ABSTRACT

Filling a gap in the literature for an academically oriented volume on the Viking period, this unique book is a one-stop authoritative introduction to all the latest research in the field.

Bringing together today’s leading scholars, both established seniors and younger, cutting-edge academics, Stefan Brink and Neil Price have constructed the first single work to gather innovative research from a spectrum of disciplines (including archaeology, history, philology, comparative religion, numismatics and cultural geography) to create the most comprehensive Viking Age book of its kind ever attempted.

Consisting of longer articles providing overviews of important themes, supported by shorter papers focusing on material of particular interest, this comprehensive volume covers such wide-ranging topics as social institutions, spatial issues, the Viking Age economy, warfare, beliefs, language, voyages, and links with medieval and Christian Europe.

This original work, specifically oriented towards a university audience and the educated public, will have a self-evident place as an undergraduate course book and will be a standard work of reference for all those in the field.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

chapter |4 pages

Who Were the Vikings?

part I|330 pages

Viking Age Scandinavia

part I|46 pages

People, society and social institutions

chapter One|12 pages

Scandinavia before the Viking Age

chapter Two|9 pages

Law and Society

Polities and legal customs in Viking Scandinavia

chapter Four|9 pages

Women and Sexual Politics

chapter Five|8 pages

Slavery in the Viking Age

part I|93 pages

Living space

chapter Six|10 pages

Naming the Land

chapter Seven|16 pages

Farm and Village in the Viking Age

chapter Seven 1|6 pages

Manor, Cult and Market at Lake Tissø

chapter Eight 1|7 pages

Birka

chapter Eight 2|11 pages

Hedeby: An Outline of its Research History

chapter Eight 3|9 pages

Kaupang – ‘Skíringssalr'

chapter Eight 4|5 pages

Lejre and Roskilde

chapter Eight 5|5 pages

Ribe

chapter Eight 7|5 pages

Sebbersund

chapter Eight 8|5 pages

Sigtuna

chapter Eight 9|5 pages

Viking Age Uppåkra and Lund

part I|43 pages

Technology and trade

chapter Ten|11 pages

Coinage and Monetary Economies

chapter Eleven|11 pages

Viking Ships and the Sea

chapter Twelve|5 pages

Viking Age Textiles

chapter Thirteen|7 pages

Handicrafts

part I|19 pages

Warfare and weaponry

chapter Fourteen|11 pages

Raiding and Warfare

chapter Fifteen|8 pages

Viking Weaponry

part I|62 pages

Pre-Christian religion and belief

chapter Seventeen|14 pages

Popular Religion in the Viking Age

part I|65 pages

Language, literature and art

chapter Twenty-one|10 pages

Runes

chapter Twenty-two|13 pages

Poetry in the Viking Age

chapter Twenty-two 1|5 pages

The Performance of the Poetic Edda

chapter Twenty-three|19 pages

The Icelandic Sagas

chapter Twenty-three 1|4 pages

Snorri Sturluson: His Life and Work

chapter Twenty-Three 2|4 pages

The Sagas of Icelanders

chapter Twenty-Three 3|4 pages

The Heroic and Legendary Sagas

chapter Twenty-four|16 pages

The Development of Viking Art

part II|279 pages

The Viking Expansion

part II|98 pages

The British Isles

chapter Twenty-five|9 pages

Vikings in England

chapter Twenty-six|18 pages

Vikings in Insular Chronicling

chapter Twenty-seven|23 pages

Viking Settlement in England

chapter Twenty-seven 1|4 pages

The Creation of the Danelaw

chapter Twenty-seven 2|6 pages

York

chapter Twenty-seven 3|6 pages

The Isle of Man

chapter Twenty-nine|10 pages

The Vikings in Wales

chapter Thirty|17 pages

The Norse in Scotland

chapter Thirty-one|6 pages

The Vikings and Ireland

part II|31 pages

Continental Europe and the Mediterranean

chapter Thirty-three|23 pages

Scandinavia and the Continent in the Viking Age

chapter Thirty-three 1|5 pages

The Duchy of Normandy

chapter Thirty-three 2|4 pages

The Viking Conquest of Brittany

part II|26 pages

The Baltic

chapter Thirty-five|15 pages

The Viking Age in Finland

chapter Thirty-six|11 pages

The Vikings and the Eastern Baltic

part II|66 pages

Russia and the east

chapter Thirty-seven|21 pages

The Viking Rus and Byzantium

chapter Thirty-eight|26 pages

The Vikings in the East

chapter Thirty-nine|7 pages

The Vikings and Islam

chapter Forty|12 pages

Arabic Sources on the Vikings

part II|56 pages

The North Atlantic

chapter Forty-one|9 pages

The North Atlantic Expansion

chapter Forty-two|17 pages

Iceland

chapter Forty-two 1|9 pages

The Faroe Islands

chapter Forty-three|16 pages

The Norse Settlements in Greenland

chapter Forty-three 1|6 pages

The North Atlantic Farm

An Environmental View

chapter Forty-four|14 pages

The Discovery of Vinland

chapter Forty-four 1|5 pages

Norse and Natives in the Eastern Arctic

part III|56 pages

Scandinavia Enters the European Stage

part III|24 pages

The coming of Christianity

part III|30 pages

The development of nation states (ríki)

chapter Forty-seven|7 pages

The Creation of Norway

chapter Forty-eight 1|3 pages

Cnut the Great and His Empire

chapter Forty-nine|7 pages

The Emergence of Sweden