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A review by depleti
The Vikings: A History by Robert Ferguson
3.0
This was an interesting book. It created connections between concepts I never thought of before, and just plain didn't know about before. Whether those connections are legit is another matter, but it definitely gets you thinking. The author talks about more than just Scandinavia, he talks about almost any aspect of the world the Vikings touched, and how that affected other things. It was definitely thought-provoking, but at the same time it felt like a lot of information.
It also felt like a lot of time was spent focusing on the leaders, the kings and chroniclers and bishops and whatever else. There were a lot of names, and a lot of dates. I didn't learn much about the Viking culture, just where they raided and who they battled and who ruled them. The gods were rarely mentioned. Greenland and the expeditions to the New World had a chapter or two, but I still didn't feel like I learned much about them. It was much more focused on Vikings in the wider world, which isn't bad, and it's still interesting, but I like learning culture more than dates.
The way the book was organized confused me a little too. A chapter could be spent talking about the Danes in England, going over a couple hundred years, and the next would jump backwards those couple hundred years and talk about something else. It just made things confusing for me and making correlations was harder because of it.
Overall still good, and there were a lot of interesting information and connections I haven't read in other books. At the same time, I didn't feel like I got to really know the Vikings.
It also felt like a lot of time was spent focusing on the leaders, the kings and chroniclers and bishops and whatever else. There were a lot of names, and a lot of dates. I didn't learn much about the Viking culture, just where they raided and who they battled and who ruled them. The gods were rarely mentioned. Greenland and the expeditions to the New World had a chapter or two, but I still didn't feel like I learned much about them. It was much more focused on Vikings in the wider world, which isn't bad, and it's still interesting, but I like learning culture more than dates.
The way the book was organized confused me a little too. A chapter could be spent talking about the Danes in England, going over a couple hundred years, and the next would jump backwards those couple hundred years and talk about something else. It just made things confusing for me and making correlations was harder because of it.
Overall still good, and there were a lot of interesting information and connections I haven't read in other books. At the same time, I didn't feel like I got to really know the Vikings.