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takumo_n's review against another edition
4.0
Entertaining, fast paced, comprehensive account of the Viking age. Everything is so epicly shakespearean, there are so many names that come and go, so much brutality and backstabbing, sudden and unexpected deaths from royalty that changed whole countries and their foreign relationships out of nowhere. In the larger parameters of history nothing has changed, really. But at least we have junk food and videogames.
modernviking's review against another edition
3.0
Started out strong, but devolved into the standard recitation of king-on-king violence and successsions
sh00's review against another edition
4.0
Должен сказать, что это не весёлая книжка в стиле забористого сериала, а забавные факты не выделены редактором, их придётся отыскать в тексте самому. Начало причём довольно заздравное -- перечисление рейдов, монастыри горят, богатая добыча, морские разбойники плавают туда сюда... но чем ближе конец книги (а значит, становление государств), тем скучнее, и если вы действительно не заинтересованы, то это будет бесконечная местечковая возня мелких королей, ряд из которых не просидит и пяти лет.
С русскими князьями ведь всё то же самое. Кстати, они в книге неоднократно упоминаются.
С русскими князьями ведь всё то же самое. Кстати, они в книге неоднократно упоминаются.
walkerct's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this book up on more or less of a whim after I started watching the TV show "Vikings" and became curious as to how historically accurate the show is to real life. The answer is: about as accurate as you would think, which is to say not particularly, although there are a few customs, such as certain death rituals, were very accurate. At any rate, I ended up quite enjoying this book. The language felt a little stilted and awkward at the start, but either it improved a lot as the book progressed or it grew on me.
Haywood offers an impressively comprehensive history of Viking activity throughout the world. I was somewhat familiar with the history of Vikings in England and mainland Europe, but I was very interested to learn how active they were in Spain, the Mediterranean, and even the Byzantine Empire (turns out that longships are no match for Greek fire).
In my opinion, the book is at its best when it slows down from the frantic pace of describing raids and battles and gets into the social, political, economic, and religious impact the Vikings had on certain areas. Haywood does an excellent job at analyzing political and religious motivations (which were all to often one and the same). My favorite chapter was 7, which covers Kiev, Constantinople, and Bolghar. This is the one area where the Vikings engaged in as much trade as they did plundering, and it was fascinating to read about the clash and cooperation between Scandinavia and the Middle East. The chapter I found least engaging was probably chapter 5, which covers Viking activity in Ireland. The main reason being that their are just so many kings and battles to try to keep clear, and the Gaelic names are a bit of a bear.
One of the major challenges of the book for me was keeping all of the various Viking kings straight. Each chapter covers a specific geographical area over a period of roughly 500-700 years (some more and some less). Because of this, the reader is constantly jumping backward and forward in time. This is largely manageable except that, Vikings being the well-traveled people they were, certain kings will show up again and again as they move from being king of the Danes to England, Ireland, etc. Add to that the fact that kings love to name their children after themselves or previous kings and you end up with multiple Olafs, Sigfrids, Haralds, and Eriks running around at the same time (though to be fair, Erik Bloodaxe has a pretty distinct and unforgettable name)! My suggestion to help clarify things a bit would be to jump to chapter 10 after reading chapter 1. This chapter provides a good overview of many of the major Viking kings. It was only after I read that chapter that I was really able to distinguish more easily between certain kings. Also be sure to make use of the lists of kings and rulers in the back of the book.
I only have a couple of complaints about the book. One is that, while the maps in the front of the book are very useful in most cases, they are not as detailed as they could be. Since the chapters are divided geographically, it would have been helpful to have a more detailed map at the beginning of each one. The second is that, even though I know the book is called "North Men", I wish there was more information regarding the lives of women, children, and slaves in the Viking Age. Granted, I think some of the difficulty is that these groups of people tended to be largely ignored and marginalized in their own time, and thus were largely ignored in accounts of the time. Still, it's hard to hear about fascinating people like Aud the Deep-Minded and not want to hear much more! To his credit, Haywood does provide some resources on these topics in the Further Reading section under the Viking Life and Culture heading.
In summary, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Viking culture, or even to those lovers of history who like to see how certain trends repeat themselves over and over again. For instance, many times throughout the book you'll find a populace disgruntled with their leader eagerly inviting an outsider to come in and shake things up, only to find that said outsider is even more incompetent and tyrannical than the deposed ruler. The scope of Haywood's knowledge is truly impressive, and the way in which he considers a wide range of source materials while being conscious of their potential bias or unreliability is something I think we can all learn from.
Haywood offers an impressively comprehensive history of Viking activity throughout the world. I was somewhat familiar with the history of Vikings in England and mainland Europe, but I was very interested to learn how active they were in Spain, the Mediterranean, and even the Byzantine Empire (turns out that longships are no match for Greek fire).
