S8 Ep279: THE FIRE GIANT'S CAVE AND RITUAL OFFERINGS Colleague Eleanor Barraclough. The discussion descends into Surtshellir, a massive lava cave in Iceland associated with the fire giant Surt. Barraclough describes archaeological finds deep within the cave, includ

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

THE FIRE GIANT'S CAVE AND RITUAL OFFERINGS Colleague Eleanor Barraclough. The discussion descends into Surtshellir, a massive lava cave in Iceland associated with the fire giant Surt. Barraclough describes archaeological finds deep within the cave, including a stone wall and a boat-shaped structure filled with burnt offerings like bones and jasper. She posits these were sacrifices to appease a fire being following a volcanic eruption around 900 AD. The final offering, a Christian cross, suggests a closure to these rituals. Barraclough connects this to a saga poem where a giant predicts the end of the pagan world. NUMBER 6

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0:00.0	I'm John Batchel with the author and historian and broadcaster,
0:05.0	Embers of the Hands, Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barakoff,
0:10.0	who reads her book brilliantly.
0:13.0	And we're now going to go into another mystery that is extremely scary.
0:20.0	It's a cave, a lava cave, on Iceland, I believe, called CERT.
0:26.5	And in that cave is a belief system.
0:29.9	Let's descend into the cave.
0:31.8	I'm presuming you haven't yet, Eleanor.
0:34.0	If you have, I want to hear about it.
0:36.3	No, I'm desperate to you. I haven't.
0:39.3	The archaeologists who've been, you know, exploring this cave system, they're wonderful.
0:44.3	I've had some incredible conversations with them and I'm just itching for them to take me in.
0:48.3	I'm not sure if it's going to happen.
0:51.3	But essentially, this is a bit like when we're talking about Estonia, and this
0:55.5	is evidence that has only recently come to light, the same is true of this cave. It's called
1:00.9	Sertz-Hettler, and Hetler is just the word for cave. Sertr is this fire giant who appears
1:08.5	at Ragnarok. Now, we can't trace the name, Sertzatler, back to the time
1:15.8	when what's happening in the cave is happening. So that's important to say. But certainly that
1:21.5	association between this fire giants and this lava field and what's underneath the lava field does come fairly early.
1:30.6	And so, you know, it is also a possibility that that is exactly what is going on.
1:36.4	So when the archaeologists first found this cave, which is in this haphamundarraine, this huge lava field from this eruption, this volcanic eruption
1:47.0	that took place in around 900. When the archaeologists first found the cave, they thought
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