Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age

Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age (2024) by Eleanor Barraclough delves into lesser-known aspects of the medieval Nordic world, looking beyond dramatic sagas and legendary warriors to explore everyday life during the Viking Age. Through archaeological findings and historical records, Barraclough reconstructs the experiences of individuals who populated a world in transition, providing a nuanced portrayal of culture, religious practices, and social structures, and touching on ways these were influenced by exchanges with the wider world. Embers of the Hands was a Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2024 and a Kirkus Reviews Editor’s Pick.

This guide uses the 2025 First American Edition, by W.W. Norton & Company.

Content Warning: The source material and guide include interrogations of historical evidence relating to antigay bias, religious discrimination, enslavement, sexual violence, and deaths of people and animals.

Language Note: The source text uses some anglicized spellings, such as “artefact,” which are reproduced in direct quotations. Elsewhere, the guide uses American spellings.

Summary

In the Prologue and “Introduction,” Barraclough outlines central ideas about Viking culture and the goal of uncovering hidden aspects of everyday life. She explains that the Viking Age is defined by historians as roughly 793-1100 CE, but trade and exploration developed centuries before then and Norse Greenlandic settlements existed centuries after. Norse culture left its mark from Russia to Greenland and from the Arctic Circle to the Abbasid Caliphate.

“Beginnings” describes archaeological evidence of early Viking Age activity, when trade hubs were consolidating power and economic activity. A mass burial near Estonia indicates Norse movement eastward around 750; isotope analysis and archaeological evidence suggest they were part of a diplomatic mission, not a raiding party. Images scratched onto a stone from the late 8th or early 9th century found at Inchmarnock seem to depict a Viking warrior and a captive figure. Many Viking Age burials include items looted from monasteries during this period.

In “Love,” Barraclough explores runic inscriptions people wrote for and about one another. Rune sticks provide traces of emotion from everyday life and include notes about drinking, fighting, and potty humor; others describe love and illustrate societal attitudes toward sexuality and gender. Runes were also used as protective charms to help women through pregnancy and childbirth. Artifacts of childhood are few.

“Travel” deals with journeys on sea, over land, and to the afterlife. Sea travel was dangerous and uncomfortable, but it allowed Norse cultural diffusion and settlement, and references to sea travel in myths and sagas indicate how deeply this was embedded in the culture. Travel over land was also arduous; artifacts from a mountain pass in Norway show it was a busy highway traveled by horse, sled, or skis. Many stories center on travel and the importance of hospitality in a climate where shelter could be the difference between life and death. Ship burials indicate that people needed to be prepared for travel to the afterlife, and were often outfitted with the means to help them on their journey.

“Belief” begins in Iceland, where artifacts in lava caves suggest early settlers imagined sentient forces like gods and fire giants behind volcanic activity. Throughout the Norse world, worship of Odin and Thor appears widespread, while other gods evolved across time and place. Sources and archaeology suggest Uppsala and Lejre were gathering places for worship, though they differ on whether sacrifice occurred there. Most rituals took place on a smaller scale in the outdoors. Building churches on or near existing sites of pagan worship was a common practice intended to speed the transition to Christianity. Artifacts illustrate how beliefs overlapped during this transition.

In “Bodies,” the author studies Viking grooming, hygiene, and health. Haircare was important to the Norse, as was bathing. Anglo-Saxon chronicles criticizing these habits and anyone who copied them reveal tensions simmering between two cultures in close proximity. In some cases, body modification might have included tattoos and in some cases filing grooves into the teeth. Medical interventions were typical of medieval practices elsewhere, and supernatural elements were blamed for ailments; people used versions of “helping runes” to appeal to the gods. Skeletal remains provide evidence that people lived with the consequences of injuries and other painful conditions.

“Home” focuses on a preserved settlement in Greenland. Erik the Red was the first to arrive there, and a few thousand Norse populated Greenland for nearly 500 years, living in homesteads with thick walls and hearths to keep out the cold. They had some livestock, but depended on hunting. Valuable resources for trade with the mainland included walrus ivory and a fabric called wadmal. Old Norse myths and legends show life in the Viking Age depended on textile production.

The family unit included all those who lived and labored on a farm, and farms were carefully organized. Goats and sheep were prized in Greenland and Iceland, while pigs were common elsewhere. By the early 1300s, the marginal environment of Greenland became much colder, and people left for warmer climes or starved during harsh winters. By 1500, there were no more Norse homes there.

In “Play,” Barraclough describes leisure activities. The arts included music, poetry, storytelling, and riddles. Elite skalds (poets) could rise to prominence, and storytelling was a central facet of all parts of society. The proliferation of board games, depicted in art and indicated by gaming pieces in many graves, shows their role in daily life as a way to fill the time. Ice skating was a recreational activity for young people, and adult men competed in ball games, wrestling, swimming, and feats of strength.

In “Unfreedom,” Barraclough revisits a variety of artifacts and documents to uncover evidence of enslaved people’s lives. Captives taken during Viking raids were often sold into the slave trade. Sagas about Greenland and Iceland indicate that enslaved people were part of the earliest settlements and among the first to discover new lands. The lives of the enslaved were difficult and most sources indicate they were treated as property without regard for dignity or well-being, and sometimes killed as sacrifice. Enslavement began to diminish in England in the 11th century; in Scandinavia, it existed in legal documents into the 13th.

In “Endings,” Barraclough uses three artifacts to explain that the Viking Age didn’t end: Instead, its culture was absorbed and diffused. One is a sundial in an English church, dated closely to the victory of William the Conqueror in 1066; the alliances involved in the conflict illustrate the extent to which elite families of Scandinavia and Britain had integrated.

A hoard of chess pieces in Scotland, from around 1200, indicates trade in the Norse world remained active. Christian and pagan game pieces indicate blended cultures. Historical transitions in Scotland mirror those in England, with archaeological evidence showing Norse culture left its mark.

Medieval clothes and artifacts from Greenland provide chronological evidence that trade continued between Greenland and Europe into the 14th and 15th centuries as Norse Greenlanders persisted. Barraclough thus poses the question of when an “age” can truly be said to be over.