A History of the Vikings Paperback Author: Gwyn Jones | Language: English | ISBN:
0192801341 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Review
"Excellent revision and useful for both graduates and undergraduates."--Benjamin T. Hudson, Pennsylvania State University
"In this revised edition of his 1968 volume, hailed as the definitive study of the three hundred years during which Scandinavians changed the face of medieval Europe, Jones has updated his text to incorporate the latest scholarly findings from both Europe and North America."--The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Excellent survey - in-depth and well balanced."--Cassandra Potts, Middlebury College
About the Author
Gwyn Jones is Emeritus Professor of English Language and Literature, University College, Cardiff
Direct download links available for A History of the Vikings Free PDF
- Paperback: 552 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (July 19, 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0192801341
- ISBN-13: 978-0192801340
- Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Unless you're an extremely knowledgeable expert on Viking history, you can't ask for much more than this opus from Gwyn Jones if you're at all interested in the subject. Jones presents a nearly overwhelming amount of detail on the far-flung history of the Vikings, from tribal origins in Scandinavia to their voyages of conquest and trade as far afield as Constantinople and Newfoundland. When historical information is scant or doubtful, Jones fleshes out the book with rewarding studies on Viking culture, language, and society; including a refreshingly understated examination of Norse mythology. We learn that sometimes the Vikings really did deserve their reputation as bloodthirsty marauders, but at the core they were very pragmatic empire builders who were usually able to blend into the societies they conquered, especially in Russia and Britain, thus disappearing as a distinct group and enriching the cultures of those other lands. The most fascinating portion of the book concerns the Viking exploration of the new world (including the harsh Iceland and Greenland) a good 500 years before Columbus. Jones also pulls out a surprise at the end of the saga with the indirect Norwegian influence on the Norman conquest of England in 1066, while the Normans had once been Vikings themselves.
Just note that if you decide to tackle this work, you are in for a real challenge. Jones is clearly the type of historian who refuses to let any detail or piece of knowledge go unused, giving this book an often oppressive sense of information overload. Some sections could really use more brevity and big-picture conclusions rather than all the exactitude. A case in point is the intensive coverage of petty power struggles between minor figures that really makes the tail end of the book a slog.
For me, Gwyn Jones's 'History of the Vikings' is, quite simply, far and away the best single-volume work on this subject in the English language. It first appeared back in 1968 (I first read it in the early 1970s), but has been repeatedly updated in the light of new scholarship and, unlike many works of that vintage, still reads as freshly as when it was first published.
The scope is comprehensive. He starts the story with the earliest references to Scandinavia in Greek and Roman literature (the Scandinavians didn't start writing their own history until well after the Viking period) and carries it right through to the defeat of the last Viking invasion of England in 1066. The start point couldn't be set earlier; the end point is perhaps a little arbitrary (anyone who has read Orkneyinga Saga knows there were still people around in the 12th century AD who hadn't heard the Viking age was over), but you've got to draw a line somewhere. Geographically, he covers the full sweep of the Viking world, from Newfoundland to the Volga and all points between. Unlike many writers, who treat the Viking phenomenon largely from the viewpoint of the people they attacked, he gives full weight to the Vikings at home and to the slow and painful integration of the Scandinavian homelands into more or less (often less) unified kingdoms.
Like all serious modern Viking scholars, he is healthily sceptical about the saga and legendary sources, but he uses infinite care and judgement in extracting the sparse grains of historical fact from them.
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