Ceorl—Free peasant, person of the lowest classes.
Concubine—Mistress.
Cotter—Peasant farmer.
Crofter—Person who occupies and works a small landholding known as a croft for which he pays rent to a landlord, or lord.
Drukkinn (various spellings)—Drunk.
Ell—Unit of measurement approximating the length of a man’s arm from elbow to tip of the middle finger, usually about eighteen inches.
Fake-O—Synthetic blood drunk by vangels when other blood is not available.
Fireball—Cinnamon whiskey.
Fjord—Narrow arm of the seas, often between high cliffs.
Frey/Freyr—Norse god of peace and fertility, rain and sunshine.
Frigg/Frigga—Wife of Odin, Norse goddess of beauty, love, and marriage.
Frigg’s-day—Friday.
Frumenty—Thick wheat porridge cooked in milk, traditionally served with venison.
Gammelost—Stinky cheese, rumored to be so bad it turned men berserk.
Garderobe—Indoor privy.
Gunna—Long-sleeved, ankle-length gown for women, often worn under a tunic or surcoat, or under a long, open-sided apron.
Haakai—High-level demon.
Hákarl—Also known as rotten shark; fermented and dried shark meat that has an ammoniac taste and putrid scent; a Viking delicacy.
Handsal—The witnessed wedding contract.
Hap—A coarse coverlet.
Hedeby—Viking age market town where Germany now stands.
Hersir—Viking military commander.
Hird/hirdsman—A permanent troop that a chieftain or nobleman might have.
Hneftafl—Norse board game in which a king tries to escape from a besieging army.
Hoedown—Social gathering at which lively folk dancing takes place, a barn dance.
Hordlings—Lower-level demons.
Housecarls—Troops assigned to a king’s or lord’s household on a longtime, sometimes permanent basis.
Imps—Lowest-level demons, foot soldiers so to speak.
ISIS—Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, extremist Muslim group.
Jarl—High-ranking Norseman, similar to an English earl or wealthy landowner, could also be a chieftain or minor king.
Jorvik—Viking-age York, known to the Saxons as Eoforwic.
Kaupang—A Viking-age market town, one of the first towns in Norway.
Knarr—A Viking merchant vessel, wider and deeper than a regular longship.
Lamprey—Jawless fish resembling an eel with an odd, toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth, called the vampire fish.
Land of the Midnight Sun/Polar Nights—A natural phenomenon that occurs in northern regions, including Norway, in which it stays light almost all day in the summer and stays dark almost all the time in the winter.
Lingonberry—The fruit of a short evergreen shrub.
Longships—Narrow, open water-going vessels with oars and square sails, perfected by Viking shipbuilders, noted for their speed and ability to ride in both shallow waters and deep oceans.
Lucifer/Satan—The fallen angel Lucifer who became known as the demon Satan.
Lucipires—Demon vampires led by the fallen angel Jasper.
Lutefisk/lutfisk—A traditional dish made from dried and salted, whitefish preserved with lye.
Manchet bread—Flat unleavened circles of bread.
Mancus—A unit of measurement or coin equal roughly to 4.5 grams of gold or thirty silver pence, also equal of one month’s wages for a skilled worker in medieval times.
Mead—Fermented honey and water.
Merde!—Shit!
Mjollnir (various spellings)—Thor’s hammer.
Motte—A high, flat-topped mound; a motte and bailey castle would be a wood or stone keep on a raised earthwork, surrounded by protective ditches and palisades.
Mung—Type of demon, below the haakai in status, often very large and oozing slime and mung.
Muslim—A religion based on the Koran, with the belief that the word of God was revealed through the prophet Mohammed.
Neeps—Turnips.
Nettles—Stinging nettles can be used as an herb as well as a nutritious and delicious food; once cooked they have a spinach or cabbage flavor.
Norselands—Early term referring not just to Norway but all the Scandinavian countries as a whole.
Norsemandy—Normandy.
Odel rights—Rules regarding inheritance.
Odin—King of all the Viking gods.
Oyster Shooters—Raw oyster in shot glass, topped with bourbon (or vodka), Tabasco sauce, and squeezed lemon, then down the hatch in one swallow.
Percherons—Breed of draft or war horse, first seen in the former Perche province of France.
Pottage—Thick soup or stew made by boiling vegetables, grains, and whatever meat or fish is available, sometimes added to over days so that the content became questionable.
Privy—Outdoor toilet.
Purdah—Practice in some Muslim countries of women living in separate rooms or behind curtains, or dressing in all-enveloping clothes when out in public.