All that happened before, everything from ancient heathen times we see swirling before our eyes as though in a thick fog, in a vast space. With the coming of Christianity we acquired better writing materials than rocks and trees, and faster scribes than the runemasters of old. Introduction In a recommendation from 1806 on the conditions and needs of a planned Danish National Museum the Danish historian Rasmus Nyerup wrote this on the nature of pre-Christian history: Everything stemming from ancient times and before the introduction of Christianity to these lands can properly be described as infinitely old. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. Includes bibliographical references and index. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Ferguson, Robert, 1948The Vikings : a history / Robert Ferguson. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published in 2009 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.Ĭopyright © Robert Ferguson, 2009 All rights reserved Map illustrations by Jeff Edwards Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. VIKING Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Introduction Chapter 1 - The Oseberg Ship Chapter 2 - The culture of northern Heathendom Chapter 3 - The causes of the Viking Age Chapter 4 - ‘The devastation of all the islands of Britain by the Heathens’ Chapter 5 - The Vikings in the Carolingian Empire Chapter 6 - Across the Baltic Chapter 7 - The Danelaw I Chapter 8 - The settlement of Iceland Chapter 9 - Rollo and the Norman colony Chapter 10 - The master-builder Chapter 11 - The Danelaw II Chapter 12 - When Allah met Odin Chapter 13 - A piece of horse’s liver Chapter 14 - Greenland and North America Chapter 15 - Ragnarök in Iceland Chapter 16 - St Brice, St Alphege and the wolf Chapter 17 - The Viking saint Chapter 18 - Heathendom’s last bastion 2 Impeccably researched and filled with compelling accounts and analyses of legendary Viking warriors and Norse mythology, The Vikings is an indispensable guide to medieval Scandinavia and is a wonderful companion to the History Channel series. Robert Ferguson is a sure guide across what he calls «the treacherous marches which divide legend from fact in Viking Age history.» His long familiarity with the literary culture of Scandinavia with its skaldic poetry is combined with the latest archaeological discoveries to reveal a sweeping picture of the Norsemen, one of historys most amazing civilizations. Raiders and traders, settlers and craftsmen, the medieval Scandinavians who have become familiar to history as Vikings never lose their capacity to fascinate, from their ingeniously designed longboats to their stormy pantheon of Viking gods and goddesses, ruled by Odin in Valhalla. From Harald Bluetooth to Cnut the Great, the feared seamen and plunderers of the Viking Age ruled Norway, Sweden, and Denmark but roamed as far as Byzantium, Greenland, and America.
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