The History of the Vikings by Murat Smith

The Vikings have been remembered as raiders descending from dragon ships, but violence was only one part of a much larger Norse world. This illustrated history follows Scandinavian societies from the later Iron Age through the transformations of the eleventh century. It explains longships, navigation, farming, law, slavery, belief, runes, craft and trade before tracing voyages across the North Atlantic and along the rivers leading towards Byzantium and the Islamic world. The book examines Lindisfarne, Dublin, the Danelaw, Iceland, Greenland, Vinland, Normandy and the North Sea empire of Cnut, while giving careful attention to women, workers, captives and local communities. Archaeology, inscriptions, coins and later sagas are compared rather than treated as interchangeable evidence. The result is a balanced account of how people from Scandinavia raided, settled, traded, converted and became part of the kingdoms they helped reshape.