Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Viking Age podcast.

My name is Lee, and this is episode 13, my big fat Viking wedding.

Now, as I'm sure you're all well aware by now, this is a community-supported podcast.

We don't have corporate sponsors or advertisers, and we rely on the support of listeners like

you in order to keep this project going.

But there will be more of that in an announcement at the end of this episode, so please,

please stick around for that.

For the moment, though, let's hop right into the history.

So last time, we talked about the brutal Viking raids which struck the monastery of Iona

beginning around 802 CE, and we paid particular attention to the devastating raid of 806,

which resulted in the deaths of 68 members of the community at Iona.

Such grim events need to be discussed appropriately.

And so we spent much of last week on a bit of a low note,

taking stock of the massive impact,

both materially and psychologically,

these raids had on their victims.

However, as we briefly mentioned at the end of the last

episode, this approach only covers one side of the story. And if we are to construct a full picture

of the Viking Age, we must tell the stories of the Scandinavians who decided to go a Viking,

as well as their victims.

So, today, we're going to take a look at one of the major motivations to take part in a Viking expedition, namely, love. No, I'm totally just kidding. Today, we're going to look at Viking-age

marriage, and the role it played in motivating

...