We’ve had the TV shows, we’re getting the theme park and now the Viking invasion is extending to higher education in Norway.



Students at Seljord Folkehøgskule, a college 90 miles west of Oslo, are embarking on a new programme to learn traditional Viking skills such as sword forging, jewellery making and roof thatching, as well as the essential art of axe-throwing.

The year-long Viking course is the first of its kind and came about after the headteacher, Arve Husby, decided to introduce more traditional courses into his curriculum. “Our school used to be really well known for handicrafts, but these started to die off,” said Husby.

“So I had a brainstorming session with other teachers and someone suggested Viking skills to get more students working with their hands.”

Jeppe Nordmann Garlya, who saw the job ad on Facebook. Photograph: Seljord Folkehøgskule

Many Scandinavians spend a year at a residential folkehøgskule, or “folk high school”, before university, where the focus isn’t academia or exams, but life skills such as independence and teamwork. These schools are private but government-subsidised, so parents only pay for room, board, trips and teaching materials. Seljord Folkehøgskule will set parents back 100,000 Norwegian Krone, around £7,800, a year.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to our Viking course,” said Husby. “I think it appealed because there’s a real interest from TV shows like Game of Thrones and Vikings. Plus we’re in a proper Viking location, surrounded by what many people call ‘Norway’s most beautiful mountains’ – we call them ‘hills’ – and overlooking Lake Seljord, where the Seljord monster is supposed to reside, like Norway’s Loch Ness. So Seljord is just as it would have looked in Viking times.”

Five female and nine male students started class in Seljord last week.

They are being instructed in all things Viking by new teacher Jeppe Nordmann Garlya – a lifelong Viking enthusiast and expert blacksmith who got the job after seeing an advert posted on Facebook that had been shared 26,000 times.

“It’s not every day you see an advert for a Viking teacher, so as you can imagine, we had a lot of applications,” said Husby, “but Jeppe was the best and students love his lessons so far.”

There is considerably more gender equality at the school than among the original Vikings. Both sexes are learning to carve wood, forge metal and bake bread as well as honing their archery, shipbuilding and weaving.

Husby admitted he did not know how useful these skills will be in the job market (“maybe they can make products to sell in different Viking markets in Norway and Scandinavia?” he said), but he insists that the real merit was in the learning, “which is worthwhile, no matter what you do with it. For instance right now, they’re learning how to make traditional Viking weapons, which is mind-expanding.”

Other courses at Seljord Folkehøgskule include Everest base camp preparation and paragliding skills.

These dangerous activities aside, parents of the Viking skills students can at least be assured that local media reports of animal sacrifice on the syllabus have been wildly exaggerated. “That part’s not true, I mean, we serve meat in the canteen but that’s about it. There’s no sacrificing and even Viking-style hunting is off the cards,” said Husby. “Unless someone spots the Seljord monster of course, then, all bets are off.”