This fascinating book examines the origins of the peoples of northern Europe, of the cross-cultures which developed around the North Sea and the Baltic rather than around the Mediterranean. Germans and Anglo-Saxons, Picts, Scots, Irish, Welsh, Scandinavians, and Northern Slavs all met and mingled in the chill northern reaches of Europe, righting, trading, settling, intermarrying, and influencing one another—and our own lives—to an extent that is only being truly appreciated today.

In AD 793 Norse warriors struck the English isle of Lindisfarne and laid waste to it. Wave after wave of Norse ‘sea-wolves’ followed in search of plunder, land, or a glorious death in battle. Much of the British Isles fell before their swords, and the continental capitals of Paris and Aachen were sacked in turn. Turning east, they swept down the uncharted rivers of central Europe, captured Kiev and clashed with mighty Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

In AD 793, Norse warriors struck the English isle of Lindisfarne and laid waste to it. Wave after wave of Norse "sea wolves" followed in search of plunder, land, or a glorious death in battle. Much of the British Isles fell before their swords, and the continental capitals of Paris and Aachen were sacked in turn. Turning east, they swept down the uncharted rivers of central Europe, captured Kiev, and clashed with mighty Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

After 1918 Central Europe's multiethnic empires were replaced by nation-states, which gave rise to an unusual ethnolinguistic kind of nationalism. This book provides a detailed history and linguistic analysis of how the many languages of Central Europe have developed from the 10th century to the present day.

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