The Vikings

• A fascinating new look at Vikings and the Viking Age, revealing how the identity of these people and their culture has been repeatedly reinvented throughout history, obscuring who the Vikings really were.
• Examines how Vikings lived - their religious rituals, their towns, their trade, seafaring, colonization and plundering. The author also highlights their impact and influence on the history and people of Northern Europe.
• The story of the Vikings is brought up to date, by looking at their re-invention from the Icelandic Sagas to 19th century nationalist movements, Wagner, and Nazism.
• Combines the latest archaeological and historical evidence with tales of Viking heroes, such as Erik Bloodaxe and Harold Bluetooth.

Readership: Readers interested in archaeology and european civilization in the Viking age, and people interested in Viking art and seafaring. Students of archaeology.

Julian D. Richards, Department of Archaeology, The University of York

List of illustrations
1: Vikings then and now
2: Early Scandinavian kingdoms
3: Pagans and Christians
4: Changes in the countryside
5: Towns and trade
6: Across the ocean: ships and seafaring
7: Expansion overseas
8: Vikings in England
9: Raiders and settlers around the Irish Sea
10: Vikings and Picts: genocide or assimilation?
11: Landnám in the North Atlantic
12: The edge of the world: Greenland and North America
13: Re-inventing the Vikings
Further reading
Index