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Loved this book. I bought it after our return from Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland because I felt that my education of vikings was woefully incomplete. I'm glad I read the book after the trip, however, because I was able to contextualize what I was learning based on my memories. If I had read the book beforehand, I might not have paid close attention to details, dates and place names that I ended up visiting on the trip. The author is thorough and wide ranging, without coming off too academic (that being said, this book is definitely for subject enthusiasts and laymen with college educations. Its gets a little heady here and there, and a background in world history would help).
If I could point out some flaws: the author is a bit wordy and self-involved (its cool you got to hold an old viking glove that felt soft, but why so fixated on the Birka girl?) Also, there wasn't much written on Iceland and Greenland, and nothing on Finland. In particular, I would've liked to learn more about the relationship between Iceland and Europe, although I was happy he cited extensively from Jesse Byock's book on Viking Age Iceland, which I read before my trip. The ommission of Finland is unforgiveable, though. There is more written on the Saami people who straddle Sweden and Finland than on the Finnish people themselves. Obviously the Finns are distinct from Scandinavians, but he spilled enough ink on the Slavs, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons to warrant a second book. But no mention of the Finns or ancestors of modern-day Finns in the Baltic region?
Some of the topics that were covered that I actually visited or learned about on my trip included:
- Gamla Uppsala and the mounds
- The sunken viking ships near Roskilde, and the viking ship reconstruction museum there today
- Bog bodies and "log coffins" at the Danish history museum
- Lurs, helmets, and hoards of gold and silver at the Stockholm history museum
- Skane (specifically the Trelleborg Fortress which was closed when we visited)
- Kiviksgraven
- Runestones and Ship settings - the ship-shaped stone monuments all over Scandinavia. We saw one in Skane called Ales Stenar
- The Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark
- The pillars on the 11-mile bridge between Zealand and Fun are the tallest points in all of Denmark.
- Thingvellir -the plain in West Iceland where the first king-less 'thing', or parliament, was created. As I learned from Byock's book, Icelandic politics lacked a central executive power and was run by regional lawyer-chieftans called gothar.
- Image of the Vikings: The Vikings weren't necessarily more bloodthirsty or violent than their contemporaries, but they possessed better sailing technology and were geographically positioned to raid wealthy kingdoms in England, northern Europe, and the Baltic. They just sailed better than anyone, and it took the kings of Europe to build up their navies. The vikings were adept traders and were mostly tolerant of other religions and ethnicities, for example in the land of the Rus and in Denmark.
Misc. fun things I learned:
- "Knarr" is a term for the broad transport ships Vikings used to move people and livestock, rather than the fast raiding ships. We at at the Cafe Knarr at the viking ship museum in Roskilde, DK, but didn't know what "knarr" meant.
- I never learned British or Roman history systematically (most of my world history education picked up at the Renaissance, for some reason), so I appreciated the author's approach to placing the vikings in their proper historical and geographical context. I learned a lot about "BCE" history, the Romans and Byzantines, and proto-viking peoples of northern Europe. Also, I didn't know shit about Anglo-Saxons/Britons/Celts/Picts, and I still don't totally get it.
- After Iceland converted to Christianity in AD 1000, they allowed pagans to continue two surprising Pagan rites: eating horsemeat and leaving their unwanted babies out in the elements to die.
- (Related: the Pope outlawed eating horses in 732 AD)
- Norway used to own Shetland and Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland
- King Haakon IV of Norway invaded Scotland in the 13th century, 200 years after the supposed end of the Viking Age
If I could point out some flaws: the author is a bit wordy and self-involved (its cool you got to hold an old viking glove that felt soft, but why so fixated on the Birka girl?) Also, there wasn't much written on Iceland and Greenland, and nothing on Finland. In particular, I would've liked to learn more about the relationship between Iceland and Europe, although I was happy he cited extensively from Jesse Byock's book on Viking Age Iceland, which I read before my trip. The ommission of Finland is unforgiveable, though. There is more written on the Saami people who straddle Sweden and Finland than on the Finnish people themselves. Obviously the Finns are distinct from Scandinavians, but he spilled enough ink on the Slavs, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons to warrant a second book. But no mention of the Finns or ancestors of modern-day Finns in the Baltic region?
Some of the topics that were covered that I actually visited or learned about on my trip included:
- Gamla Uppsala and the mounds
- The sunken viking ships near Roskilde, and the viking ship reconstruction museum there today
- Bog bodies and "log coffins" at the Danish history museum
- Lurs, helmets, and hoards of gold and silver at the Stockholm history museum
- Skane (specifically the Trelleborg Fortress which was closed when we visited)
- Kiviksgraven
- Runestones and Ship settings - the ship-shaped stone monuments all over Scandinavia. We saw one in Skane called Ales Stenar
- The Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark
- The pillars on the 11-mile bridge between Zealand and Fun are the tallest points in all of Denmark.
- Thingvellir -the plain in West Iceland where the first king-less 'thing', or parliament, was created. As I learned from Byock's book, Icelandic politics lacked a central executive power and was run by regional lawyer-chieftans called gothar.
- Image of the Vikings: The Vikings weren't necessarily more bloodthirsty or violent than their contemporaries, but they possessed better sailing technology and were geographically positioned to raid wealthy kingdoms in England, northern Europe, and the Baltic. They just sailed better than anyone, and it took the kings of Europe to build up their navies. The vikings were adept traders and were mostly tolerant of other religions and ethnicities, for example in the land of the Rus and in Denmark.
Misc. fun things I learned:
- "Knarr" is a term for the broad transport ships Vikings used to move people and livestock, rather than the fast raiding ships. We at at the Cafe Knarr at the viking ship museum in Roskilde, DK, but didn't know what "knarr" meant.
- I never learned British or Roman history systematically (most of my world history education picked up at the Renaissance, for some reason), so I appreciated the author's approach to placing the vikings in their proper historical and geographical context. I learned a lot about "BCE" history, the Romans and Byzantines, and proto-viking peoples of northern Europe. Also, I didn't know shit about Anglo-Saxons/Britons/Celts/Picts, and I still don't totally get it.
- After Iceland converted to Christianity in AD 1000, they allowed pagans to continue two surprising Pagan rites: eating horsemeat and leaving their unwanted babies out in the elements to die.
- (Related: the Pope outlawed eating horses in 732 AD)
- Norway used to own Shetland and Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland
- King Haakon IV of Norway invaded Scotland in the 13th century, 200 years after the supposed end of the Viking Age