Johanna Katrin Fridriksdottir studies and teaches Viking era poetry and literature. She recently wrote a book on the idea of the Valkyrie in Viking culture. We spoke about this subject, Viking warfare, Viking sagas and the process of writing the book itself.
(Audio player at the end of the post.)
0:41 – Johanna talks about how she got into writing on Valkyrie.
1:45 – Johanna talks about how she broke the book down.
3:19 – Johanna talks about the date ranges, areas at issue, and the idea of the Valkyrie.
6:01 – Johanna talks about the Valkyrie.
7:45 – Johanna talks about the image of blood covered Valkyrie.
9:58 – Johanna talks about the meaning of Viking war poetry.
13:53 – Johanna talks about where the idea of the Valkyrie first started.
19:02 – Johanna talks about evidence or lack of women fighting.
26:04 – Johanna further addresses the idea of female warriors.
29:07 – Johanna talks about blacksmithing.
31:28 – Johanna talks about the ideas of Valkyries in different places and time periods.
37:37 – Johanna discusses interesting facts about Viking sails.
41:27 – Johanna talks about her written sources and the archaeological evidence.
44:09 – Johanna talks about which stories were passed down over the centuries.
48:38 – Johanna talks about how much the written material supports the archaeological evidence.
50:35 – Johanna talks about the process of writing the book.
51:28 – Johanna talks about the goddess Freya.
57:37 – Johanna talks about crows and battlefields.
58:57 – Johanna mentions crows, eagles, and wolves as images of battle.
1:00:00 – Johanna talks about evidence of women riding horses.
1:03:00 – We discuss the resources a Viking chief needed for success.
1:04:33 – Johanna talks about a touching moment in the sagas.
1:10:38 – Johanna talks about the Viking languages she knows and Viking poets.
1:14:22 – Johanna can be found at vikingwomen.org and on twitter @sagaknitter
Jeremy Stöhs is an Austrian-American defense analyst at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University and its adjunct Center for Maritime Security & Strategy. I interviewed him about his new book “The Decline of European Naval Forces.”
1:28 – Jeremy talks about where his interest in history started. His parents were his first inspiration. He did mandatory military service in Austria and then joined the police for a short time. Then he left the police and studied history. He joined a think tank about intelligence matters, historic and contemporary security matters.
3:52 – He studies the period of the 80s to the end of the Cold War. Much information is classified so he needs to use other open sources.
6:50 – There is no comprehensive overview of European navies since the end of the Cold War.
9:07 – Some nations at the end of the Cold War prudently saw the end of the Soviet Union coming. But many did not. Most were focused on waging a conventional or nuclear war against a peer adversary. They were focused on controlling sea lines of communication. The US naval strategy was to put pressure on the Soviet flanks and the NATO countries followed the US lead. Sea control and sea denial and controlling SLOCs.
13:22 – Jeremy includes 11 European nations in his study. Denmark and Germany quickly shifted to out of area deployments. Britain switched from anti-submarine warfare to focusing on out of area deployments.
15:23 – Maritime traffic increased year by year after the end of the Cold War. A lot of maritime traffic has moved to Asia. Small conflicts popped up after the Cold War and European navies started deploying to areas they hadn’t been before. The Mediterranean, red Sea and the Horn of Africa. But many focused on territorial defense.
17:52 – Greece and Turkey began building similar naval forces to counter each other.
18:52 – Jeremy’s book is budgetary and platform specific. He looks at the physical make up of the navies. He also looks at men and material. Many have realized they’ve under-invested. But too many focus on the big Navy idea that the US has developed.
23:52 – Many of these navies have experienced a steep decline in their navies. However individual ships are of much higher quality than individual ships from 25 years ago. Current ships have much more battlespace awareness and are more proficient at war and other tasks.
25:37 – Through the 1990s, high intensity conflict skills atrophied, whereas low intensity conflict capabilities grew. European navies are much better at low intensity than they were 30 years ago.
27:24 – He looked at official grand strategy, military strategy, naval strategy and then naval maritime doctrine open source documents. He also used official statements about the navies. There is also a lot of secondary sources for military technology.
