The Vikings

A Very Short Introduction
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-0-19-894897-1
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 176 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 111 mm x 174 mm

Reihe: Very Short Introductions

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring

The Vikings are of huge popular and academic interest, but 'Viking' is a nebulous concept: in different contexts, Vikings have been marauders, merchants, manufacturers, poets, explorers, democrats, statesmen, or warriors. It is also a relatively recent concept. Originally used to refer only to pirate activity, it came to be used as an ethnic term to refer to a whole people, and then as a chronological label, giving its name to the Viking Age. With this fluidity it didn't mean the same in tenth-century Scandinavia, fifteenth-century Iceland, and nineteenth-century England. In fact, our modern usage of Viking owes more to later re-inventions than any original reality.

This Very Short Introduction presents all that is new and exciting about Vikings in a short and accessible volume. It reviews who they were, where they came from, and why, and it also seeks to demonstrate why they have retained their importance to historians. Focusing particularly on archaeological discoveries of the last thirty years, it examines what is known about the peoples who emerged from Scandinavia in the ninth and tenth centuries. Initial hit-and-run raiding parties became armies of thousands of warriors, and the quest for portable wealth in the form of silver and slaves turned into the quest for land and full-scale colonisation. As Viking colonists sailed out across the North Atlantic, they settled new lands, leaving a permanent legacy. This volume investigates that legacy, with an emphasis on changing perceptions of Vikings and their relevance for a modern audience.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Richards, Julian D.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 1: Vikings then and now

- 2: Early Scandinavian kingdoms

- 3: Pagans and Christians

- 4: The rural economy

- 5: Towns and trade

- 6: Overseas expansion

- 7: Viking armies and settlers in England

- 8: Raiders and traders around the Irish Sea

- 9: Scotland and the Isles

- 10: Landnám in the North Atlantic

- 11: The edge of the world: Greenland and North America

- 12: Reinventing the Vikings

Über Autor(innen)

Julian D. Richards is Professor of Archaeology at the University of York and founding Director of the Archaeology Data Service and Heritage Science Data Service. He has directed excavations of several Anglo-Scandinavian settlements, and of a cemetery of members of the Viking Great Army at Heath Wood (Derbyshire), and their winter camp at Torksey (Lincolnshire). He has collaborated with Professor Dawn Hadley to investigate the Viking Great Army of the late ninth century and their winter camp at Torksey. He was awarded an OBE for services to Heritage and Digital Archiving in the New Year Honours for 2024.