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Flapdoodles: Neil Price's The Children of Ash and Elm has one unlikely fan – tattooist Sean Parry

August 20, 2025

When Neil Price’s The Children of Ash and Elm was first released in 2020, it was immediately hailed a new classic of Viking studies. And one long-term admirer of Price – artist and tattooist Sean Parry – was particularly keen to read it. ‘His work makes the Vikings real in a way few have managed,’ says Sean. ‘He’s willing to propose bold ideas that are based on the archaeology but also range widely. He’s rewritten how we look at the Viking age.’

So Sean was ‘incredibly honoured’ when Folio, with Price’s hearty endorsement, asked him if he would design and illustrate their sumptuous new edition. The result is an entwining of two visions – artistic and scholarly – perfectly symbolised in the entwined tree trunks that snake up the volume’s silver-blocked spine, as the world-tree Yggdrasil spreads its branches across both front and back covers.

‘I wanted to use original source material throughout to achieve an authentic feel,’ Sean says, ‘but to temper that with Neil’s vision. It’s not about copying or reproducing but creating something different that feels relevant today. The art forms of our ancestors have a clear structure, like the rules that exist in writing poetry. It’s a grammar of art, and if you learn that grammar, you can “write” new “poems”.

'In my free time I study archaeological sites, and in all my designs I search for the magic I feel when I look at ancient artwork.’

The Folio edition’s section breaks each feature a sinuous beast, but reflect different Viking artistic styles that take the reader on a journey through the era. ‘The first I did in Borre style, from the very beginning of the Viking age, for the section discussing the beginnings of the world,’ Sean explains. ‘The second is Mammen; and for the third I chose the Urnes style from the famous Norwegian stave church, to symbolise the ending of the Viking age and the Christianisation of Scandinavia.’

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Sean’s tattoo clients are likely to hear lectures from Price playing during their appointments and have been able to buy copies of The Children of Ash and Elm at his studio. Now, Sean says, ‘I can’t wait to show off the Folio edition as well.’ Its stunning designs are, he says, ‘the purest way of expressing and giving voice to our ancestors.’