is solid, static, crystalline; the Viking ship is light, mobile, and voyaging, floating like a water lily.”
― Kenneth M. Clark, Civilisation

“The sun sank slowly, illuminating beautiful reds and yellows, with purple just before the stars appeared twinkling against a navy-black background. Only when clouds rolled in and most slept, did Mairi cry.”
― Radiance Hoagland, Hunted

“Did you know Orkney was a favorite stop of Viking ships along their voyages?"
"She's been at the almanac again," her sire said dryly.
Rohan succumbed to a fond grin. "Our little bluestocking.”
― Gaelen Foley, My Dangerous Duke

“All of these men conquered England. And Vikings had been conquering bits of it, and Anglo-Saxons reconquering them again, for centuries, Conquering England doesn't look like that big deal at this point - in fact, it seems like one of the main things that happened in England since everyone forgot how to build villas.”
― David Mitchell, Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens

“the modern world’s cultural wallpaper. Of course, a good deal of what we think we know is just plain wrong, starting with those horned helmets, completely impractical in any kind of close combat. But more important than what’s wrong is what’s missing. There’s a question that has to be asked. How did the Vikings get away with it for so long? Or, putting it another way, what gave them their edge? An edge they maintained for almost three centuries, during which they
became the scourge of Europe, from Ireland to Ukraine, from Hamburg to Gibraltar, and beyond in both directions.
[from Laughing Shall I Die by Tom Shippey]”
― Tom Shippey

“The fact is that in the Vikingsâ€� own language, Old Norse, víkingr just
meant pirate, marauder. It wasn’t an ethnic label, it was a job description. And what this means for us is that if you come across headlines â€� as these days you very often do â€� which say something like ‘Vikings! Not just raiders and looters any more!â€� then the headlines are wrong. If people weren’t raiding and looting (and land-grabbing, and collecting protection money), then they had stopped being Vikings. They were just Scandinavians. But while most Vikings were Scandinavians, most Scandinavians definitely weren’t Vikings, not even part-time. The two groups should not be confused, not even with the aim of making ‘the history of the Vikingsâ€� look nicer.”
― Tom Shippey

“The haunting bellow of the sentry horns sounded across the Greenland Fjords as the night mists settled between the jagged, rocky, half-frozen shores. Ifar the Shepherd hurried from his flock. Beyond the coast skirted by his grazing land he could see the shadowy shape of the incoming knarr as it pushed through the deepening fog. Slowly the masts emerged above it. Ifar turned toward the hilltop. There stood the magnificent earthen Mead Hall of King Lief, son of Eirik the Red. Though the karls who worked the lands already came running from the fishing houses and the farms and the lumber sites, Ifar could not pass up the opportunity. He gathered his horn from hip and blew with all his might.”
― Max Davine, Spirits of the Ice Forest

“Then my sentence remains death and I will take it.â€� Freydis said. ‘As a skjoldmoy, with a battle-axe in my hand. But I will make Valhalla a place on earth before it happens. I will make Vinland the gates to all of the Nordic Empire and they will be open for all eternity to those persecuted by these one-God heathens, wherever they may be.”
― Max Davine, Spirits of the Ice Forest

“The Pale Ones are demons,â€� Wobee said. ‘Does your fire crackle with the tears of Mammasumit’s family? Does it sing to you the screams of his women as they were set upon and taken as slaves? Come more Pale Ones. Come enough that they cover the ocean. If the Great River runs red, it will be with their blood and mine.”
― Max Davine, Spirits of the Ice Forest

“She was their savior, after all. He just wondered if she knew that she had already saved him.”
― Sarah Beth

“The Vikings were quartering the world; they set out from a base, and with unbelievable courage and ingenuity, they reached as far as Persia by the Volga and the Caspian Sea. Then they returned home with all their loot in these open ships, including coins from Samarkand and even a Chinese Buddha. The sheer technical skill of their journeys was a new achievement, and their spirit did contribute something very important to the Western world, because in the end, it was the spirit of Columbus.”
― Kenneth M. Clark, Civilisation

“The Viking mind is far away from us today, but occasionally just about tangible.”
― Neil Price, Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

“If men's lives had any meaning in this world, they had to provide it for themselves by achieving something for which they would be remembered.”
― John Haywood, Northmen: The Viking Saga, 793-1241 AD

“A queen is not made by a crown but by the fire in her soul. The Lioness of Bharat is a tribute to the fearless spirit that shapes legends.”
― Suresh Rao Design Studio