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tamarant4's review
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
This is not the usual story of muddled battles and various kings and the spread of Christianity. It is the story of how the constant exchanges over water, the half-knowledge that things could be done differently, began to change people’s minds profoundly. This cold, grey sea in an obscure time made the modern world possible. [loc. 165]
This excellent book has an alternate subtitle in some editions: "A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe". This may be more accurate, and more inclusive (who's the 'us' who've been made who we are?) but less poetic.
Pye's thesis, illustrated by examples from archaeology and geology as well as textual sources, is that the countries around the North Sea developed an international trading network in the early medieval period, re-introducing coins as an alternative to barter. He points out that from a port on the east coast of England, in medieval times, it was quicker to sail to Norway than to travel overland to York or London. Trade wasn't restricted to North Sea coasts, either: there is evidence of 'fishwives eating pomegranates and figs, one of them had gold velvet from Genoa, they used the fierce red melagueta peppers in their cooking and they had dishes, plates and cups of Spanish majolica' [loc. 3325]
There's a lot about seafarers (especially the Vikings) and religious communities, including the beguines (women leading a religious life without the usual restrictions of nunneries). Indeed, Pye is as interesting on the subject of womens' lives as on everything else. He suggests that priorities were different in societies where the men were away on voyages for extended periods: the women took care of business at home, and family ties became more flexible. "... in Italian towns, men wanted to be buried with their ancestors, with as much of a male line as they could find and if necessary some invented coats of arms. Around the North Sea, it was the marriage and the children that mattered." [loc. 4473].
The aspect of the book that interested me most, though, was the sense of temporary landscape, from the drowned houses which could be glimpsed at the lowest tides to the network of dikes, drains and ditches that kept the land more or less dry. I was hooked by Pye's opening narrative about Domburg, where in 1650 a storm revealed wooden coffins, the skulls all facing west, the dead buried with grave goods in a most unChristian way. 'For a few days the past was as solid as a coffin, unexplained like a ghost; and then the waters swept back and hid the dead before anyone could find out who they were.' [loc. 130] I learnt more about the ceaseless shifting of the balance between land and sea; the terpens, or mounds, built by the Frisians in the marshes, and the constant work of holding back the tide. I hadn't recognised that after the Black Death, there weren't enough able-bodied people to maintain pastureland (the ground being too salty for crops) or to keep the sea defenses intact. 'Sand, silt and sinking land were problems all around the North Sea. From now on, there could be no more unconsidered landscape...' [loc. 3015]
This is a fascinating book full of rabbitholes: the Heliand, an Old Saxon poem which retells part of the Bible in a distinctly Northern idiom; the initiation rites of the Hanseatic League; the Italian sumptuary laws aimed at women because 'their clothes cost so much that men couldn’t marry, which was leading to sodomy, so fashion was distracting everyone from the serious business of replenishing the population'; the absence of rats in the archaeological record around the North Sea, until 'the early Middle Ages'... I found the later chapters, focussed on trade and politics, less enthralling than the medieval parts, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Fulfils the ‘calendar’ rubric of the Annual Non-Fiction Reading Challenge. '[Bede] had to find names for years that were still in the future, something which neither Germans nor Romans did ... We still date events from the ‘year of Our Lord’, Annus Domini, the year of Christ’s birth; that was Bede’s invention – part of his solution to the problem of the calendar.'
wescovington's review against another edition
4.0
Just like civilisation around the North Sea took a while to develop, so did this book. But once the people of the North Sea began to flourish so did the book. The chapters on marriage and the plague were especially enlightening.
alfgaba's review against another edition
4.0
I flipped between 3 and 4 stars, but in the end the book has given me so much that it is worth 4 stars.
Cons:
It was difficult to follow at times - the book contains a lot of different persons, topics and time periods. This in itself is not bad but concentration is needed all the way through the book.
Pros:
This is excellent materiel for inspiration on further reading. If I didn’t already have a stack of unread books I would immediately have followed up on diving deeper into some of the things mentioned in the book.
As part of the North I am happy to get the North more onto the scene in the development of the Western world ;)
BTW:
A lot of reviews of this book claims that “the vikings suddenly disappear”... Well, it is the nature of this book. It is not a deep-diving book about specific periods, events etc...
Cons:
It was difficult to follow at times - the book contains a lot of different persons, topics and time periods. This in itself is not bad but concentration is needed all the way through the book.
Pros:
This is excellent materiel for inspiration on further reading. If I didn’t already have a stack of unread books I would immediately have followed up on diving deeper into some of the things mentioned in the book.
