Hedeby (Old Norse: Heiða-býr; meaning "heath-settlement") is a town in the hills, located in Denmark. The town is the capital of the Earldom of Hedeby.
In Vikings[]
Hedeby is first introduced in Season 2. It looks like a modest settlement. Lagertha has moved here with Bjorn following her divorce from Ragnar.
Notable Inhabitants:[]
In History[]
Hedeby was an important Danish Viking Age trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula. It is now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Around 965, Abraham ben Jacob, a tenth-century Hispano-Arabic, Sephardi Jewish traveler, visited Hedeby and described it as "a very large city at the very end of the world's ocean." Hedeby was the second largest Nordic town during the Viking Age. Hedeby was abandoned after its destruction in 1066 until the late 19th century when it was rediscovered. Excavations began in 1900, and the Hedeby Museum was opened next to the site in 1985.[1]
Trivia[]
- Hedeby is located in a valley of sorts in the series, but in real life it is in a German swamp.
- Hedeby is mentioned in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Marsh King's Daughter.
- The symbol on the shields used by the warriors of Hedeby are two "Fe" runes, laid back-to-back to look like a tree. This is a highly symbolic design, as carving several runes into another, called a "bindrune," was supposed to summon the magic of the rune. In this case, the double "Fe" symbolizes wealth.