The annual Viking Festival in the Icelandic town of Hafnarfjordur is currently taking place for the 16th time. Read the full story

A series of military exercises under the name North Viking 2011 began in Iceland today and will continue until next Friday. Read the full story

Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir is currently in North America and will be a guest of honour at two annual Icelandic festivals. Read the full story

The Icelandic sagas are some of the most famous examples of literary history in Europe and have scholars and story lovers equally enthralled. Some of their embellishments and outright fiction are undeniable; but the sagas are nevertheless based firmly in reality, meaning many of the sites mentioned can still be seen. Read the full story

In an ambitious journey, two Irish sailors have completed an adventurous six-week voyage from Dublin to the Danish port of Roskilde aboard a reproduction of an actual Viking ship dating from 1042. The Sea Stallion from Glendalough sailed 1,400 nautical miles, arriving without incident to a cheering crowd of more than 10,000 people at Roskilde’s harbour, The Irish Times reports.

According to the Irish Times, the ship enjoyed nearly ideal sailing conditions for their ambitious archaeological project that was deemed a major success. Archaeologist-sailors Triona Nicholl and Sinead Quirke captained the Viking ship, and were joined by three other scientific crewmembers for about half of the voyage to study the workings of the ship. Their arrival was the highlight of a weekend event hosted by the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum, who transformed Roskilde’s harbour into a festive Viking marketplace.

The welcoming party included several dignitaries such as Cllr Eibhlín Byrne, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Joe Hayes, the Irish Ambassador to Denmark, and Dr Pat Wallace, the director of the National Museum of Ireland.

The Sea Stallion did endure a few desperate moments during its voyage, however. Nicholl recalled the challenging Wicklow-Land’s End passage, when the notorious Bristol Channel swell made more than half the crew seasick. The Sea Stallion is a replica of a Viking ship named Skuldelev 2, which is one of five Viking vessels discovered near Roskilde in 1957. Carbon-dating tests date the age of the Skuldelev 2 to the year 1042.

Archaeologists in Sweden recently discovered a cache of rare Arab silver coins from the Viking era, reports Al Jazeera.

The archaeological site uncovered a total of 472 coins inside a burial site from the Iron Age near Arlanda Airport in Stockholm. The site was discovered when digging began for a new apartment building.

Researchers have identified most of the coins and believe the majority to have been minted in either Damascus or Baghdad. Among the collection are also coins which were produced in North Africa and Persia.

Karin Beckman-Thoor, from the Swedish National Heritage Board, said the coins were likely given to Vikings in trade for goods such as fur, iron and amber. She said it was likely that Vikings traded with Arabs in Russia or the Baltic states.

According to Beckman-Thoor, the Vikings were accomplished travellers. Their ‘graffiti’ can be found as far away as Istanbul, where the walls of a fifth-century religious building, the Hagia Sophia, bear their marks.

The site where the coins were discovered was a grave believed to be around 1,000 years older than the coins. Researchers believe the coins were probably buried there around 840AD.

The discovery of the coins is the first of its kind in Sweden since the 1880s.