Vikings - A Very Short Introduction

The Viking reputation is one of bloodthirsty seafaring warriors, repeatedly plundering the British Isles and the North Atlantic throughout the early Middle Ages. Yet Vikings were also traders, settlers, and farmers, with a complex artistic and linguistic culture, whose expansion overseas led them to cross the Atlantic for the first time in European history. Highlighting the latest archaeological evidence, Julian Richards reveals the whole Viking world: their history, their culture, and their legacy of overseas expansion for trade, colonization, and plunder. Viking identity is explored through what we have learned about their towns, art, shipbuilding, and religious rituals.

A History of Icelandic Literature, Vol. 5

"A History of Icelandic Literature" provides a complete overview of the literature of Iceland, from the country's settlement in the ninth century until the present day, including chapters on lesser-known areas such as drama, children's literature, women's literature, and North American Icelandic literature. It is the first work to give non-Icelandic readers a wide-ranging introduction to Iceland's literature and each contributor to this volume is a recognized expert in his or her area. Despite its peripheral geographical position and small population, Iceland produced some of the most remarkable literary treasures of the Middle Ages, particularly sagas and Eddic poetry.

Women in Old Norse Society

Jenny Jochens captures in fascinating detail the lives of women in pagan and early Christian Iceland and Norway - their work, sexual behavior, marriage customs, reproductive practices, familial relations, leisure activities, religious practices, and legal constraints and protections. Much of this information also applies to everyday life in the entire Germanic world. Conveying the experiences not only of aristocrats but also of ordinary farmers, the author draws from her extensive knowledge of the oldest and fullest record of the Germanic tribes.

Fargrskinna, a Catalogue of the Kings of Norway - A Translation with Introduction and Notes

This volume includes the first complete translation of a thirteenth-century vernacular history of Norway from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. An immediate source for the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson, it is a central text in the Old Norse genre of Kings’ sagas. It includes extensive citation of skaldic verses, some of them preserved nowhere else. This translation preserves many of the metrical features of this complex verse form, which are explained in the commentary along with aspects of historical and cultural interest arising from the text. The introduction places the text within the Kings’ saga tradition and examines the particular concerns of its anonymous author.

Icelanders and the Kings of Norway - Medieval Sagas and Legal Texts

The book uses sagas and legal texts to re-examine the relations between mediaeval Icelanders and the Norwegian kings. It demonstrates that the Icelanders - partly subjects of the king, and partly beyond his power - were ready to negotiate with him for their own benefit, and presents a methodological re-evaluation of authorial attributions of the sagas and their use as historical sources. Key to the book is a revisionary analysis of two laws made between the Icelanders and the kings of Norway...