The Vikings: The Story of the Most Fearsome Warrior Nation

(Hardback)

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The impact of the Vikings is impossible to overstate. A people apparently condemned toa marginal existence in the remote wastes of Dark Age northern Europe, they burst ontoan unsuspecting continent with extraordinary consequences. Initially they were piratesand raiders of astounding ferocity. In a matter of decades, they had laid waste to much ofthe coastal British Isles and had penetrated deep into France, threatening to snuff out forgood an emerging Christendom. They launched raids against Muslim Iberia and theninto the Mediterranean. They pushed east across the Baltic and from there south alongthe river systems of western Russia to the Black Sea and Byzantium, establishingthemselves as traders and slavers. They discovered and exploited sea-routes deep intothe North Atlanticto the Faroes, to Iceland and Greenland, and finally to Americaitself. They initiated routes of oceanic exploration that would be unmatched untilColumbus five centuries later.

This book, accessible and vivid, sheds new light on theViking Age. It examines their gods and belief systems, their technological advances,their extraordinary levels of craftsmanship, their social organization, their success ascolonizers, their political coups, their military might, their commercial nous, and theirremarkable self-belief. It provides a compelling portrait of a world decisivelyshaped bythe Viking initiatives and imperatives.

Author Bio

Marjolein Stern is an expert on the Viking Age and Medieval culture andcommunication. She has written numerous articles on aspects of Viking culture and hasjust completed her PhD on runestone images and visual communication in the VikingAge. She was based at the Centre for the Study of the Viking Age at NottinghamUniversity in the U.K. and now works at the University of Ghent in Belgium.

RoderickDale is an archeologist and expert in Scandinavian history, old Norse language andliterature, Viking Age warfare, and the Vikings in popular culture. Roderick has workedwith a number of authors as a historical consultant, most recently on Anita GanerisNorse Myths and Legends (Raintree Publishing, 2012.)