A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR'As brilliant a history of the Vikings as one could possibly hope to
read' Tom Holland The 'Viking Age' is traditionally held to begin in June 793 when Scandinavian
raiders attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria and to end in September 1066
when King Harald Hardrada of Norway died leading the charge against the English line at the
Battle of Stamford Bridge. This book the most wide-ranging and comprehensive assessment of the
current state of our knowledge takes a refreshingly different view. It shows that the Viking
expansion began generations before the Lindisfarne raid and traces Scandinavian history back
centuries further to see how these people came to be who they were. The narrative ranges across
the whole of the Viking diaspora from Vinland on the eastern American seaboard to
Constantinople and Uzbekistan with contacts as far away as China. Based on the latest
archaeology it explores the complex origins of the Viking phenomenon and traces the seismic
shifts in Scandinavian society that resulted from an economy geared to maritime war. Some of
its most striking discoveries include the central role of slavery in Viking life and trade and
the previously unsuspected pirate communities and family migrations that were part of the
Viking 'armies' - not least in England. Especially Neil Price takes us inside the Norse mind
and spirit-world and across their borders of identity and gender to reveal startlingly
different Vikings to the barbarian marauders of stereotype. He cuts through centuries of
received wisdom to try to see the Vikings as they saw themselves - descendants of the first
human couple the Children of Ash and Elm. Healso reminds us of the simultaneous familiarity
and strangeness of the past of how much we cannot know alongside the discoveries that change
the landscape of our understanding. This is an eye-opening and surprisingly moving book.
