The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction

by Richards, Julian D.

• ISBN13: 9780192806079
• ISBN10: 0192806076
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Viking reputation is one of bloodthirsty seafaring warriors, repeatedly plundering the British Isles and the North Atlantic throughout the early Middle Ages. Yet Vikings were also traders, settlers, and farmers, with a complex artistic and linguistic culture, whose expansion overseas led them to cross the Atlantic for the first time in European history. Highlighting the latest archaeological evidence, Julian Richards reveals the whole Viking world: their history, their culture, and their legacy of overseas expansion for trade, colonization, and plunder. Viking identity is explored through what we have learned about their towns, art, shipbuilding, and religious rituals. Here the Viking story is brought up to the present, from the tales of adventure found in medieval Icelandic sagas, to their exploitation as a symbol of nationalism in the nineteenth century by Wagner, and later by Hitler and the Nazi party. The author also highlights their impact and influence on the history and people of Northern Europe. Vikings, a fascinating new look at a people and culture that have been reinvented throughout history, will take readers closer to discovering who they really were.

Author Biography

Julian D. Richards is Professor of Archaeology at the University of York and Director of the Archaeology Data Service.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. ix
Vikings then and now	p. 1
Early Scandinavian kingdoms	p. 8
Pagans and Christians	p. 19
Changes in the countryside	p. 29
Towns and trade	p. 39
Across the ocean: seafaring and overseas expansion	p. 47
Settlers in England	p. 63
Raiders and traders around the Irish Sea	p. 77
Vikings and Picts: genocide or assimilation?	p. 88
Landnam in the North Atlantic	p. 97
The edge of the world: Greenland and North America	p. 106
Reinventing the Vikings	p. 117
Timeline	p. 134
Further reading	p. 137
Index	p. 141
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