the chapter about the christianization and centralization of the Viking states under European style monarchies. The only items that we cannot accept are earrings for pierced ears and perishable items, such as food or drink. I'm done with the constant speculations about finds, followed immediately by cautious caveats about how we can't really know.

Interesting, more than a history, it a look a Norse/Viking society, how it ran, its mythology and worship practices, marriage customs - including polygamy and concubinage, how its economy functioned - slavery, agriculture and raiding, how it was governed etc. Circa 753, Swedes set up a "Wild East" trading post at Staraya Ladoga, by the mouth of the Volkhov river at Lake Ladoga, 100 miles (160 km) upstream (east) of where 1000 years later would be St. The nursery rhyme about London bridge falling down is purportedly recording Viking attack in England.I loved it, and now I kinda want to go back and watch the Viking series on History channel to see if they got it right or not.

What I didn't realise is how much we don't know about the Vikings - their motives, their customs, their lives - not big on writing things down. However, believe it or not, there is an LGBTQI+ agenda interspersed throughout the book that is very frustrating to have to get through. Wetenschappelijk verantwoord, zeer uitgebreid en op zich lekker geschreven onderzoek naar de Vikingen. This book was clear, concise and analytical, while also allowing lots of space for fun examinations, easy to digest prose, and moments of fancy from the author. There were more than a few times when I doodled question marks in the margins because I wasn’t quite convinced by his use of the literary or documentary evidence.Scholarly, colourful and often remarkably funny, this is history at its very best, a richly decorated window on to a very strange world.

Everyone had their own identity – their self-image – and its outward projection; some of them were familiar to us, others frighteningly alien”. While it is a ton of information to take in, this is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in the Viking Age or Viking culture, whether you are a beginner to the topic or familiar with the material. Toch is dit boek soms wel wat droog, maar het is wel fijn om van begin tot eind mee te worden genomen in de Vikingcultuur. From here, he begins to trace the sociopolitical developments that came together to spark the Viking phenomenon.I also found the organisation of the last third of the book to be somewhat jumbled, with chapters whose titles didn’t quite match their topics and whose overarching goals perhaps weren’t as clearly defined as they could be.

From a military standpoint, the average Viking warrior was certainly male, although there are some examples of ambiguous graves where all the trappings of a warrior are found, but the body in the grave is female.Some of its most striking discoveries include the central role of slavery in Viking life and trade, and the previously unsuspected pirate communities and family migrations that were part of the Viking 'armies' - not least in England. Part three moves the story to the mid-eleventh century, as the Viking phenomenon diversified across the northern world. This was the time of the raids and their gradual escalation from isolated attacks to invasions of conquest, in the ever-present context of expanding trade networks. Certainly I can't share everything, but I would encourage anyone who is interested in an equitable history of the Vikings to read Children of Ash and Elm. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they reshaped the world between eastern North America and the Asian steppe.