Vikingology Podcast · The Art and Science of the Viking Age

"Valkyrie" sets sail!

·1 hr 10 min·4 clips

After 40 years, the family finally built the Viking ship they had talked about for decades.

1. Vikingology Podcast’s 50th episode focuses on Valkyrie, a 56-foot Viking ship built in Anacortes, Washington. 2. Hosts CJ Adrian and Terry Barnes speak with Eric Knudsen, who worked on the ship and explains why the project mattered to his family. 3. The episode asks how a long-discussed family idea became a real vessel in the Pacific Northwest. 4. Eric traces the origin to the early 1970s, when his father David and a teacher partner bought a wilderness camp in northern Ontario. 5. The camp was called Langskib, a Danish word for long ship, and the Viking theme shaped the program from the start. 6. Eric says the camp ran boys’ canoe trips for many years before the family sold the business more than 40 years later. 7. He says his father made a promise to his grandfather Heinrich while Heinrich was living with Parkinson’s disease. 8. Eric describes the ship as a way for David to honor that promise after decades of postponement. 9. He also connects the ship to his own childhood, saying that at age nine he vowed to sail on a Viking ship one day. 10. Eric says the project eventually moved to the Pacific Northwest and found a home in Anacortes at Aspoya Boat. 11. He names Jay Smith as the builder and says Smith studied in Denmark, Norway, and the Faroe Islands before opening his shop. 12. Eric explains that Valkyrie is based on Skåldelev 6 from Roskilde, but scaled up to a 56-foot version. 13. He says the design was adjusted to meet Coast Guard requirements and modern safety standards. 14. Eric notes that the vessel is American-built, which matters because U.S. rules limit passenger service on foreign-built boats. 15. He says the boat cost close to a million dollars, far more than a small Roskilde replica. 16. Eric argues that the value also lies in the process, because the build brought together volunteers, skilled tradespeople, and community support. 17. He describes the hull as Alaskan yellow cedar, the framing as white oak, and the mast and deck planks as Douglas fir. 18. He says some of the trees used for the wood may have been 800 to 1,000 years old when cut. 19. The tone is conversational, technical, and enthusiastic, with frequent detours into shipbuilding details, family memory, and maritime history. 20. Listeners interested in Viking ships, boatbuilding, or Pacific Northwest history will get the most from it, while people wanting a short general chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A ship episode where timber orientation and strength carry the conversation.

Vikingology's 50th episode keeps its focus on the ship itself. Eric Knudsen joins CJ Adrian and Terry Barnes to talk through the Viking ship built in Washington State, and the discussion stays with the work of making it: the inverted mast timber, the tree orientation, the…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the shipbuilding story behind the Viking image.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Vikingology Podcast