Reviews

It is delightful to read a book on a new religious movement (with ancient roots) that is so well written, well informed both with regard to present and historical contexts, benevolent and (apparently) comprehensive.
Ronald Hutton, Professor of History, University of Bristol

Being Viking is a well-researched, up-to-date and in-depth anthropological study of a small but complex and growing new religious movement in North America. The author engages thoroughly with his first-hand material and keeps an admirable balance between respect and academic critique. This book is a highly original addition to existing studies, and it provides thought-provoking material for discussion and future research.
Stefanie von Schnurbein, author of Norse Revival: Transformations of Germanic Neopaganism

Calico adds to the growing bookshelf of academic work on Ásatrú with a solid review of the existing literature and an engaging narrative of his own experiences as a participant-observer in the new religious movement. Building on the work of Kaplan and Gardell, he paints a detailed picture of several subcultures within the larger set of American Heathen communities.
Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried, author of The Norse Mythology Blog and goði of Thor's Oak Kindred

An important and very welcome contribution to the study of modern Heathen religion and for its breadth is probably set to become a required volume on the subject. It is essential reading for all scholars of modern Paganism and highly recommended for scholars of U.S. religion and new religions more broadly.
Nova Religio


Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America has a richness of fieldwork and interview material that makes it a significant new contribution to the emergent academic field of Heathen Studies. It is engagingly written and brimming with enthusiasm and deserving of a wide readership. It will be of interest to scholars of fieldwork in the humanities and social sciences, to specialists in new religious movements (NRMs) and Pagan Studies, and to students in Religious Studies generally. I recommend it unreservedly.
Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review


In delving into a new religion, Calico has produced an insightful, well-written and highly researched study of American Asatru. Those in the field of religious studies will find Being Viking a helpful look into the practices, history and beliefs of this new religious movement. I recommend this book to those interested in the changing landscape of American religion.
The Christian Librarian


A welcome contribution to this yet still underresearched part of contemporary Paganism. It gathers new valuable material based on five-year-long fieldwork drawing on participatory observation and interviews of some fifty adherents, most of whom are Heathen opinion-makers and religious leaders. [Provides] a solid introduction to the subject.
Religious Studies Review


Being Viking stands tall as a truly monumental achievement. It is the most comprehensive monograph yet published on Heathenism/Asatru/Modern Norse Paganism in America and will be required reading for anyone interested in this topic for years to come.
Reading Religion


Calico’s Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America is interesting in part because he was approaching Heathenry as a non-practitioner, something that set his work apart from much of the ethnographic research on modern Pagan traditions that had gone before. One of the things I particularly appreciated about Calico’s book was the attention he gave to issues of class, a topic often overlooked in academic studies of modern Paganism. Like the earlier work of Mattias Gardell, Calico’s project also highlighted the role of white nationalism and related far-right ideologies within certain sectors of the American Pagan milieu, an issue many other scholars had avoided.
"Four Books on Modern Paganism," Reading Religion