
Photo: Valerii Iavtushenko/Pixabay
Kavurson’s workshop in Tomislavgrad is now full of Viking axes and shields, alongside portraits of logs used for ax throwing practice, and detailed portraits of Ragnar and Lagertha, as portrayed by Travis Fimmel and Katheryn Winnick. Outside the workshop is a functional “drakkar”, a flat-bottomed Viking boat that the 57-year-old made himself and that he sometimes takes out on a nearby lake.
Sporting a long, white beard and braided hair, and wearing traditional tunics, Ragnar Kavurson looks very much the part of a modern Viking. He has a job working as a driver for the regional government, but he dedicates all of his free time to his passion, making Viking axes and shields that he then sells for anywhere between 25 and 300 euros ($28 – $331).
“My life has turned 180 degrees. My goals are different,” the Bosnian Viking said. “I used to earn more money per day in Germany than I do now per month, but I wasn’t happy. Now I am happy.”
Ragnar has big plans for the future as well, hoping to organize the first Bosnian axe-throwing championship and build an entire Viking village for tourists.