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Welcome to NorseMap

NorseMap is a research project funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant and based in University College Cork. The aim of the project is to investigate how ideas and narratives about the Vikings have evolved over the past 200 years in the public domain. The five-year project will explore how perceptions of the Vikings have developed to reflect the politics, identities and cultural memories of very different communities across Europe.

Using a dedicated app and methods borrowed from large-scale citizen science documentation projects, NorseMap will, with the help of the public, attempt to map the legacy of the Vikings across Europe in the domains of literature & art, branding, tourism, and politics. It will bring data from these different domains together to understand why the Vikings are such an enduring and malleable phenomenon... and to determine how much of our idea of the 'Viking' is in fact a projection of post-medieval writers, artists, and society at large.

Latest News

05 Sep
05 Sep 2026

Vikings return to Cork: Einar Selvik launches major EU project inviting public to help map the Viking legacy

The sounds of the Vikings returned to Cork after 1,000 years as University College Cork (UCC) launched NorseMap, a landmark European research project exploring how the Vikings continues to shape culture, identity and politics. Internationally acclaimed Norwegian musician Einar Selvik, founder of the pioneering Nordic music group Wardruna, performed an acoustic concert at St Peter's, Cork, on 5 September to celebrate the launch of NorseMap and its iViking App.
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14 Jul
15 Jun 2026

NorseMap PI Interviewed by Sanlian Lifeweek on the Modern Relevance of Norse Mythology

Professor Tom Birkett, PI of NorseMap and Professor of Old English and Old Norse, was recently interviewed by journalist Xiao Chuzhou for Sanlian Lifeweek (三联生活周刊), one of China's leading news and culture magazines, as part of a feature exploring the enduring significance of Norse mythology in the contemporary world.
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06 Jul
15 Jun 2026

NorseMap contributes to BBC feature exploring the origins of the US Declaration of Independence language and how a Viking word is hidden in it

'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'The iconic words of the Declaration of Independence reveal thousands of years of people grappling with how to live well together, and the power of language to turn those ideas into action.
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15 Jun 2026

NorseMap visits Woodstown

The project team was privileged to visit the new excavation of the Viking settlement at Woodstown near Waterford at the invite of Neil Jackman, archaeologist with the Clonmel-based  of Abarta Heritage. The visit provided a valuable opportunity to engage directly with the site and gain insight into the discoveries emerging from this important excavation.    
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ERC LogoFunded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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