S8 Ep767: Eleanor Barraclough explores the real lives of the Norse people through everyday objects, focusing on private communication rather than myth. She highlights a 1200 AD runic message from a woman named Gytha ordering her husband home from a tavern. The book

Eleanor Barraclough explores the real lives of the Norse people through everyday objects, focusing on private communication rather than myth. She highlights a 1200 AD runic message from a woman named Gytha ordering her husband home from a tavern. The book's title, Embers of the Hands, is a poetic kenning for gold representing precious, personal stories. The 793 AD Lindisfarne raid is identified as the traditional, shocking start of the Viking Age that sent waves of terror across Europe. (1)