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General resources

📖 Viking Raiders (Time Traveler Series) by Judy Hindley. Prepare to be transported back to the Age of the Vikings in this Usborne Time Traveler book. The two-page spreads take readers to a farm, a longhouse, and a Viking warship, while introducing interesting aspects of Viking culture—raids, burials, feasts, and explorations. With lots of detailed illustrations and minimal text, this is a good supplemental resource for a younger student. – Elementary

📖 Vicious Vikings by Terry Deary. Read this Horrible History title for a fun, irreverent, and informative introduction to the Viking Age: “Sail back to a vicious time with fearsome seafaring Viking warriors with big boats, big shields and enormous ginger beards. Readers can discover all the foul facts about the Vicious Vikings, including Viking gods in wedding dresses, corpses on trial and Death by booby-trapped statues.” – Elementary • Middle

▶️ Horrible Histories TV show. Episodes of the popular “Horrible Histories” sketch show are available to stream on Amazon Prime, Hulu, and YouTube. Search our Horrible Histories Sketch List to find every “Vicious Vikings” sketch from Seasons 1–5. – Elementary • Middle

▶️ The secret messages of Viking runes from TED-Ed. Learn the history of Viking runes, the ancient Norse language of symbols that make up an alphabet called the futhark. – All

▶️ What was so special about Viking ships? from TED-Ed. As the Roman Empire flourished, Scandinavians had small settlements and no central government. Yet by the 11th century, they had spread far from Scandinavia, gaining control of trade routes throughout Europe, conquering kingdoms as far as Africa, and building outposts in North America. What was the secret to their success? – All

▶️ The Vikings in a Nutshell. "Vikings, Norse seafarers who left their homelands in Scandinavia to raid, trade, explore, and settle in wide areas of Europe, Asia, and the North Atlantic islands, from the late 8th to the mid-11th centuries. Learn it all in a Nutshell." – All

eriK the red & leif erikson

📖 Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire. In this classic picture book, the D’Aulaires bring their storytelling gifts to the tale of Leif Erikson, the Viking who famously explored Greenland and America. – Elementary • Middle

📖 The Vikings by Elizabeth Janeway. Despite its vague title, The Vikings is actually an engagingly written fictionalized biography of Leif Erikson. The 175-page chapter book incorporates plenty of historical detail and immerses readers in Medieval Viking culture. – Middle

📖 You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Viking Explorer!: Voyages You'd Rather Not Make by Andrew Langley and David Antram. The authors of this entertaining and informative You Wouldn’t Want to … book explain why you really would not want to be one of the unlucky adventurers who was lured away from Scandinavia in search of a better life in Greenland and North America (Vinland). – Elementary • Middle

myths & legends

📖 D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. This classic collection of Norse mythology—from the authors of the beloved d'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths—will make an excellent addition to your home library. – Elementary • Middle

📖 Treasury of Norse Mythology: Stories of Intrigue, Trickery, Love, and Revenge by Donna Jo Napoli. The beautifully illustrated Treasury of Norse Mythology is the third in a recently published series by Napoli—also see her collections of Egyptian and Greek Mythology. A nice alternative to d'Aulaires, this book is geared toward slightly older children. – Elementary • Middle

▶️ NEW • Loki and the deadly mistletoe from TED-Ed. “Baldur was the gentlest and most beloved being in all of Asgard. But lately, he had been plagued by gruesome visions foretelling his own imminent death. Determined to protect her son from these grim prophecies, Queen Frigg travelled across the nine realms, begging all living things not to harm Baldur— all living things except one.” – All

▶️ How Thor got his hammer by TED-Ed. “Loki the mischief-maker, writhes in Thor’s iron grip. The previous night, he’d snuck up on Thor’s wife and shorn off her beautiful hair. To fix what he’d done, Loki rushes to the dwarves and tricks them into making gifts for the gods. Wanting to best their smith rivals, the dwarves make a set of golden treasures, including a hammer called Mjolnir.” – All

▶️ The myth of Thor’s journey to the land of giants from TED-Ed. “Thor—son of Odin, god of thunder, and protector of mankind—struggled mightily against his greatest challenge yet: opening a bag of food. How had the mighty god fallen so far? Scott Mellor tells the myth of Thor's journey to Utgard.” – All

▶️ The myth of Loki and the master builder from TED-Ed. “Asgard, a realm of wonders, was where the Norse Gods made their home. There Odin’s great hall of Valhalla towered above the mountains and Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, anchored itself. Though their domain was magnificent, it stood undefended from the giants and trolls who sought to destroy them. But a stranger appeared and made the gods an offer. Alex Gendler details the myth of the master builder.” – All

▶️ Norse Mythology series from Crash Course. Watch this three-video playlist to learn about the Norse Pantheon, the trickster Loki, and the Norse apocalypse known as Ragnarok. – All

fiction

📖 Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. From acclaimed author Neil Gaiman, here’s an interesting literature link to accompany a study of the Norse gods: "Odd, a young Viking boy, is left fatherless following a raid. In his icy, ancient world there is no mercy for an unlucky soul with a crushed foot and no one to protect him. Fleeing to the woods, Odd stumbles upon and releases a trapped bear . . . and then Odd's destiny begins to change." – Middle

📖 Magnus Chase trilogy by Rick Riordan. From the author of the wildly popular Percy Jackson books, here is an equally entertaining series that introduces the Norse pantheon: "The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years." Books in the series include: The Sword of Summer, The Hammer of Thor, and The Ship of the Dead. – Middle • High