Viking metal is a style of heavy metal music characterized by a lyrical and thematic focus on Norse

mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age. Viking metal is quite diverse as a musical style, to
the point where some consider it more a cross-genre term than a genre, but it is typically seen
as black metal with influences from Nordic folk music. Common traits include a slow-paced and
heavy riffing style, anthemic choruses, use of both sung and harsh vocals, a reliance on folk
instrumentation, and often the use of keyboards for atmospheric effect.

Viking metal emerged from black metal during the late 1980s and early 1990s, sharing with black
metal an opposition to Christianity, but rejecting Satanism and occult themes in favor of
the Vikings and paganism. It is similar, in lyrics, sound, and thematic imagery, to pagan metal, but
pagan metal has a broader mythological focus and uses folk instrumentation more extensively. Most
Viking metal bands originate from the Nordic countries, and nearly all bands claim that their
members descend, directly or indirectly, from Vikings. Many scholars view Viking metal and the
related black, pagan, and folk metal genres as part of broader neopaganist and neo-
vlkisch movements as well as part of a global movement of renewed interest in, and celebration of,
local and regional ethnicities.

Though artists such as Led Zeppelin, Yngwie Malmsteen, Heavy Load, and Manowar had previously
dealt with Viking themes, Bathory from Sweden is generally credited with pioneering the style with its
albums Blood Fire Death (1988) and Hammerheart (1990), which launched a renewed interest in the
Viking Age among heavy metal musicians. Enslaved, from Norway, followed up on this burgeoning
Viking trend with Hordanes Land (1993) and Vikingligr Veldi (1994). Burzum, Emperor, Einherjer,
and Helheim, among others, helped further develop the genre in the early and mid-1990s. As early
as 1989 with the founding of the German band Falkenbach, Viking metal began spreading from the
Nordic countries to other nations with Viking history or an even broader Germanic heritage, and has
since influenced musicians across the globe. The death metal bands Unleashed and Amon Amarth,
which emerged in the early 1990s, also adopted Viking themes, broadening the style from its
primarily black metal origin.

ackground
The Vikings
Main article: Vikings

A replica longship, Lofotr

The Vindfamne, a replica knarr
The longship and knarr enabled Vikings to embark on far-reaching military and trading expeditions. [1]

Viking metal features the Vikings as its subject matter and for evocative imagery. The Vikings
were Northern European seafarers and adventurers, who, during the Middle Ages, relying on sailing
vessels such as longships, knerrir, and karvi, explored, raided, pirated, traded, and settled along
the North Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Caspian coasts and Eastern European river
systems.[2] The Viking Age is generally cited as beginning in 793, when a Viking raid
struck Lindisfarne, and concluding in 1066, with the death of Harald Hardrada and the Norman
conquest of England.[3] During this two-hundred year period, the Vikings ventured west as far
as Ireland and Iceland in the North Atlantic and Greenland and what is now Newfoundland in North
America, south as far as the Kingdom of Nekor (Morocco), Italy, Sicily, and Constantinople in the
Mediterranean, and south-east as far as what are now Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine in Eastern
Europe, Georgia in the Caucasus, and Baghdad in the Middle East.[4]
The Vikings originated from the Nordic countries and the Baltic states, and consisted mostly
of Scandinavians, though Finns, Estonians, Curonians, and Sami people went on voyages as well.
[5]
While otherwise disparate peoples, they shared some commonalities in that they were not
considered "civilized" and they were not, at first, adherents to Christianity,[6] instead following their
indigenous Nordic and Finnic religions.[7]However, they often adopted Christianity upon settling in an
area, intermixing the faith with their own pagan traditions,[8] and by the end of the Viking Age,
all Scandinavian kingdoms were Christianized and what remained of Viking cultures were absorbed
into Christian Europe.[6]

Nordic folk music

Main article: Nordic folk music
Nordic folk music encompasses traditions from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the
dependent countries land Islands, Faroe Islands, and Greenland, and nearby regions. Specific
instruments vary between countries and regions, but some common instruments include the lur,
[9]
sckpipa,[9] Hardanger fiddle,[10] keyed fiddle,[11] willow flute,[12] harp,[12] mouth harp,[12] and animal
horns.[13] Common genres in Nordic folk include ballads, herding music, and dance music, genres
which trace back to the medieval era.[14] Often, Nordic melodies will contain the phrase C2-B-G.[15]
In Swedish folk music, songs are monophonic, unemotional, and solemn in character, though
working and festive songs might be more lively and rhythmic.[16] Danish songs melodies tend to lean
toward the major.[15] In Icelandic folk music, the rmur, a form of epic poem dating back to the
medieval era and Viking Age, is prominent.[17] Faroese music contains dances directly descended
from medieval ballad and epic poems, particularly from literature in the Icelandic tradition, [18] and
often follows unusual time signatures.[19] Many Norwegian folk ballads follow a four stanza structure
known as stev.[20] Stev alternate a trochaic tetrameter with a trimeter, and lines typically rhyme
following an ABCB scheme, though stev are not standardized.[20] Finnish folk music tends to be
based on Karelian traditions and the meter and thematic material found in the Kalevala. These
themes include magic, mysticism, shamanism, Viking sea voyages, Christian legends, and ballads
and dance songs.[21] The older runo song tradition follows meters such as 5
4, 5
8, or 2
4.[21]
Under Swedish and German influence, a newer, round-dance tradition based on
the runo emerged the rekilaulu and these usually follow a 2
4 or 4
4 time.[21] Sami music traditions (music from the Sami people throughout Fennoscandia) historically
were rather insular, exerting little influence on the music surrounding cultures. [22] Sami music is
known for joiking, improvised singing particular to the performer.[23] These songs are often sung
accompanied by a drum.[23]