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A review by lgrunwald
The Age of the Vikings by Anders Winroth
4.0
4/5
If you are looking for a academic but easily understandable rundown on many aspects of the Viking age this is definitely the book you are looking for. Andre Winroths vast knowledge and research on the era is both informative and incredibly fascinating from start to finish. One of my biggest compliments was his acknowledgements on the many misconceptions of the era and the people in it due to mass misinformation and the media at large and giving many alternative perspectives and ideas as to what a misconception would be in reality when it's not already presented with archeological evidence. I also love that he is willing to admit that we don't have all the answers to the Viking age and how many things have been lost to time but he makes it fun to speculate about anyway.
The book is sectioned off into different topics in each chapter such as the actual Viking attacks and weaponry, to farm culture, travel and ship making, trade, religion and eventual conversion of Scandinavia, and art and runic inscriptions. It's all very organised and if you were interested in a particular topic it would be easy to skip to if you wished to do so. My personal favourite sections were about farm life, ship building, and religious aspects to the text which were all so insightful and painted a unique picture of mediaeval Scandinavia that I now want to study in even more detail. I also am absolutely fascinated by Winroths descriptions of bodies found in the ship burials and archeologist being able to tell if they had certain diseases or if they had broken bones are battle wounds in their lives. It was so amazing! I'm going to try and find more resources on it as soon as possible.
My only complaint is that the trade chapter of the novel along with a few other places seemed to drag on and on and Winroth tended to repeat himself quite a few times on things that I felt were unnecessary. I also didn't tend to agree with every speculation he made about migration from Scandinavia to other places and his reasoning behind it due to previous reading but it's only encouraged me to educate myself further and look into more of the sources which Winroth readily gives you in the back of his novel.
All in all absolutely worth the read if you are interested in the Viking age as a whole or mediaeval Scandinavians as people and a small glimpse at their lives. It has also vastly encouraged me to look further into other resources of study around mediaeval life in general.
If you are looking for a academic but easily understandable rundown on many aspects of the Viking age this is definitely the book you are looking for. Andre Winroths vast knowledge and research on the era is both informative and incredibly fascinating from start to finish. One of my biggest compliments was his acknowledgements on the many misconceptions of the era and the people in it due to mass misinformation and the media at large and giving many alternative perspectives and ideas as to what a misconception would be in reality when it's not already presented with archeological evidence. I also love that he is willing to admit that we don't have all the answers to the Viking age and how many things have been lost to time but he makes it fun to speculate about anyway.
The book is sectioned off into different topics in each chapter such as the actual Viking attacks and weaponry, to farm culture, travel and ship making, trade, religion and eventual conversion of Scandinavia, and art and runic inscriptions. It's all very organised and if you were interested in a particular topic it would be easy to skip to if you wished to do so. My personal favourite sections were about farm life, ship building, and religious aspects to the text which were all so insightful and painted a unique picture of mediaeval Scandinavia that I now want to study in even more detail. I also am absolutely fascinated by Winroths descriptions of bodies found in the ship burials and archeologist being able to tell if they had certain diseases or if they had broken bones are battle wounds in their lives. It was so amazing! I'm going to try and find more resources on it as soon as possible.
My only complaint is that the trade chapter of the novel along with a few other places seemed to drag on and on and Winroth tended to repeat himself quite a few times on things that I felt were unnecessary. I also didn't tend to agree with every speculation he made about migration from Scandinavia to other places and his reasoning behind it due to previous reading but it's only encouraged me to educate myself further and look into more of the sources which Winroth readily gives you in the back of his novel.
All in all absolutely worth the read if you are interested in the Viking age as a whole or mediaeval Scandinavians as people and a small glimpse at their lives. It has also vastly encouraged me to look further into other resources of study around mediaeval life in general.