Out of the leaves of Yggdrasill this blog emerges reborn after the turmoil of last weekend’s fight between the gods and the giants. Well, assuming that anything in Old Norse writings actually stated that Ragnarok would take place on 22nd February 2014 that is. A Clerk of Oxford writes enough on the topic that I do not need to. Judith Jesch’s blog post about the meaning of Ragnarok is worth reading too. Much better than the Jorvik Viking Centre’s publicity stunt.

So, apart from referencing other people’s posts what’s the point of this post? It is a statement of intent for the future. It’s been a pretty rough few years for a variety of reasons that I shall not go into, but life seems to be taking a more positive turn and with it I feel that this blog needs a new beginning too. Last week I finally submitted my thesis, so now I await my viva and whatever may follow. I also had The Story of the Vikings published which was co-authored with my good friend Marjolein Stern. This edition has been specially produced for The Works. The proper edition is titled The Viking Experience and is due to be published in March. It came as quite a surprise to have a friend tell me that the book was already in The Works, when I thought I would have to wait a month still to see it. As part of last week’s new beginning, I also filmed a slot for a forthcoming documentary series called Ancient Black Ops. The series will look at elite warriors of the past, and I was called in for the programme on berserkir. Exciting stuff.

I now plan to devote myself to posting at least once a month on this blog. I have a lot of material I can and wish to cover and it only needs me to make time for it, so watch this space and I shall try not to leave you hanging.