How Fast Were Viking Longships? (2026 Update) How Fast Were Viking Longships? Discover how fast historians think longships were through textual evidence and modern reconstructions.

Dug up this fun piece I wrote years ago, and updated it with the new Orkan project out of Toulouse. How fast were longships? We have a pretty good idea:

cjadrien.com/how-fast-wer...

#medievalsky #history #vikingsky #sailing #medieval #vikings

Do You Have Viking Ancestry? A Historian’s Guide (2026 Update) Think you have Viking ancestry? Historian C.J. Adrien provides a probability guide based on Viking migrations.

If DNA tests can’t tell you if you have a Viking somewhere in your family tree, how could you know? The short answer is that you can’t. However, no one likes to hear that answer, so…I wrote this.

#history #medievalsky #vikingsky #ancestry

cjadrien.com/viking-ances...

I am guilty of making memes on occasion….

#memes #vikingsky #medievalsky #history

Archetypal Storytelling: The Secret Sauce to Writing Compelling Fiction Archetypal storytelling is the fundamental mechanism of character transformation. Learn how to apply it to your life and writing.

Archetypal Storytelling: The Secret Sauce to Writing Compelling Fiction.

Lived experience is the most potent tool at a writer’s disposal, though we often spend the first half of our careers looking elsewhere for inspiration.

cjadrien.com/archetypal-s...

#writingcommunity #booksky #writing

How Salt May Have Motivated the Vikings’ Westward Raids Explore C.J. Adrien's Salt Hypothesis that proposes that the earliest Viking raids in the west may have been for salt.

My hypothesis I’ve been kicking around for 15 years, boosted in 2022 by a study on herring. What’s funny is I’m not a salt guy. I prefer sweets. But not the Vikings if I’m right! Great background for my novels, too.

cjadrien.com/the-viking-s...

#medievalsky #vikingsky #history #writingcommunity

Danish finds of lead-inset weights of Insular Scandinavian type, likely used to weigh hacksilver bullion. It seems the type originated in longphuirt and/or Great Army winter-camps.

Generally lead with a decorative top made from a hacked piece of often gilt copper-alloy Insular metalwork.

My 📷 NMD

Literally me today 🤣

Novels The Saga of Hasting the Avenger is a multiple award-winning and bestselling historical fiction series published by Vinci Books. It follows the life of the real,

The Saga of Hasting the Avenger: Immersive historical novels of the Viking Age.

2X READER'S FAVORITE AWARD-WINNING | 3X HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY RECOMMENDED | KIRKUS REVIEWS SHORTLIST WINNER

cjadrien.com/novels/

#vikingsky #writingcommunity #booksky #medievalsky

Did the Vikings Wear Makeup? “Dear C.J., When I was little, my family stayed at a warrior reenactment camp, and one of the sections of the camp was a family who went ‘a-Viking. The woman wa

Reader question: did the Vikings wear makeup?

Here’s the evidence: cjadrien.com/did-the-viki...

#vikingsky #medievalsky #history

They didn’t develop Brittany, either. One road through Carhaix to move goods and people from Britannia to Gaul, but that’s about it. Nantes (where I live) had 38 straight days of rain this year in January/February!

Congrats!

A True and Perfect Viking: The Search for the Real Hasting the Avenger Join novelist C.J. Adrien in this deep-dive into everything we know and think we know about the warlord Hasting, dubbed, 'The Avenger.'

If it's the historical research behind my novels you're looking for, here it is...ALL OF IT. Not for the faint of heart, it's almost a whole book's worth.

cjadrien.com/a-true-and-p...

#medievalsky #vikingsky #history #writingcommunity #booksky

New website just launched! I'm quite pleased with it :)

cjadrien.com

#vikingsky #medievalsky #writingcommunity #booksky

What Happens When There's A Madman in the Highest Office? What happens when there’s a madman in the highest office?

Yup, and history shows where this goes: www.cjadrien.com/p/what-happe...

What Happens When There's A Madman in the Highest Office? What happens when there’s a madman in the highest office?

Yup. History shows where this goes: www.cjadrien.com/p/what-happe...

What Happens When There's A Madman in the Highest Office? What happens when there’s a madman in the highest office?

History has some lessons for us: www.cjadrien.com/p/what-happe...

What Happens When There's A Madman in the Highest Office? What happens when there’s a madman in the highest office?

What happens when a madman holds the highest seat in the land? Turns out, nothing good…

www.cjadrien.com/p/what-happe...

#medievalsky #history

Halls of Asgard Take on the role of a NORSE GOD and strive against HELA in this semi-cooperative social strategy game for 3-6 players!

HALLS OF ASGARD is a semi-cooperative social strategy game for 3-6 players where you and your tablemates take on the role of Norse gods and attempt to defeat Hela!

#boardgames #vikings #norsemythology #tabletop #indiegame

www.kickstarter.com/projects/jos...

Both a pleasure and an honour to be featured on this illustrious Viking podcast - thanks to @cjadrien.bsky.social for hosting me!

HALLS OF ASGARD launches TOMORROW 🚀🧨🔥

#boardgames #tabletop #norsemyths #viking

He’s Not the Messiah, He’s a Set of Instructions for Change. A Reflection on Easter, Cycles of Death and Rebirth, Psychic Change, and the War in Iran.

"It is a matter of historical irony, therefore, that the narrative providing the most complete ‘set of instructions’ for individuation has been weaponized to fuel behaviors used to avoid inner reflection."

#psychology #politics #writingcommunity

open.substack.com/pub/cjadrien...

Prologue problem number three: a mysterious yet vague opening that disorients more than it reveals.

An Old Norse poem for Artemis II. Watching the launch I was put in mind not only of Norse explorers pushing past the known bounds of land, but of Huginn & Muninn flying to all inhabited realms to bring back their thoughts & memories, as the astronauts will bring back theirs from uninhabited realms.

My publisher, Vinci Books, just shared with me that for every 100 people who pick up book one of my Hasting series, 75 make it to the end of book 5. I just looked this up, and that's a higher read-through rate than Harry Potter!!! Vikings rule!

#vikingsky #booksky #writingcommunity

Day 15 of reading excerpts from my Viking historical fiction novels. Someone died in this one.

#writingcommunity #booksky #vikingsky #medievalsky

The surprising history of tweezers. On my fascination with this mundane grooming tool that goes back farther than I could have ever imagined.

Bet you didn’t know this about tweezers!

#history #medievalsky #science #vikingsky #ancienthistory #archeology

open.substack.com/pub/cjadrien...

Fight scene on page one? What about a chase? Or an argument? Starting with high action or drama can work against you.

I first saw tweezers in a Viking exhibit in Jork. It stuck with me for some reason. Ever since, I notice them everywhere else, from the ancient Egypt exhibit at the Louvre to this gem at the Musee Dobrée. They’re one of humanity’s oldest inventions, evidently. Gotta pluck them eyebrows!

The musée Dobrée chronicles 500,000 years of history. A must-see!

#history #travel #medievalsky #historyteacher #writingcommunity

Checking out the “Viking” exhibit at the Musée Dobrée.

#vikingsky #history #medievalsky #writingcommunity

Day 14 of reading to you my Viking historical fiction novels. Today Hasting is trying to get his father’s sword back from Hagar. Enjoy!

#booksky #medievalsky #writingcommunity #amreading #vikingsky #author