30:08 – The maritime research community is small and very helpful among its members. A lot of governments and citizens don’t understand the importance of maritime issues so maritime researchers feel the need to work together.
35:04 – Europeans are no longer as connected to the oceans as they used to be. But people are beginning to realize the importance of the navy again. They have more than a military role. Navies also have a constabulary role. The 2007 debt crisis hurt a lot of these navies.
39:22 – European navies are highly professional. They can really work well together especially among NATO countries.
42:26 – However Jeremy was surprised by how steep the decline was in the navies. Navy capabilities take decades to develop but the politicians haven’t thought in this time frame. Governments didn’t have the money for navies. The Dutch navy for example was slashed. Germany has decided to become more expeditionary but they can’t build the platforms they need for this.
46:52 – Jeremy will continue to focus on European naval forces. His book will become dated as soon as it is published. He wants to find out what the internal conversations were in these countries. He wants to speak with more decision makers. Some sources up to 1996 and 1998 are being declassified.
50:33 – There’s a huge focus on the US and Chinese navies but no one is studying European navies as a whole. Even landlocked countries can help with maritime security. He hopes the book will raise eyebrows in the US. He also wants to highlight his think tank in Kiel.
53:25 – It’s becoming increasingly difficult for young scholars to get books published. Jeremy feels very fortunate that the naval Institute would publish his book.
54:44 – The Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University can be found www.kielseapowerseries.com. They are in twitter as kielseapowerseries. They have a big conference every June.
Sarah Fraser has written The Last Highlander and The Prince Who Would Be King. She holds a PhD in English Literature and also earned a degree in History where she focused on Celtic history in Scotland.
2:35 – Ms. Fraser enjoys history because it can be used a lens in which to view the present. She is also very drawn to the time period she wrote about and the people who inhabited that time period. The stakes were life and death and the survival of nations.
3:16 – Her first degree was a PhD in English Literature and then she moved into History when her children were getting a Gaelic education. She became interested in Celtic history in Scotland.
4:06 – Her first book about her husband’s ancestor, an old Highland chief.
4:38 – The book is a stepping is a stepping stone between Elizabeth I and James VI and I. Elizabeth was the last of the medieval rulers and James presided over a period of huge change. Henry is James’ oldest son.
6:50 – This period was the English period of religious of turmoil. It was a period of religious warfare. There’s a century in Europe when people fought over religion. Faith was something they lived or died for.
8:36 – The Guy Fawkes plot was of awesome ambition to destroy the English government and make Britain a group of Catholic puppet states of Spain. Henry was a target of the plot as much as James was. Protestants feared the popery.
10:51 – The plot made Henry feel that war was coming to England. Henry always cared about military affairs and this intensified the feeling. He was tutored by men who had fought in previous religious wars.
13:37 – From the moment the Renaissance hits, royal children begin being taught in a Renaissance way. Erasmus developed the education of the Christian prince. He influenced both Spain and England.
15:21 – Henry would wear Tudor colors to prove that he is the proper person to fill the Tudor throne. He wore symbols depicting being a Christian solder whereas his father was more about peace and learning.
17:21 – Denmark was wealthy and had the best Navy. Christian IV of Denmark was Henry’s uncle and he gave Henry an impressive warship, the Vice-Admiral.
19:59 – The Royal Navy is decrepit at this time and the Royal shipyards are very corrupt. Walter Raleigh complained about English ships at this time. Henry wants to fix that. He was also learning military affairs from the famous Maurice of Nassau. Maurice dedicated his book to Henry.
22:11 – Henry is not so much anti-Catholic as he is pro-Protestant. Henry’s tutors are more puritan, they’re militant and they’re internationalist. They see an international brotherhood of Protestants. Spain had started suffering from overreach by the end of the 1500s but are becoming more militant about Catholicism. Many of Henry’s allies fear Spain. Both the Catholics and Protestants had international leagues.
24:53 – Henry was focused on founding a new Jerusalem in North America. A purely Protestant country. A lot of the people around Henry were at the godly end of Protestantism and were very political.
