Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas

Description

In the dying days of the eighth century, the Vikings erupted onto the international stage with brutal raids and slaughter. The medieval Norsemen may be best remembered as monk murderers and village pillagers, but this is far from the whole story. Throughout the Middle Ages, long-ships transported hairy northern voyagers far and wide, where they not only raided but also traded, explored and settled new lands, encountered unfamiliar races, and embarked on pilgrimages and crusades. The Norsemen travelled to all corners of the medieval world and beyond; north to the wastelands of arctic Scandinavia, south to the politically turbulent heartlands of medieval Christendom, west across the wild seas to Greenland and the fringes of the North American continent, and east down the Russian waterways trading silver, skins, and slaves. Beyond the Northlands explores this world through the stories that the Vikings told about themselves in their sagas. But the depiction of the Viking world in the Old Norse-Icelandic sagas goes far beyond historical facts. What emerges from these tales is a mixture of realism and fantasy, quasi-historical adventures, and exotic wonder-tales that rocket far beyond the horizon of reality. On the crackling brown pages of saga manuscripts, trolls, dragons, and outlandish tribes jostle for position with explorers, traders, and kings. To explore the sagas and the world that produced them, Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough now takes her own trip through the dramatic landscapes that they describe. Along the way, she illuminates the rich but often confusing saga accounts with a range of other evidence: archaeological finds, rune-stones, medieval world maps, encyclopaedic manuscripts, and texts from as far away as Byzantium and Baghdad. As her journey across the Old Norse world shows, by situating the sagas against the revealing background of this other evidence, we can begin at least to understand just how the world was experienced, remembered, and imagined by this unique culture from the outermost edge of Europe so many centuries ago. Cover Beyond the Northlands: Viking voyages and the old norse sagas Copyright Dedication Acnowledgements Contents List of Illustrations List of Maps Basic Pronunciation Guide to Tricky Letters · Vikings · Chapter 1: Inroads from the Sea Dragons over Northumbria Danelaw Eggs and dregs Slaughter-wolves Northland of old Chapter 2: Fire and Ice Terra nova Saga stories Mouths and manuscripts Trials by water and fire Blurred lines · North · Chapter 3: In the Lands of the North Out of space, out of time Wonders of the north Deep magic Darkness will give way ‘Much knowing’ Snow queens Chapter 4: North of all Northmen As far north as whale hunters go King of the north Pagans and politics Sailing by Chapter 5: Where the Wild Things Are Fighting with monsters A hairy situation Giantland geography Glittering plains Butter and bacon · West · Chapter 6: Westward Ho! The last homely house Frozen in time Tempers and tourism Outside over there Winter of discontent Bred on frost Chapter 7: New World Snorri’s story Sailing the saga seas L’Anse aux Meadows A taste of paradise Trouble with the natives Through the looking glass Paradise lost Off the map Chapter 8: The Way the World Ends A frosty reception Ice age Silent death Not with a bang Dark and dangerous land Helluland reborn · East · Chapter 9: Eastern Promise Steppe by steppe Another history Small islands Raiders and traders Cold wars Kings of the east A clash of kings Tangled threads Chapter 10: Set in Stone Immortal memory Far travellers A river runs through it Lost in translation Telling tales Chapter 11: Far-Travelling Beasts Beauty and the bestiary Here be dragons Marvels and monsters · South · Chapter 12: Journey to the Centre of the Earth From the frozen edge War and peace Battle-happy kings Due south Rough guide to Rome Chapter 13: Sailing to Byzantium What is past God’s holy fire No country for old men Lords and ladies A drowsy emperor Monuments of magnificence Hammered gold Unageing monuments Sensual music Chapter 14: World’s End Filling in the gaps Monstrous regiments To the ends of the earth This side of paradise Epilogue Endnotes Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Sagas in Translation Picture Acknowledgements Index