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  • You are handed the raven banner - do you carry a flag that kills?

    You are handed the raven banner - do you carry a flag that kills?
    2026/10/30
    A warlord on an English shore is handed a raven banner said to see and kill - do you carry a flag that chooses who lives?

    You are handed the raven banner - do you carry a flag that kills?

    In this episode, we follow the scattered records and stories about a raven banner that men coveted and feared across two centuries of Norse warfare. The episode traces how chroniclers, coins, sagas and tapestries describe a banner that functioned as both symbol and alleged agent - what does it mean to carry such an object?

    Person: Sigurd the Stout
    Event: Capture of a raven banner in Devonshire
    Date: 878
    Source: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Orkneyinga Saga; coin imagery

    - An army of 803 men died in Devonshire in 878 and the Chronicle notes, almost as an afterthought, that the raven banner was taken.
    - Coins from around 940 show a triangular standard with tabs, indicating the raven standard was a recognizable emblem by the mid‑10th century.
    - The Orkneyinga Saga credits a finely embroidered raven banner to Sigurd the Stout, crafted by his mother, a völva who used seiðr and promised its power.
    - Contemporary Norse belief linked ravens to Odin’s ravens Huginn and Muninn, making a raven on a banner a claim that Odin was watching and choosing the slain.
    - Anglo‑Saxon writers treated a captured raven banner as a pagan idol, recording its seizure without elaboration and leaving its subsequent fate unrecorded.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 分
  • You press your thumb to your mouth - who will hold your secret?

    You press your thumb to your mouth - who will hold your secret?
    2026/10/29
    A Södermanland stone carver leaves a silent warning. What happens when the one secret you give to the person you love moves into someone else’s hands?

    You press your thumb to your mouth - who will hold your secret?

    In this episode, we follow the carved moments that made Sigurd a shared story across centuries and places. The episode traces how small images on stones and crosses carried a question about trust and vulnerability through Norse, English, and continental traditions - and asks what it means that communities kept the same outline without a single origin.

    Person: Sigurd
    Location: Södermanland, Sweden
    Period: eleventh century (carving); motifs span 7th-13th centuries
    Event: Ramsund stone carving showing pit, serpent, and finger-to-mouth
    Topic: transmission of legend across Scandinavia and England

    - A stone carver in Södermanland chose three images - a man beneath a serpent, a headless figure, and a thumb at the mouth - and left without explanation.
    - By the eleventh-twelfth centuries Sigurd’s scenes appear on crosses and church carvings from the Isle of Man to York to Hylestad, treated like common knowledge.
    - Scholars connect the legend to multiple historical candidates (Sigebert I, Sigifridus/Godfrid, even Arminius) while noting none is proven.
    - Alternatives argue the dragon-slayer motif is older and pan-European, with the human betrayals and fatal spot accreting later onto an ancient pattern.
    - The repeated, casual depiction - no labels, no origin story - suggests communities used the image as a way to discuss who can hold a secret and how a person can be undone.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    28 分
  • You pick up the ring Loki stole - do you keep the gold?

    You pick up the ring Loki stole - do you keep the gold?
    2026/10/28
    A man on a Russian steppe pulls a Norse-carved axe and must decide whether to keep a cursed ring-what would you become if you clung to gold?

    You pick up the ring Loki stole - do you keep the gold?

    In this episode, we follow a chain of choices and objects that carry a curse from gods to mortals across lands and time. The episode traces the incident at a waterfall, the taking of Andvaranaut, and the slow transformation that greed makes visible - will possession define the possessor?

    Person: Fáfnir
    Event: Loki taking Andvaranaut from Andvari
    Location: Vladimir Oblast (steppe east of Moscow)
    Source: Fáfnismál; Völsunga saga; Prose Edda
    Object: Ring Andvaranaut

    - Loki throws a stone that accidentally kills an otter, later revealed to be Hreiðmarr’s son Ótr in otter form.
    - Hreiðmarr demands weregild: gold enough to fill and cover the otter skin without a hair showing.
    - Loki goes to Svartálfaheim, captures the dwarf Andvari (in pike form), and seizes his gold and the ring Andvaranaut.
    - Andvari plainly declares the gold will be the death of anyone who owns it as Loki departs with the hoard.
    - Fáfnir kills his father Hreiðmarr, takes all the gold to Gnitaheath, and gradually becomes the coiling worm he came to embody.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    26 分
  • He Played the Harp in a Pit of Snakes - Why He Stayed

    He Played the Harp in a Pit of Snakes - Why He Stayed
    2026/10/27
    A condemned king sits among vipers and plays the harp instead of confessing a secret - what would you do when honor and survival collide?

    He Played the Harp in a Pit of Snakes - Why He Stayed

    In this episode, we tell the Norse poem Atlakviða and the legend behind it, following a choice made in full view of danger and shame. What does it mean to accept an invitation you know is a trap, because refusal would be a greater loss?

    Work: Atlakviða
    Period: around 900 CE (composition)
    Manuscript: Codex Regius (13th-century)
    Setting: collision between Burgundian kings and Attila/Atli
    Motif: ring, harp, pit of snakes

    - A poem roughly eleven hundred years old survives in a single manuscript copied in the Codex Regius.
    - The legend compresses fifth-century politics into a moral dilemma: an invitation that is clearly treacherous.
    - Gunnarr, Högni, and Guðrún each face the obligation to attend Atli’s hall despite knowing the cost.
    - The poem’s key image: Gunnarr in a snake pit, playing the harp and withholding a secret that could have saved him.
    - The central object, a plain ring wrapped with wolf’s hair, travels between courts as a compact emblem of kinship and discord.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • The Island That Commanded Seas, Magic, Graves - And Refused To Yield

    The Island That Commanded Seas, Magic, Graves - And Refused To Yield
    2026/10/26
    A Danish island hides a downed B‑17 tail‑gunner - what would you do if neighbors asked you to shelter an enemy?

