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.
