Viking Music?

Ran across a musician today who tries to recreate the music of the Vikings.

Now, Vikings aren't known for their music.  What artifacts we have are mostly boats and swords and clothing made of skins. But as an advanced sea-going culture, it's not unreasonable to assume they had a musical tradition.

Mike Olson, from Copenhagen, recording under the name Danheim, populates his music with a nyckelharpa, big throbbing skin drums, occasional deep male chanting, and a very masculine almost menacing tone.  It's entirely convincing, and unique so far as I know.

Hardly a novel idea. My favorite bands at the moment are Heilung, Wardruna, and Faun. Skald does some nice stuff too.

Huh. Thanks for the links, I will check them out.

Okay, I was not aware that Danheim was part of a "Viking music" trend that goes back to 1998.

However it appears to me that Danheim is easily the best of the bunch. At least for my tastes.

I need to listen to some more, to be fair. But on first impressions, I prefer Heilung and Wardruna.