This book is an absolute gem considering the 99p I got it for on a Kobo sale. I'm interested in history in general and like to dip in to different topics. I've always intended at some point to learn a little more about the vikings, and this was a great opportunity to do so.
It is split in to three major sections, the first of which deals with what you might summarise as the native conditions of these peoples. Sprituality and it's ever-presence in the day-to-day life of a person living in the scandinavian landscapes, and how the long (mostly forgotten) mythologies of the lands gave these peoples a set of social mores that are peculiar to the modern eye. At once both exotically appealing and shockingly repellant. As well as the geographical (the last part of Europe to escape the Ice Age), geopolitical (the drawn out collapse of the Roman Empire) and geological (volcanic eruptions and their effects) conditions that led to the people as they were at the start of the Viking Age.
With the contextual groundwork laid out, the second section of the book tackles the activites of the 'Viking Age'; That period of scandinavian interaction with their neighbours from the early 800s to the mid 1000s. Raiding and trading, with more than a hint of piracy. Towards the East we see the voyages from the baltic coast and as far as south as Constantinople and even Baghdad. Rather than raiding, here it was trading that was the main activity and it demonstrates a participation in the great East-West trade route of the Silk Road. Towards the west we see opportunistic raiding into Frankia, England and Ireland, intensifying as the age carried onwards. Price postulates that this is an era of 'Sea-Kings'; essentially pirates consoloditaing their power with the appropriation of wealth from the shaky political enterprises around it, whether Scandinavian or 'foreign'.
The final section charts the forming of the Scandinavian area in to nations, and the establishment of control in other areas too. The Rus settling around Kiev, the Normans, the Danelaw, Iceland, Greenland and Vinland. The slow encroachment of the catholic world helping to centralise the power of the Kings in Denmark and Norway, and turning their raids in to invasions.
For a brief review you can say this is a thorough analysis in an immersive telling. Sometimes the frustrations of an archaeologist working with a lack of concrete evidence shines through, but even when so much of what we can say is speculation, to make it such an enjoyable read while going through so many possibilities in interpretation is a real feat.
Finished reading - 11/05/26