28:04 – The Mayflower Puritans left England because James I didn’t like them. They wouldn’t recognize him as the head of the Church on Earth. Charles dislikes them even more when he takes the throne.
30:11 – Henry was the patron of the Virginia Company. Henry wanted to control the seas and exploit North America for the Protestants. Spain was angry at this plan.
31:31 – Henry had to deal with massive royal debts. He wanted to work with Parliament to solve his problems. He wanted to be made Prince of Wales in Parliament so that everyone in London and in power would see him as king. He also begins collecting artwork with spiritual value, coins, italios, suits of armor, statues, etc. at a massive scale.
35:25 – The military wing of England gathers at Henry’s court since James isn’t as interested in military matters. Some of those who gather around him later join the Parliament during the English Civil War.
37:30 – Ms. Fraser used both primary and secondary sources. She went to the British Library, the Royal Archives, the National Library of Scotland and so on to find the letters and drafts from that period. The British Library also has the first map made of the Chesapeake Bay area. It was made in 1607 by Henry’s gunner. The expedition founded Henrico in Virginia. Henrico College was also named after Henry and was supposed to convert indigenous people.
41:03 – Henry’s letters haven’t been consulted much because he didn’t become king. He wrote formal letters in Latin and then many daily quick notes to people written in English or French.
43:14 – Henry’s effigy was the most interesting artifact Ms. Fraser came across. It was very elaborate and realistic. It was on his bier and was ravaged by souvenir hunters during the months after his death. People thronged to his funeral and there was an enormous amount of sorrow.
45:36 – Ms. Fraser loved bringing Henry back to life with the letters. But some events she knows happened but you can’t find Henry talking about it. Other letters refer to his actions.
48:05 – Henry and his friends grew up quickly. Henry was attending to diplomats at the age of ten. He and his friends were thinking of going to war when they were young. For Henry, he went from being a child to an adult at age 13. His household became a collegiate court.
50:32 – His sister Elizabeth became known as the Winter Queen, Elizabeth of Bohemia. She and her husband kicked off the Thirty Years’ War. Charles and Elizabeth was tutored too but not as intensely as Henry. Charles was part of Henry’s military salon at the court.
52:28 – The whole book was difficult because Henry didn’t become king. Ms. Fraser had to create a James Dean moment for Henry. The end of the golden boy moved Ms. Fraser. Writing his death was very difficult. Ms. Fraser was heartbroken for Henry.
55:21 – Henry had the biggest state funeral for a while. It was bigger than Elizabeth’s. His parents didn’t attend because of grief. His bier had his pennants and mottos. He had eight black warhorses and the one motto was “He Delights to go upon the Deep,” from his father. The other motto was “Glory is the Torch of the Upright Mind.” The third was “It is Right to Seek for Other Countries.”
57:16 – Ms. Fraser would like to put Henry back into history. She also wants to highlight the slow rise of militant Puritanism.
58:23 – Ms. Fraser wanted to write about James VI and I but HarperCollins said they had a book on him and wanted one on Henry so she did that. She is now working on Jacobite fiction.
59:38 – Shakespeare was a part of Henry’s household with the King’s Players. They were ushers at the tables went not doing plays. Shakespeare learned a lot about kings and courts from this work. Ben Johnson wrote during this period too.
1:01:25 – King Lear is about a king who’s done with ruling and goes off hunting. This is just what James VI and I did too. Shakespeare wrote King Lear almost saying to the king to not leave the court and the country. But works were censored so contentious pieces were set in Ancient Rome to circumvent censorship issues. Englishmen at this time are discussing civil liberties and opposing tyranny.
1:05:20 – Ben Johnson worked for Henry a lot but Shakespeare didn’t work for Henry.
1:05:40 – The Last Highlander has been out a while. The biography Ms. Fraser wrote is about the real grandfather of the fictional hero Jamie Fraser in the Outlander series. Her website is Sarahfraser.co.uk. She’s also on twitter at @Sarah_FraserUK.
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