There is a sympathetic subtext running between the covers of this new book about the Vikings: please stop spreading so much nonsense in TV-series…
In the middle of this fascinating book is a vignette about a group of teens, who had been studying the life and times of the Vikings during winter-term. Come summer they were camping at Stavgard on the large island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea east of the mainland of Sweden. Local lore said that this was where the Viking chieftain Stavar had hidden his vast treasure and the plan was to “live like Vikings” for just a couple of days. Here they started bonfires, baked their bread, fished for pike and trout, smoked perch and sacrificed it to the gods in order to secure an abundant harvest, good fortune and lots of gold and silver. In the end one of the youngsters struck luck when he followed a rabbit into its hole and could fill his hand with old coins. All in all they found 1452 Viking silver coins that had been hidden around the middle of the tenth century; nearly all of them Arabic Dirhams.
Anders Winroth tells this story in the beginning of a chapter (p. 99) on “Coins, Silk and Herring”, which aims to show to the reader how the Vikings as tradesmen played a very significant role when exporting Northern luxuries – pelts, walrus-tusks, amber and slaves to the merchants from the Middle East, trading in silk, spices and other luxurious items. Thus silver drained from Western Europe was to some extent re-circulated back into the European Economy on this great Northern arc of commerce. Although some of it obviously ended up in treasure troves on Gotland, a lot was re-circulated through the Viking Emporias of Birka, Haithabu, Dorestad, York and Dublin (to name just some).
The reason to recount the adventures of the youngsters here is not so much that Anders Winroth took part in the youngster’s camping (he must have been too young). Rather the vignette is obviously used to demonstrate how the re-enactment of the life and times of the Vikings in Scandinavia is serious business; much in the same way as is the re-enactment of the life and times of the Indians on the Great Plains of America is to American schoolchildren. Respect for the indigenous people demands that some kind of serious “correctness” is at least sought after by serious teachers and their students.
Though this is not something, which figures on the surface of the text itself, the book is thus obviously about the “Age of the Vikings” as such and not about the many myths (except when they need to be debunked).
Instead the book simply demonstrates how it is possible to tell wonderful and entertaining stories of the real lives and times of people, who lived in days long gone by, without compromising the academic standards in any way. Suffice it to tell that any reader delving into the pages will be awarded with thrilling stories of a grand Viking party in a mead-hall, how to fight with a half-a-kilo axe, how to travel far from home down the Dnieper River, how to build a ship and how many hours it took, how chieftains turned into kings and how it was to live back home on the farm in a time when Pagans and Christians had to accommodate each other. Finally we are given a careful reading of the subtle art of poetry and goldsmithing plus the story of how it all ended.
This is not to say that the book is in anyway a handbook meant for re-enactors. Not at all! For one thing it is not luxuriously illustrated. In fact I missed out some obvious illustrations for instance of the whole treasure trove from Erikstorp, demonstrating the way in which the Viking woman must have worn it. (We are only presented with a photo of part of it).
Another reason, though, is that the book is not designed nor written to fill this niche. Rather it is meant as a – highly successful – piece of “Cultural History” in the grand traditions of Scandinavian historians like for instance Hans Hildebrand and Troels Frederik Troels-Lund. The overall question, which the book raises and answers in such a learned and comprehensive way is thus what life was like for Vikings, whether pillaging, trading abroad or sacrificing to the Norse Gods? And how it all made sense to these Northerners from ca. 793 – 1066?
Anders Winroth is – although Swedish by birth – the Forst Family Professor of History at Yale University. The book is written in near-perfect English although tiny mistakes have obviously slipped through the keen eye of the copyeditor. For instance, in Swedish it is called “rista i runor”; in English it is not called “inscribe in granite” but “inscribe on granite”… but this is really just a very minor quibble.
As will be apparent now, this book is obviously where to start for anyone fed up with MGM’s “Vikings” and even remotely interested in the real story behind.
Review by Karen Schousboe
The Age of the Vikings
By Anders Winroth
Princeton University Press 2014
ISBN: 9780691149851 (Hardcover
ISBN: 9781400851904 (eBook)
ABSTRACT (blurb):
The Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by medieval and modern myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and developed a vast trading network. They travelled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships, not only to raid, but also to explore. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets, and even the infamous berserkers were far from invincible.
By dismantling the myths, The Age of the Vikings allows the full story of this period in medieval history to be told. By exploring every major facet of this exciting age, 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 endeavours in commerce, politics, discovery, and colonization, and reveals how Viking arts, literature, and religious thought evolved in ways unequalled in the rest of Europe. He shows how the Vikings seized on the boundless opportunities made possible by the invention of the longship, using it to venture to Europe for plunder, to open new trade routes, and to settle in lands as distant as Russia, Greenland, and the Byzantine Empire. Challenging the image of the Vikings that comes so easily to mind, Winroth argues that Viking chieftains were no more violent than men like Charlemagne, who committed atrocities on a far greater scale than the northern raiders.
Drawing on a wealth of written, visual, and archaeological evidence, The Age of the Vikings sheds new light on the complex society and culture of these legendary seafarers.
CONTENTS
1 Introduction: The Fury of the Northmen
2 Violence in a Violent Time
3 Röriks at Home and Away: Viking Age Emigration
4 Ships, Boats, and Ferries to the Afterworld
5 Coins, Silk, and Herring: Viking Age Trade in Northern Europe
6 From Chieftains to Kings
7 At Home on the Farm
8 The Religions of the North
9 Arts and Letters
10 Epilogue: The End of the Viking Age
Further Reading, Acknowledgments, Abbreviations, Notes, Bibliography,
List of Illustrations,
Index
READ MORE
Interview with Anders Winroth on myth versus history
Anders Winroth is also the author of The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe.