Vikings

(Newser) - Mel Gibson, the linguist, lives on: The actor/director/boozer/octodad plans to make a blockbuster about Viking raids on England and Scotland in the 9th century, scripted in Old English and Norse. The as-yet-untitled flick will star Leonardo DiCaprio and, like Gibson's other epics, will be unflinchingly violent. "I want a...

(Newser) - Vikings were just as interested in preening and handicrafts as they were in war and pillaging, the Telegraph reports. In a bid to educate youngsters who could well have Viking ancestry, British researchers are trying to change the popular view of the Norse explorers. "It seems that the Vikings...

(Newser) - Archaeologists say they have found a remarkably intact Viking shield that is at least 1,000 years old, the AP reports. The 10th-century artifact, the first such find in Denmark, was buried in moist soil "ideal to preserve the wood," says an excavator. The 32-inch wooden shield was...

(Newser) - More than 12 centuries after Viking raiders began pillaging settlements in Ireland, the Danish government has apologized for their behavior. The country's culture minister offered the collective mea culpa yesterday in Dublin, where he marked the arrival of the Havhingsten, a replica Viking longboat, after a 1,000-mile journey across...