They didn’t wear horned helmets. they neither drank from the skulls of their enemies nor burned their dead on ships (at least not very often). beyond the northlands, he wanted to dispel some of these well-worn Viking stereotypes, but he also wanted to move past the age-old historical “raiders vs. traders” debate.
Certainly there were many raids and trades, but true Norse history is much more complex than this. It takes place on a global stage that stretches from the borders of North America in the west to the Russian steppes in the east, from the arctic wastelands of the north to the mighty empires of the south. and while much of what we know about the Norse comes from horrified foreign chroniclers, I wanted to explore how the Norse themselves experienced, remembered, and imagined the world through the stories passed down from generation to generation. there is plenty of room in these tales for fanciful and extravagant characters: far-traveling heroes, man-eating trolls, poison-spitting dragons, obscene pagan gods.
You are reading: Best books about vikings
Other stories unfold more like family dramas or tense political thrillers, with scheming kings, brave heroes, and feuds turning into bloody tragedies. so it’s only fitting that the Norse legacy has proven to be fertile ground for writers in many genres, the inspiration for stories of sex, violence, and adventure expressed in everything from humorous historical novels to modern mythos and comics.
1. the greenlanders by jane smiley greenland was settled around 985 by erik the red, who had been expelled from iceland for murder. the colony survived for several hundred years, but how and why it came to an end is still debated. This meticulously researched saga imagines life in Norse Greenland during the final decades of settlement. I spent several years researching this part of Norse history before discovering this novel, including two summers exploring Norse ruins in Greenland. but reading the Greenlanders was a revelation: for the first time, I felt I understood what it might have been like to experience the slow decline of this society into oblivion.
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2. vikings: the north atlantic saga edited by william fitzhugh and elizabeth ward my copy of this book could be described as “much loved” – the spine is torn, the pages are falling out of the binding, and there are dogs post-notes it with ears on almost every page. Articles are organized into several parts: Viking Homelands, Viking Raiders, Vikings in the North Atlantic, Viking America, Norse Greenland, and Viking Legacy. Packed with color photographs and illustrations, this book is like going to the best Viking museum exhibit in the world, but without sore feet.
3. magnus chase and the sword of summer by rick riordanmagnus chase is a homeless bolshy orphan living on the streets of boston. He also happens to be the son of the pagan god Frey, and is destined for an afterlife in Hotel Valhalla. readers don’t have to know Norse mythology from him to enjoy this first in a series of young adult novels. but those with a little more knowledge can sit back and enjoy riordan’s sharp retelling of old tales for a new generation: my favorite detail is the sea god njord reimagined as a microbrewery-obsessed hipster.
4. Neil Gaiman’s American Gods Continuing the theme of Norse mythos reimagined for the modern age, American Gods is a classic in the genre. Immigrants to America have brought their gods and guardian spirits with them, but as beliefs fade, so does the power of the old gods. New deities have risen to take their place, and the stage is set for a modern day Ragnarok – the final battle in Norse mythology, where the gods must fall. Gaiman’s new book, Norse Mythology, comes out this month.
5. Echoes of Valhalla: Beyond the Eddas and Sagas by Jón Karl HelgasonStraight off the press, this is a highly entertaining study of how ancient sagas and sagas have been reimagined and adapted. Norse myths in comics, plays, music and movies. highlights include a discussion of led zeppelin’s immigrant song and the development of the viking metal subgenre (strains of which can sometimes be heard from my office door when I need inspiration).
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6. ohthere’s voyages edited by janet bately and anton englertthe title isn’t exactly catchy, but i chose this book because it’s a series of essays focusing on my favorite scandinavians. Oh, there was an arctic explorer and trader who visited the court of King Alfred in Anglo-Saxon England in the late ninth century. he told the king that he lived “further north than all the northmen”, and described his dealings with the people who lived even further north: the ancestors of today’s Sámi. ohthere has always appealed to me because he is the only authentic 9th century Norse voice, even if it is transmitted through a different language (Old English). it’s also a window into a much less familiar part of Norse history: that of trading and collecting tribute in the Arctic.
7. Frans G Bengtsson’s The Long Ships is historical fiction at its finest: a classic Viking adventure story written over 70 years ago. It’s not just a swashbuckling game, it’s a psychologically complex and unexpectedly funny play starring Orm Tostesson: Stoic hero, tender lover, incurable hypochondriac. The action takes place in the decades before the year 1000 and covers a wide geographic area that includes Muslim Spain, Kievan Rus, England devastated by the Vikings, and Denmark on the cusp of conversion to Christianity.
8. Iceland: Her Scenes and Sagas by Sabine Baring-Gould Best known for the Hymn Ahead Christian Soldiers and the Book of Werewolves, Baring-Gould, like many educated Victorians, harbored a passion for the old Norse-Icelandic sagas. In 1862, at the age of 28, he crossed Iceland on horseback, “to examine the famous scenes of the saga.” his travelogue is interspersed with melodramatic and typically Victorian accounts of the sagas. But the tale is made more memorable by the often unflattering comic sketches of his fellow travelers, including the burly Mr. Briggs, who takes a “big comfy” bed around Iceland so he won’t have a rough time. /p>
9. Viking Raiders by Anne Civardi and James Graham-Campbell Despite the title, this cleverly illustrated book introduces children to Norsemen as more than just Viking raiders: they’re also farmers, hunters, traders, explorers, and settlers. This book is aimed at youngsters, but its historical accuracy makes it a wonderfully entertaining teaching aid even for academics. This is not surprising, given that one of the authors is James Graham-Campbell, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archeology at UCL.
10. Peter Madsen’s Valhalla series The Norse gods have enjoyed many reincarnations in graphic form, since the mighty Thor comics of the 1960s. This is my favorite, although Asterix and the Normans came in second place. The stories closely follow the original medieval sources and are just as dark and viscerally funny, from Thor dressing up as a bride to rescue her hammer to the monstrous Fenris wolf breaking his bonds to herald Ragnarok. But there’s also a place for contemporary issues like gender equality: In Valhalla, not all the heroes are big guys with beards.
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- Beyond the Northlands: The Viking Voyages and Old Norse Sagas by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is published by Oxford University Press priced at £25. is available from the guardian bookstore for £21.25