Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

by Neil Price
Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

by Neil Price

Hardcover

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Overview

The definitive history of the Vikings — from arts and culture to politics and cosmology — by a distinguished archaeologist with decades of expertise



The Viking Age — from 750 to 1050 — saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples into the wider world. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they ranged from eastern North America to the Asian steppe. But for centuries, the Vikings have been seen through the eyes of others, distorted to suit the tastes of medieval clerics and Elizabethan playwrights, Victorian imperialists, Nazis, and more. None of these appropriations capture the real Vikings, or the richness and sophistication of their culture.


Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Children of Ash and Elm tells the story of the Vikings on their own terms: their politics, their cosmology and religion, their material world. Known today for a stereotype of maritime violence, the Vikings exported new ideas, technologies, beliefs, and practices to the lands they discovered and the peoples they encountered, and in the process were themselves changed. From Eirík Bloodaxe, who fought his way to a kingdom, to Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, the most traveled woman in the world, Children of Ash and Elm is the definitive history of the Vikings and their time.




Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780465096985
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 08/25/2020
Pages: 624
Sales rank: 102,318
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Neil Price is distinguished professor and chair of archaeology at Uppsala University, Sweden. He has been researching, teaching, and writing on the Vikings for nearly thirty-five years and is the author of several books on the history of the Viking Age. He lives in Sweden.

Table of Contents

Maps ix

A Note on Language xvii

Prologue: Driftwood 1

Introduction: Ancestors and Inheritors 7

The Making of Midgard

1 The Home of Their Shapes 31

2 Age of Winds, Age of Wolves 64

3 The Social Network 107

4 The Pursuit of Liberty 141

5 Border Crossings 155

6 The Performance of Power 180

7 Meeting the Others 205

8 Dealing with the Dead 225

The Viking Phenomenon

9 Inroads 271

10 Maritoria 286

11 Warriorhoods 308

12 Hydrarchy 335

13 Diaspora 362

New Worlds, New Nations

14 The Golden Age of the Sheep Farmer 385

15 Silver, Slaves, and Silk 400

16 The Experiments of Monarchy 444

17 Lands of Fire and Vines 474

18 The Many Ends of the Viking Age 495

Epilogue: Games 505

References 511

Acknowledgements 573

Index 579

Black-and-white illustrations insert follows page 268.

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