This is a good read for those of you who want to learn more about the Vikings and their times from a current archaeological point-of-view.
Scientific measurements are getting more precise and nuanced all the time. Genetic traces can identify ethnicities and genders of persons long dead (A few surprises here), and radiocarbon isotopes can tell you where a person was born and raised, where they lived as an adult, and of course we already know (habeas corpus) where they died.
We also have relatively new insights about the effects of certain natural catastrophies on matters such as climate change - it is now thought that a series of unusually large volcanic eruptions which occurred in the 6th century A.D. in southeastern Asia may have kicked up enough dust around the planet to cause the climate to cool precipitously for up to eighty years - an event which apparently caused a large scale die off of the Scandinavian population due to agricultural collapse, and which was the motivating driver behind the ‘Migration Period’, when northern peoples went south crashing into the Roman frontier in order to survive the cold-induced famine.
The author also has some cautionary notes about what our northern friends were really like. One of my favorites was:
‘When one looks closer, the real power,and the means of producing it, can take unexpected forms. Some years ago, a prominent historian despaired of the constant focus on the Vikings as maritime warriors, and instead stressed the fact that most of the Scandinavian population stayed at home on the land and never did any harm to anyone. The time of the Vikings, he claimed, was really ‘the Golden Age of the pig farmer.’ He had a point, though he got the animal wrong: The Scandinavian landscape of the late Viking period was a world of sheep.’ (For making ship’s sails and warm clothing)
Also, everything hideous that the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan described with regard to that gang of Russian Volga Vikings he met up with has been shown archeologically to be more or less true.
Bottom line is, Tolkien’s stories are about Vikings and their religion the way they should have been, not the way they actually were.
PS. The author (Neil Price) is an engaging and informative speaker, and has lectures on this subject readily available on You-tube.
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Reviews with images
Book of the year?
Probably, the best introduction to the Viking Phenomenon. Read it not just for its well-written and exciting presentation of the very new archaeological finds. But also for its well crafted historical-anthropological presentation of the history of the Vikings from their prehistory in the ecological catastrophe in the 6th century, through their early slaving, raiding and trading economy and on to the migration and diaspora in the 10th century. And read it for its masterly form of composition turning it into a paradigmatic book on how to write cultural history.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2020
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Top reviews from other countries
Mr. S. Cartlidge
An interesting and engaging exploration of Viking history
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2023José Macaya
Buen libro sobre los vikingos, pero tengo algunas advertencias...
Reviewed in Spain on November 14, 2022Amazon カスタマー
An antidote to received ideas and ideological presupposition.
Reviewed in Japan on December 31, 2022