The Viking Way
The Viking Way

Author: Neil S. Price

Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781842172605

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Magic, sorcery and witchcraft are among the most common themes of the great medieval Icelandic sagas and poems, the problematic yet vital sources that provide our primary textual evidence for the Viking Age that they claim to describe. Yet despite the consistency of this picture, surprisingly little archaeological or historical research has been done to explore what this may really have meant to the men and women of the time. This book examines the evidence for Old Norse sorcery, looking at its meaning and function, practice and practitioners, and the complicated constructions of gender and sexual identity with which these were underpinned. Combining strong elements of eroticism and aggression, sorcery appears as a fundamental domain of women's power, linking them with the gods, the dead and the future. Their battle spells and combat rituals complement the men's physical acts of fighting, in a supernatural empowerment of the Viking way of life. What emerges is a fundamentally new image of the world in which the Vikings understood themselves to move, in which magic and its implications permeated every aspect of a society permanently geared for war. In this fully revised and expanded second edition, Neil Price takes us with him on a tour through the sights and sounds of this undiscovered country, meeting its human and otherworldly inhabitants, including the Sámi with whom the Norse partly shared this mental landscape. On the way we explore Viking notions of the mind and soul, the fluidity of the boundaries that they drew between humans and animals, and the immense variety of their spiritual beliefs. We find magic in the Vikings' bedrooms and on their battlefields, and we meet the sorcerers themselves through their remarkable burials and the tools of their trade. Combining archaeology, history and literary scholarship with extensive studies of Germanic and circumpolar religion, this multi-award-winning book shows us the Vikings as we have never seen them before.

River Kings
River Kings

Author: Cat Jarman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-02-01

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1643138707

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Follow an epic story of the Viking Age that traces the historical trail of an ancient piece of jewelry found in a Viking grave in England to its origins thousands of miles east in India. An acclaimed bioarchaeologist, Catrine Jarman has used cutting-edge forensic techniques to spark her investigation into the history of the Vikings who came to rest in British soil. By examining teeth that are now over one thousand years old, she can determine childhood diet—and thereby where a person was likely born. With radiocarbon dating, she can ascertain a death-date down to the range of a few years. And her research offers enlightening new visions of the roles of women and children in Viking culture. Three years ago, a Carnelian bead came into her temporary possession. River Kings sees her trace the path of this ancient piece of jewelry back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, discovering along the way that the Vikings’ route was far more varied than we might think—that with them came people from the Middle East, not just Scandinavia, and that the reason for this unexpected integration between the Eastern and Western worlds may well have been a slave trade running through the Silk Road, all the way to Britain. Told as a riveting history of the Vikings and the methods we use to understand them, this is a major reassessment of the fierce, often-mythologized voyagers of the North—and of the global medieval world as we know it.

The Viking Way
The Viking Way

Author: Malcolm Buckley

Publisher:

Published: 2020-08-21

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'A must for all who have loved and lost their best friend and loyal companion' The Viking Way is a challenging long distance footpath in the UK, and runs 147 miles from The Humber Bridge to Oakham in the County of Rutland. My pilgrimage along this amazing footpath in June 2019, spanned 12 consecutive days. The purpose of the walk was to assist in my 'coming to terms' with the loss of my Chocolate Labrador 'Denver' in June 2018. During the nine months following Denver's passing, I nearly left this life 3 times...by choice, the devastation his loss created took me down into the deepest, darkest depths of despair. The level of grief I experienced in losing Denver was absolute, and beyond anything I'd ever known. Carrying Denver's collar in my backpack, here is the record of the outer physical challenges I encountered on the trail, and to an equal degree the deeper inner battle of the journey through my complicated, unresolved grief. An emotional roller coaster that takes the reader into the depths of complicated grief, and yet the love, joy and happiness our dogs bring into our lives shines through.

A Viking Way of Life
A Viking Way of Life

Author: Steven P. Ashby

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2014-01-15

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1445620588

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An engaging look at life in the Viking Age.

Children of Ash and Elm
Children of Ash and Elm

Author: Neil Price

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2020-08-25

Total Pages: 629

ISBN-13: 0465096999

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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.

An Illustrated Viking Voyage
An Illustrated Viking Voyage

Author: W. Hodding Carter

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 0743407024

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 1997, journalist and history buff W. Hodding Carter, along with a band of amateur sailers, set out to retrace Leif Eriksson's journey to North America. They sailed in a handmade ship modeled after a traditional Viking "knarr." It was the first voyage by Westerners to precisely follow the Vikings' route in nearly 1000 years. The chronicle of this voyage is told in this book, through photographs and colorful running text.

The Viking Spirit
The Viking Spirit

Author: Daniel McCoy

Publisher:

Published: 2016-06-01

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9781533393036

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Viking Spirit is an introduction to Norse mythology like no other. As you'd expect from Daniel McCoy, the creator of the enduringly popular website Norse Mythology for Smart People (Norse-Mythology.org), it's written to scholarly standards, but in a simple, clear, and entertaining style that's easy to understand and a pleasure to read. It includes gripping retellings of no less than 34 epic Norse myths - more than any other book in the field - while also providing an equally comprehensive overview of the fascinating Viking religion of which Norse mythology was a part. You'll learn about the Vikings' gods and goddesses, their concept of fate, their views on the afterlife, their moral code, how they thought the universe was structured, how they practiced their religion, the role that magic played in their lives, and much more. With its inclusion of the latest groundbreaking research in the field, The Viking Spirit is the ultimate introduction to the timeless splendor of Norse mythology and religion for the 21st Century.

The Northern Path
The Northern Path

Author: Douglas "Dag" Rossman

Publisher: Seven Paws PressInc

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780964911390

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This accessible and reflective book will appeal to anyone with an interest in mythology and storytelling. It has two sections: a retelling of the myths, then an analysis of their sources, meaning, and application to modern people. We think Rossman is uniquely qualified both to tell these tales and to reflect upon their value for modern times, and that The Northern Path is far more than just another collection of Norse myths. Rossman is well acquainted with the work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. For the past 25 years, he has not only studied Norse mythology but also told these tales to live audiences, as the Norse skalds told them centuries ago, and interacted with audiences about their meaning and relevance for today. He has worked with the myths both with adults and with Norwegian-American youngsters at the Sons of Norway's Camp Norway, and has made the myths, the runes, and their wisdom part of his own personal journey.

The Age of the Vikings
The Age of the Vikings

Author: Anders Winroth

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-09-07

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1400851904

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A major reassessment of the vikings and their legacy The Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships to explore. The Age of the Vikings tells the full story of this exciting period in history. Drawing on a wealth of written, visual, and archaeological evidence, Anders Winroth captures the innovation and pure daring of the Vikings without glossing over their destructive heritage. He not only explains the Viking attacks, but also looks at Viking endeavors in commerce, politics, discovery, and colonization, and reveals how Viking arts, literature, and religious thought evolved in ways unequaled in the rest of Europe. The Age of the Vikings sheds new light on the complex society, culture, and legacy of these legendary seafarers.