On this Night of the Vikings at the Explorers Club, we invite you to meet three distinguished lecturers from Norway and England who will present some of the most exciting and new views on the Viking Age and the roots of the Vikings. Join us on this very special occasion and dive into the wild world of the Vikings!
This three-part lecture event will feature the following speakers:
Jon White presenting Origins of Norse Mythology: From Storm-Serpents to Dragon-Kings:
This talk is about one of our oldest known stories, in which Jon White will show how the Viking Cattle raid myth evolved from its origins of a storm-god’s battle with a dragon, and through a transformation over thousands of years, it turned into dragons who steal cattle, treasure, and eventually princesses.
Sturla Ellingvåg presenting The Roots of the Vikings:
Drawing on cutting-edge DNA research, Sturla will reveal some surprising truths about the first Scandinavians and the legacy of the Vikings, which includes ancient warrior wisdom and how great catastrophes shaped Northern peoples and Europe in several time periods. He will present profound insight into where we may be headed at present, based on valuable lessons from Vikings history.
Kim Hjardar presenting Vikings at War:
The Viking Age was a peasant society with a warrior elite at the top. Weapons, ships, silver, and victory weren’t just status symbols; they were the measure of a man. In this lecture, Kim Hjardar explores why we can call Viking society genuinely militarized. He’ll look at how the ideology of war shaped daily life, highlight key military institutions, and explain how raids and battles were actually fought; including offensive and defensive tactics. Straightforward, how the Vikings waged war.
The event will conclude with a panel conversation between the three Viking experts, with an audience Q&A to follow.
RESERVATIONS
This will be an in-person lecture at Explorers Club Headquarters.
In-person tickets are $20 for Members, and $35 for the General Public.
Check-in will begin at 5:30 pm, with a beer and wine reception from 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Jon White
Jon White is an independent researcher in comparative mythology and creator of Crecganford, a leading platform for evidence-based myth studies. He specializes in Indo-European traditions, prehistoric narratives, and cross-cultural motif transmission. A frequent podcast guest, he recently completed the documentary Beyond Myth. With an IT and linguistics background, Jon built the Mythology & Folklore Database—a major global repository of myths, mythemes, and story distribution patterns used by top universities and cited in academic work across disciplines.
His research blends philology, linguistics, archaeology, and computational methods, focusing on Proto-Indo-European religion, creation/flood/dragon-slaying myths, and Eurasian prehistory. Through his YouTube channel Crecganford’s in-depth videos, he makes scholarly mythology accessible. He is currently writing books on Indo-European religion and the deep history of myth.
Sturla Ellingvåg
Sturla Ellingvåg is a historian, lecturer and author who has worked with scientific DNA projects for more than twenty years. His book in Norwegian, 12,000 years of Norwegian history, was a bestseller in Norway and he is about to launch the book The Roots of the Vikings internationally, based on a popular podcast in Norway. With Hollywood superstar Peter Stormare, he has previously searched for Viking ships in America in the TV show: Secrets of the Viking Stone.
Sturla is a former Chapter Chair of Norway Chapter and has led several scientific expeditions to places such as Kazakhstan, the Caucasus mountains, Azov and Crimea, the Atlas mountains, and to Easter Island, together with a team of Explorers Club members, in Thor Heyerdahl’s footsteps. Currently he is involved in DNA research projects with Max Planck Institute in Germany.
Kim Hjardar
Kim Hjardar is a M.Phil. In Viking Age and Early Medieval studies from the University of Oslo. He is the author of several books on the Viking Age, and an associated professor at St. Hallvard College. He has also been an living history reenactor for over thirty years specializing in Viking Age traditions, crafts and trade.
He is the co-founder of Norways first history magazine, Living History, and is frequently used as an expert on TV documentaries, including National Geographic’s Vikings – The Rise and fall, Travel Channel’s Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox, and the recent Vikings, the making of a dynasty, by Pernel Media. His book Vikings at War won the Norwegian Saga prize for non fiction literature, and is translated into several languages.
