The Viking Saga

Description

In the eighth and ninth centuries, almost without warning, the Vikings began to smash their way west, south and east out of the bleak and sea-girt confines of Scandinavia. Danes, Norwegians and Swedes came sweeping up the beaches and along the rivers of Europe, plundering what they could carry, burning what they could not. The shock of their arrival has come down to us in horror-struck accounts by contemporary ecclesiastics telling of monasteries ravaged, of towns pillaged, of whole populations put to flight or to the sword. The Seine valley and the flatlands of Flanders, the Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, the green seaside hills of Ireland, the dun plains of the Ukraine all suffered in turn the violence of these far-ranging pirates. But as the decades turned, raiding changed to trade and conquest; Vikings began to settle, working land their fathers had devastated. They struggled for the mastery of England, they founded the Dukedom of Normandy, they laid the foundations for modern Russia. Exploring westward across the North Atlantic they colonized in turn the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and, at last and briefly, faraway Vinland on the American coast. Where once they had raided across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Vikings now upheld Byzantine order, proud members of the Empire’s Varangian Guard. In Scandinavia, kingdoms arose, cemented by a faith new to the north - Christianity. And wherever they went, the Vikings left behind them their special legacy - a heritage of boisterous and fiercely defended freedom. Peter Brent describes with a vivid and exciting immediacy the great Viking break-out, the voyages of plunder or discovery and the heroes who made them, the cruelty and bloodshed which was their accompaniment. In the process, he offers an illuminating glimpse of customs, beliefs and institutions which have left their mark on the Europe of today. The book is colourfully documented with a variety of maps and photographs. 8 pages of colour plates, 100 illustrations in black and white Acknowledgments 6 Introduction 9 1. Break-Out 13 2. The Harrying of the Franks 33 3. The Struggle for England 63 4. The Celtic Confrontation 105 5. Valhalla and After 129 6. The Byzantine Adventure 165 7. Westward to Vinland 189 8. The Last Viking 215 9. The Legacy 231 Genealogical Tables 248 Bibliography 254 Index 255