The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Iceland History > Item 225
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The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
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by Julian D. Richards
Sales Rank: 410936
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List Price: $14.99
$11.69
At Amazon
on 11-27-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 168 pages
Published by: Oxford University Press, USA November 3, 2005
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0192806076
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0192806079
Book Dimensions:
6.6 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
Weighs: 5 ounces
Product Description
The Viking reputation is one of bloodthirsty seafaring warriors, repeatedly plundering the British Isles and the North Atlantic throughout the early Middle Ages. Yet Vikings were also traders, settlers, and farmers, with a complex artistic and linguistic culture, whose expansion overseas led them to cross the Atlantic for the first time in European history. Highlighting the latest archaeological evidence, Julian Richards reveals the whole Viking world: their history, their culture, and their legacy of overseas expansion for trade, colonization, and plunder. Viking identity is explored through what we have learned about their towns, art, shipbuilding, and religious rituals. Here the Viking story is brought up to the present, from the tales of adventure found in medieval Icelandic sagas, to their exploitation as a symbol of nationalism in the nineteenth century by Wagner, and later by Hitler and the Nazi party. The author also highlights their impact and influence on the history and people of Northern Europe. Vikings, a fascinating new look at a people and culture that have been reinvented throughout history, will take readers closer to discovering who they really were.
About The Author
Julian Richards is Professor of Archaology at the University of York, and co-director of the Centre for Medieval Studies. He specialises in the archaeology of Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age England, and has directed several excavations of Viking settlements, including the only Viking cremation cemetery in the British Isles. Previous publications include Viking Age England (Tempus, 2000).
Reader Reviews
The author obviously has the credentials to write on this subject, however, sometimes expertise sucks the wonder right out of people. This book is so dry it makes the Vikings seem boring! I amazes me that someone so interested in a subject could make it seem so dull. I felt as though the book spent much more time on the Picts, the Irish, Iceland, and other lands and peoples than it did on the Vikings themselves. I wanted to learn what the Vikings were like. How did they live? How did they fight? What about their religion? How did they come to adopt Christianity? What about their literature? Who were their greatest leaders? How did they get ominous names like Erik Bloodaxe? The book addresses none of these questions. Instead, the bulk of the book runs down a bunch of archeological sites (e.g., this grave in the UK had five swords and a necklace in it and this other one in Denmark had a spear and a helmet in it). Unfortunately, the author gives no indication what any of these finds tell us about the Vikings. I do not feel that I know anything more about the Vikings than I did before I read this book. If interested in this subject, pick another book. There's got to be something better out there.
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The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Available from Amazon
Price: $11.69
Updated on 11-27-2008.
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