    The Island That Commanded Seas, Magic, Graves - And Refused To Yield

    In this episode, we follow one field in Alstrup, a wartime knock at a farmhouse door, and nine millennia of people who lived at the crossroads of the Baltic. We trace Samsø’s archaeology, mythology, and choices to ask how a small island answered impossible demands.

    Person: Douglas Farris
    Location: Alstrup, Samsø, Kattegat Sea
    Event: B‑17 Flying Fortress forced down in winter 1940
    Period: Continuous habitation from Stone Age through Viking Age
    Feature: Kanhave canal (500 m long, built c. 726-729)

    - A B‑17 landed in a field near Alstrup after being forced down; every crewman exited alive except tail‑gunner Douglas Farris.
    - Islanders received a knock at night asking whether to hide an enemy airman standing behind a young man who did not speak Danish.
    - Samsø sat at the center of the Kattegat, enabling control of sea passage and prompting construction of five fortresses now known only by their foundations.
    - Between 726 and 729 local hands cut the 500‑meter Kanhave canal, lined with timber and sized to move warships across the island.
    - Kyholm, an offshore quarantine island used 1831-1857, contains about one hundred graves with no living memory of those interred.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    24 分
  • You must choose: keep Snorri's handbook hidden or hand it to the Church

    You must choose: keep Snorri's handbook hidden or hand it to the Church
    2026/10/25
    A medieval Icelandic lawspeaker must decide whether to hide a poet’s handbook or hand it to the Church, risking a culture’s memory.

    You must choose: keep Snorri's handbook hidden or hand it to the Church

    In this episode, we follow how a practical handbook for skalds became the unlikely vessel for Norse myth and why its fate mattered. We trace Snorri Sturluson’s decisions, his four-part structure for preserving kennings and myths, and the fragile manuscript trail that puts everything at risk. What would you have done to save a disappearing craft?

    Person: Snorri Sturluson
    Date: circa 1220
    Work: Prose Edda
    Location: Iceland
    Topic: preservation of Norse myth and skaldic technique

    - Snorri, a lawspeaker and poet trained at Oddi, wrote a practical manual to teach young skalds struggling with kennings.
    - He framed the Prose Edda’s Prologue as euhemerized history, presenting gods as Trojan-descended human rulers to make myths acceptable to Christians.
    - Gylfaginning is structured as a dialogue that compresses creation, the gods’ lives, Baldr’s death, and Ragnarök into a question-and-answer frame.
    - Skáldskaparmál serves as the working reference for poets, cataloguing kennings and the myths that give them meaning, and is often abridged in translations.
    - Háttatal contains over a hundred metrical forms and the clearest authorial voice, yet it is frequently omitted from popular editions.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    24 分
  • You, on the Ayre at high tide: who would you leave behind?

    You, on the Ayre at high tide: who would you leave behind?
    2026/10/24
    A tidal causeway forces a choice: on a high spring tide the Ayre will cut the village in two-who do you leave when the sea decides?

    You, on the Ayre at high tide: who would you leave behind?

    In this episode, we follow the landscape and lives of Hoy to show how geography, history and weather shape decisions in a small island community. Through ancient tombs, towering cliffs and wartime defenses, we ask what it means to live where the sea defines your routes-and your risks.

    Person: Eight men who left Longhope
    Location: Hoy and the Ayre causeway
    Date: 17 March 1969
    Feature: Dwarfie Stane; Old Man of Hoy; Ward Hill
    Event: Passage across the Ayre restricted by high tide

    - Eight men departed Longhope on 17 March 1969 while a community of four hundred watched them go.
    - The Ayre is a natural tidal causeway linking Hoy to South Walls that was passable only at low tide for much of the island’s history.
    - The island houses a five-thousand-year-old chambered tomb, the Dwarfie Stane, carved from a single block of sandstone.
    - Hoy’s Ward Hill rises to 481 metres and the island’s cliffs, like St John’s Head, plunge hundreds of metres into the sea.
    - Scapa Flow and military installations, including Martello towers at Longhope, transformed parts of Hoy into major wartime concentrations.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 分
  • If you held the hoard, would you keep the name?

    If you held the hoard, would you keep the name?
    2026/10/23
    A monk in 920 replaces an old name; when a hoard shifts in the Nibelungenlied, the name Nibelung moves too-what would you do if a name moved with treasure?

    If you held the hoard, would you keep the name?

    In this episode, we trace how a single name-Nibelung-moves through centuries of texts, people, and translations, shifting meaning as it travels from real Burgundians to mythic treasure-holders. The episode asks what identity becomes when language and ownership separate the name from its original bearers.

    Person: Gundahar
    Date: 437
    Text: Nibelungenlied
    Language change noticed by: monk copying Waltharius around 920
    Place: Rhine / Burgundian kingdom

    - A monk copying Waltharius circa 920 encounters the name Nibelung and substitutes a phrase meaning "worthless fellows."
    - The historical Burgundian king Gundahar dies in 437 in a catastrophe that becomes foundational memory for Germanic peoples.
    - In the Nibelungenlied, two princes named Nibelung and Schilbung argue over an enormous hoard that cannot be fairly divided.
    - Siegfried attempts to judge and divide the treasure, fails despite effort, kills the princes, and takes both the hoard and the name.
    - As the hoard moves to new holders (including the Burgundians), the name Nibelung transfers with it, becoming property rather than lineage.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    26 分