S8 Ep279: RUNES, TAVERN MESSAGES, AND HIDDEN HISTORIES Colleague Eleanor Barraclough. John Batchelor interviews Eleanor Barraclough about her book, Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age. They discuss a specific runic inscription from roughly 1200

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

RUNES, TAVERN MESSAGES, AND HIDDEN HISTORIES Colleague Eleanor Barraclough. John Batchelorinterviews Eleanor Barraclough about her book, Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age. They discuss a specific runic inscription from roughly 1200 AD found on a piece of wood in a tavern in Bergen, Norway. The message is from a woman named Gyda telling her husband to come home, to which he seemingly carved a nonsensical, drunken response. Barraclough explains her methodology of using such everyday objects—"embers of the hands"—to reveal the personal lives of individuals often lost in the grand scope of history. The segment also establishes the 793 AD raid on Lindisfarne as the traditional, shocking start of the Viking Age. NUMBER 1

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is CBS Eye on the World.
0:08.5	Here's John Batchelor.
0:12.0	This is CBS, I on the World.
0:15.5	I'm John Batchelor.
0:17.2	It is approximately the year 1,200 AD.
0:21.3	A man is in a tavern having a very good time, drinking heavily.
0:27.1	And suddenly he gets a message written in ruins on a piece of wood.
0:33.5	The message is very clear.
0:36.5	Gita says that you should go home.
0:39.7	How he responds to this is unknown,
0:42.5	but he does write a message in return
0:44.8	that I'm told by the author, Eleanor Barakoff,
0:49.2	doesn't make any sense.
0:50.8	However, we forgive him for being inebriated.
0:54.0	Thus, we're into the world that Eleanor takes on
0:57.8	in her new book, Embers of the Hands, Hidden Histories of the Viking Age. You just heard one.
1:05.3	Who's Gita? And how much trouble is he in? Eleanor, your book is wonderful. Congratulations. Your reading of your book is
1:12.7	even more wonderful. I felt when you read about Gita and her beloved, you were having an especially
1:19.7	good time. What is that he was reading, the ruin carvings, and how do you interpret them? because they're symbols, they're like pictures.
1:30.4	Good evening to you.
1:32.0	Good evening.
1:33.1	Thank you so much for your kind words.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.