The Vikings

NOTE EDITORE

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.

SOMMARIO

1 - Vikings then and now2 - Early Scandinavian kingdoms3 - Pagans and Christians4 - The rural economy5 - Towns and trade6 - Overseas expansion7 - Viking armies and settlers in England8 - Raiders and traders around the Irish Sea9 - Scotland and the Isles10 - Landnám in the North Atlantic11 - The edge of the world: Greenland and North America12 - Reinventing the Vikings

AUTORE

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.

ALTRE INFORMAZIONI

• Condizione: Nuovo
• ISBN: 9780198948971
• Collana: Very Short Introductions
• Dimensioni: 174 x 111 mm
• Formato: Brossura
• Pagine Arabe: 176