A review by takumo_n
Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings by Tom Shippey

4.0

Really good, readable account of the viking mindset and dark but somewhat childish sense of humor (basically every hero in the Sagas is in an epic, mythological dick measuring contest). The author, at the beginning, goes through some Sagas to set the attitudes of Scandinavians of that era, then he goes on a more historical explanation of what those writings (poems, written and oral stories) could mean, and if anything of the sort happened, or could've happened. From interpretations of poems and stories, archeological findings, and other historian books Tom Shippey lays the reasons of why those Scandinavians travel so far for so long, with good to disastrous results, and it's a pretty compelling argument.