Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, the Vikings surged from their
Scandinavian homeland to trade, raid and invade along the coasts of
Europe. Their influence and expeditions extended from Newfoundland to
Baghdad, their battles were as far-flung as Africa and the Arctic. But
were they great seafarers or desperate outcasts, noble heathens or
oafish pirates, the last pagans or the first of the modern Europeans?
This concise study puts medieval chronicles, Norse sagas and Muslim
accounts alongside more recent research into ritual magic, genetic
profiling and climatology. It includes biographical sketches of some of
the most famous Vikings, from Erik Bloodaxe to Saint Olaf, and King
Canute to Leif the Lucky. It explains why the Danish king Harald
Bluetooth lent his name to a twenty-first century wireless technology;
which future saint laughed as she buried foreign ambassadors alive; why
so many Icelandic settlers had Irish names; and how the last Viking
colony was destroyed by English raiders. Extending beyond the
traditional 'Viking age' of most books, A Brief History of the Vikings
places sudden Scandinavian population movement in a wider historical
context. their swift expansion and its supposed halt. Supposed because,
ultimately, the Vikings didn't disappear: they turned into us.