As part of the North I am happy to get the North more onto the scene in the development of the Western world ;)
BTW:
A lot of reviews of this book claims that “the vikings suddenly disappear”... Well, it is the nature of this book. It is not a deep-diving book about specific periods, events etc...
catrink's review against another edition
4.0
This is a well written history of a different kind. It focuses on the cultural history of northern Europe - England and the Scandinavian countries for the most part but the specific nations don't matter for this book. Rather than war and politics (except when the Vikings were discussed), Michael Pye focuses instead on underlying developments in social culture. How did writing spread? What about the move from bartering to currency? Business math skills (earlier than one might think), fashion (which moved from north to south), the change from enduring ordeals to prove one's innocence to what would become a recognized legal system, and so much more.
This is an interesting history that will be of interest to many. Academia isn't the target audience, but there are 45 pages of references for those who wish to follow up intriguing trails of information to learn more. All in all a most accessible and quite interesting read curled up in the recliner on a cold winter's night.
This is an interesting history that will be of interest to many. Academia isn't the target audience, but there are 45 pages of references for those who wish to follow up intriguing trails of information to learn more. All in all a most accessible and quite interesting read curled up in the recliner on a cold winter's night.
jmkemp's review against another edition
4.0
I found this an incredible help with world building for a post-viking fantasy. It covers a wide sweep of history, around a thousand years, and does so by topic rather than as a narrative chronology.
From a world building perspective there's an awful lot to like. The Edge of the World looks at what might have made the North Sea coastal states the way they became. Why are they different from the Mediterranean states just south of them?
It's very readable, and if you want to know more about any of the anecdotes then they're well referenced. I quite liked the analysis, although I recognise the limitations of it. The broad sweep means you couldn't be sure that there is an actual cause and effect in play. Even though multiple instances of a phenomenon exist the passage of time means it could just be coincidence. However for fantasy world building it's good enough to run with.
The central premise is that the North Sea folk had more in common with each other than those overland to the south because they shared the sea as a primary method of transport. The British, Irish and Dutch are as much Viking as the Normans, Danes and Norwegians that also shared the North Sea on the edge of the world. The other key premise is that because we all lived on marginal land we needed to trade. None of us could be completely self sufficient, or at least not without a monotonous diet and clothing. So we took what we had lots of and either traded or raided. This is the foundation for a lot of our society.
This then extends to stock markets and limited liability companies with insurance. All ways to spread the risks and reward from the hazardous pursuit of trade. Women's rights are also covered. In the early periods, and in the Scandinavian countries, they're more advanced. Largely because you need an agent at home as well as one abroad when you are trading. So women get the involved in society to the same extent as the men do. There's less expectation of being a housewife. It's only when things become safer, and society more prosperous, that women lose their rights. Even then there's a class/wealth aspect to it. This is in contrast to the Mediterranean societies where the women were never empowered.
Lastly the origins of money, lost when the Roman Empire fell, are explored. There's an interesting chapter on how it moves from barter, to weight of precious metals over to paper.
From a world building perspective there's an awful lot to like. The Edge of the World looks at what might have made the North Sea coastal states the way they became. Why are they different from the Mediterranean states just south of them?
It's very readable, and if you want to know more about any of the anecdotes then they're well referenced. I quite liked the analysis, although I recognise the limitations of it. The broad sweep means you couldn't be sure that there is an actual cause and effect in play. Even though multiple instances of a phenomenon exist the passage of time means it could just be coincidence. However for fantasy world building it's good enough to run with.
The central premise is that the North Sea folk had more in common with each other than those overland to the south because they shared the sea as a primary method of transport. The British, Irish and Dutch are as much Viking as the Normans, Danes and Norwegians that also shared the North Sea on the edge of the world. The other key premise is that because we all lived on marginal land we needed to trade. None of us could be completely self sufficient, or at least not without a monotonous diet and clothing. So we took what we had lots of and either traded or raided. This is the foundation for a lot of our society.
This then extends to stock markets and limited liability companies with insurance. All ways to spread the risks and reward from the hazardous pursuit of trade. Women's rights are also covered. In the early periods, and in the Scandinavian countries, they're more advanced. Largely because you need an agent at home as well as one abroad when you are trading. So women get the involved in society to the same extent as the men do. There's less expectation of being a housewife. It's only when things become safer, and society more prosperous, that women lose their rights. Even then there's a class/wealth aspect to it. This is in contrast to the Mediterranean societies where the women were never empowered.
Lastly the origins of money, lost when the Roman Empire fell, are explored. There's an interesting chapter on how it moves from barter, to weight of precious metals over to paper.
mcfade28's review against another edition
4.0
I usually struggle to focus on non fiction but this kept my attention throughout. This book covers some history of the North Sea and surrounding countries, covering a variety of topics like trade, fashion, law and the Plague. It was an interesting book and would recommend it to anyone who likes to learn a little history.
ariel_bloomer's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Rape, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic