Origin story: Their early stories are hard to establish and the Norse mythology that we know today is largely later reconstruction. Some of its most striking discoveries include the central role of slavery in Viking life and trade, and the previously unsuspected pirate communities and family migrations that were part of the Viking 'armies' - not least in England.

They are a person’s outer shell, that being their appearance, their personality and spirit, a person’s luck component and finally a feminine sense of family. Part three moves the story to the mid-eleventh century, as the Viking phenomenon diversified across the northern world. Catching myself doing this, I would shake my head, yawn, and ask whether it was worthwhile going back to re-read .Any and all of these may provide the answer, although it is certainly not for any one particular reason, as most moments in history seem to attest too. I found the first half less than scintillating :) The second half picks up when the author starts writing about the Viking Dispora and the raiding.

To add insult to injury, he soft pedals the blatantly wretched aspects of Viking culture, minimizing them. It did make me wonder how much less violence and plunder might have happened if the ratios between men and women were more equal in Viking culture? He just focuses on presenting the Viking’s story as has been told to us in the present by the existing historical and archaeological evidence that has been left behind, and it is neither the story of mere crude seagoing brutes nor anyone that should be put upon any pedestal.He never says away from it, but he qualifies it, he deepens them beyond the surface level pillaging that we know the Vikings for. A 24-meter (79-foot)-long, 5-meter (16-foot)-wide 32-oar funeral longship, circa 890, in Harald Finehair's reign, was found in 1880. If you do not have this book as part of your Viking history book collection you are sadly lacking, I think. The stereotype of the Viking that we know from history books and popular media is here dismantled and presented anew by Mr. I loved it, and now I kinda want to go back and watch the Viking series on History channel to see if they got it right or not.

As a truly modern skald he has given his work a soul, which is rare for nonfiction, and this ability is what separates him from the rest who had endeavoured such an adventure into the Viking world. He draws on historical records, discoveries made at archaeological digs and burial sites across Europe, and the historical observations made by those who had contact with them at the time.

I have always been amazed at how much an archaeological situation can tell us, for example, a Vikings burial holds the tales of a saga.