In my opinion, the book is at its best when it slows down from the frantic pace of describing raids and battles and gets into the social, political, economic, and religious impact the Vikings had on certain areas. Haywood does an excellent job at analyzing political and religious motivations (which were all to often one and the same). My favorite chapter was 7, which covers Kiev, Constantinople, and Bolghar. This is the one area where the Vikings engaged in as much trade as they did plundering, and it was fascinating to read about the clash and cooperation between Scandinavia and the Middle East. The chapter I found least engaging was probably chapter 5, which covers Viking activity in Ireland. The main reason being that their are just so many kings and battles to try to keep clear, and the Gaelic names are a bit of a bear.
One of the major challenges of the book for me was keeping all of the various Viking kings straight. Each chapter covers a specific geographical area over a period of roughly 500-700 years (some more and some less). Because of this, the reader is constantly jumping backward and forward in time. This is largely manageable except that, Vikings being the well-traveled people they were, certain kings will show up again and again as they move from being king of the Danes to England, Ireland, etc. Add to that the fact that kings love to name their children after themselves or previous kings and you end up with multiple Olafs, Sigfrids, Haralds, and Eriks running around at the same time (though to be fair, Erik Bloodaxe has a pretty distinct and unforgettable name)! My suggestion to help clarify things a bit would be to jump to chapter 10 after reading chapter 1. This chapter provides a good overview of many of the major Viking kings. It was only after I read that chapter that I was really able to distinguish more easily between certain kings. Also be sure to make use of the lists of kings and rulers in the back of the book.
I only have a couple of complaints about the book. One is that, while the maps in the front of the book are very useful in most cases, they are not as detailed as they could be. Since the chapters are divided geographically, it would have been helpful to have a more detailed map at the beginning of each one. The second is that, even though I know the book is called "North Men", I wish there was more information regarding the lives of women, children, and slaves in the Viking Age. Granted, I think some of the difficulty is that these groups of people tended to be largely ignored and marginalized in their own time, and thus were largely ignored in accounts of the time. Still, it's hard to hear about fascinating people like Aud the Deep-Minded and not want to hear much more! To his credit, Haywood does provide some resources on these topics in the Further Reading section under the Viking Life and Culture heading.
In summary, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Viking culture, or even to those lovers of history who like to see how certain trends repeat themselves over and over again. For instance, many times throughout the book you'll find a populace disgruntled with their leader eagerly inviting an outsider to come in and shake things up, only to find that said outsider is even more incompetent and tyrannical than the deposed ruler. The scope of Haywood's knowledge is truly impressive, and the way in which he considers a wide range of source materials while being conscious of their potential bias or unreliability is something I think we can all learn from.
mindingmypeas's review
Didn't get through this one, but putting it in a list to maybe come back to some day. It just seemed really dry to me. Very comprehensive, but so, so boring. I'll try again when my kids are into Vikings...
speesh's review
4.0
Why read just one Viking book, when you can read half a dozen? Don't they all say pretty much the same thing? Given that the Vikings existed a very long time ago surely all that can be said about them, has been said? Well, yes. And no. Obviously - you don't need me to tell you - there are good books about the Vikings and there are bad books about the Vikings. Some are more readable - for the average Joe like me - and some are deadly dull, but still very worthy. These days, books about The Vikings can't be filled with just the latest finds - which will only ever nowadays alter our understanding of them in a minor way (unless they find a new site in the Americas I guess). So, from our point of view, the reader, and from the Publisher's point of view, because they want us to go out and buy them - there has to be an angle.
"Tell me exactly why do we need another book about the Vikings, young man?"
"Well, I'm gonna do it differently..."
What this one does differently is...well, difficult to put a finger on. It's well written, points made, points argued, points proved. It's written pretty much chronologically, starting with the earliest known raids, to the final integrations into the different nation states - and other nation states. Along the way, there some new (to me) ways of looking at what we already knew. Maybe it's that that sets it apart. And concise, not much time/space wasted. As regards the left a unique impact bit, I felt he was rather more negative regarding their impact, than that would suggest and what is clearly provable. I used to live near Wetherby, called a small stream a beck, and liked going to the Yorkshire Dales, to name just three linguistic examples (you can go find out the what and the why of those).
But shouldn't there be a North Women as well? Without North Women, there wouldn't have been any North Men, I'm thinking.
Otherwise, a very fine addition to my Viking library and one that could well fit in yours as well.
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"Tell me exactly why do we need another book about the Vikings, young man?"
"Well, I'm gonna do it differently..."
What this one does differently is...well, difficult to put a finger on. It's well written, points made, points argued, points proved. It's written pretty much chronologically, starting with the earliest known raids, to the final integrations into the different nation states - and other nation states. Along the way, there some new (to me) ways of looking at what we already knew. Maybe it's that that sets it apart. And concise, not much time/space wasted. As regards the left a unique impact bit, I felt he was rather more negative regarding their impact, than that would suggest and what is clearly provable. I used to live near Wetherby, called a small stream a beck, and liked going to the Yorkshire Dales, to name just three linguistic examples (you can go find out the what and the why of those).
But shouldn't there be a North Women as well? Without North Women, there wouldn't have been any North Men, I'm thinking.
Otherwise, a very fine addition to my Viking library and one that could well fit in yours as well.
Read THE blog: Speesh Reads
Join THE Facebook Page: Speesh Reads