Somerville, Angus A., ed.; McDonald, R. Andrew, ed., The Viking Age: A Reader (Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures 14. Toronto. University of Toronto Press, 2010).

Text name(s): Egil's Saga; Saga of the People of Laxdale; Heimskringla; The Life of Anskar; Prose Edda; Poetic Edda; Eyrbyggja Saga; History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen; Njal's Saga; Grettir's Saga; History of the Danes; Orkneyinga Saga; Saga of the Volsungs; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Annals of Ulster; History of the Normans; Landnamabok; King's Mirror; Islendingabok; Saga of Erik the Red; Saga of the Greenlanders

Number of pages of primary source text: 488

Medieval Author(s): Adam of Bremen Rimbert Snorri Sturluson Saxo Grammaticus Dudo of St. Quentin

Dates: 825 - 1263

Archival Reference:

Original Language(s): Old Norse; Latin; Arabic; English - Anglo-Saxon / Old English;

Translation: English translation.

Translation Comments: The editors acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Behnaz Mirzai with the Arabic texts included.

Geopolitical Region(s): Scandinavia; Denmark; Norway; Sweden; England; British Isles; Scotland; Ireland; Byzantium; Russia; France; Ukraine; Iceland; New World; Iberian Peninsula;

County/Region: Orkney; Normandy; Vinland; Greenland; The Hebrides; Faeroe Islands;

Apparatus: Index Bibliography Facsimile Introduction

Comments:

This fourteenth publication in the excellent Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures series from Broadview Press is an extensive collection of sources and source excerpts for the Viking Age (traditionally 793-1066). In addition to excerpts from numerous Norse Sagas, Somerville and McDonald include selections from sources written by other cultures in contact with Vikings, including the Carolingians, Irish, Byzantines, English, Scottish, Arabs, and French. They also include a few facsimiles of runestones and other artifacts.

The chapters are organized thematically:

1. Descriptions of the Scandinavian Homelands
2. Scandinavian Society
3. Ninth Century Scandinavia as seen in the Vita Ansgarii
4. Early Norse Religion
5. Women in the Viking Age
6. Viking Warriors and Weapons
7. Viking Ships
8. Viking Invasions and Raids
9. From Raiding to Settlement
10. Vikings in the East
11. Exploration of the North Atlantic
12. Viking Life and Death
13. Conversion to Christianity
14. State-Building
15. The End of the Viking Age

Introduction Summary:

The brief (4 pp) introduction seeks to set out some definitions for the term viking, and for the Viking Age. It begins by attempting to dispel the popular image of the vikings as “shaggy, unkempt, ax-wielding thugs in horned helmets who . . . nearly [destroyed] western civilization . . .” The original definition of the term víkingr was a sea-borne raider. Furthermore, the editors emphasize the importance of the distinction between Norse (a people) and viking (an occupation). They acknowledge the traditional 793 date of the raid on Lindisfarne as a beginning point for the Viking Age, but argue for a slow decline through the 11-13th centuries, rather than a strict cutoff following the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066). The last Viking action they recognize is the ill-fated raid on Scotland by Hákon IV ‘the Old’ Hákonarsson of Norway (d.1263). They also spend a few paragraphs addressing the dearth of literary sources for the Viking Age, particularly its early centuries. Finally, they explain the process by which personal and place names have been anglicized, and the pronunciation of Þ/þ and Ð/ð.

Cataloger: JFS