Barraclough describes the lava cave Surtshellir in Iceland, named after the fire giant Surtr, where new archaeological evidence has been found. Deep within the cave, a man-made wall and a stone outline shaped like a boat were discovered. Inside the boat,

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

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4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Barraclough describes the lava cave Surtshellir in Iceland, named after the fire giant Surtr, where new archaeological evidence has been found. Deep within the cave, a man-made wall and a stone outline shaped like a boat were discovered. Inside the boat, offerings associated with fire and burning (ornaments, jasper, burnt bones) were left, suggesting efforts to placate the fire being dwelling further inside the lava field, possibly after the major volcanic eruption around 900 AD. After Iceland officially converted to Christianity around 1000 AD, a final offering—a metal cross—was left in the cave, marking the transition away from this pagan ritual.

Transcript

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0:25.4	I'm John Batchel with the author and historian and broadcaster.
0:30.2	Embers of the Hands, Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barakoff,
0:32.5	who reads her book brilliantly.
0:39.5	And we're now going to go into another mystery that is extremely scary.
0:45.8	It's a cave, a lava cave on Iceland, I believe, called CERT.
0:49.3	And in that cave is a belief system.
0:51.8	Let's descend into the cave.
0:54.0	I'm presuming you haven't yet, Eleanor.
0:55.7	If you have, I want to hear about it.
0:57.8	No, I'm desperate to you.
0:58.5	I haven't.
1:04.8	The archaeologists who've been exploring this cave system, they're wonderful.
1:06.6	I've had some incredible conversations with them,
1:08.7	and I'm just itching for them to take me in.
	...

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