Northmen

July 11, 2016
In this ambitious, sprawling study, Haywood (Viking: The Norse Warrior’s Manual), who has written extensively on medieval Europe, manages to construct a definitive, if not always accessible, history of Viking civilization. He reaches into the dim past to study their creation myths and lore before embarking on a historical journey that covers nearly five centuries and spans several continents. The result is a dense, information-heavy work that digs deep into what made Viking culture tick. “The Vikings were an unprecedented phenomenon in European history, not for any technological, military or cultural innovation that they contributed to... but for the vast expanse of their horizons,” Haywood writes by way of introduction. And so he carefully and thoroughly examines their spread through Europe, into Asia, and across the seas to see how they affected the world, and how they evolved from a pagan culture into a Christian one—a development that spelled the end of the Vikings and the birth of a slightly more sedate Scandinavia. As a work of sociopolitical history, this is a solid, slow-paced affair jammed full of names, places, and dates. Its value is thus as an academic resource, a historian or researcher’s best friend, and it will be less useful for the casual reader looking for some easy answers. Maps & photo insert.

July 15, 2016
Dark Ages expert Haywood (Viking: The Norse Warrior's (Unofficial) Manual, 2013, etc.) sets out to chronicle the history of the Vikings, "an unprecedented phenomenon in European history...for the vast expanse of their horizons."The sagas were no doubt based on some facts, but many of the names belonged to the shadowy area between legend and history, and many of the cultures were illiterate. While the Viking Age is generally accepted to have run from the sack of Lindisfarne in 793 to the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, the author asserts that they were actively raiding in Scandinavia and the Baltic more than a century earlier. Haywood's lucid explanations of the cultures of the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians are vital to understanding the motivations for their movements. Their shallow draft boats allowed for speed--to quickly raid or escape from defenders and move to another victim. The Vikings were generally loyal to no one and happily accepted Christianity (with no intention of forsaking their pagan ways) and fought with locals against other raiders. For the most part, they were seeking booty and had no desire to settle, though that changed with different sectors. Their influence in Ireland, England, and France was absorbed into local cultures. Only in the Faroe Islands and Iceland, where little civilization existed, did Viking heritage remain. In Scotland's northern isles, they effectively eliminated the Picts, and their influence there lasted longer than even in Scandinavia. Where the Danes sailed in sight of land to Ireland, England, Europe, and Asia, the Norwegians incorporated the use of the pole star, sea birds, ice floes, clouds, and whale migrations. Haywood authoritatively explores it all in a densely informative narrative. An encyclopedic history of Scandinavia, her raiders, and the effect they had on world cultures--not necessarily a tale to curl up with next to a fire but certainly a sturdy reference book.

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Starred review from August 1, 2016

In his ambitious new book, Haywood, an expert on the Dark Ages in Europe, (The New Atlas of World History; The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings) attempts to provide broader geographical and historical context for the Vikings. The Norsemen were distinct in that no other early Europeans interacted and expanded their territory as early in history as they did, despite not being the most technologically advanced Europeans at the time. The author asserts that the Viking Era extends beyond the conventional period of 790-1066 CE, beginning earlier and culminating around 1240 when Viking seafaring and conquest began its inevitable decline. Haywood delves briefly into the Norse mythology that drove them, and covers a full chronology of Norse conquest, which has left a lasting impact on Europe, Asia, and North America. This meticulously researched book includes extensive maps, a full chronology, a comprehensive list of Viking kings and rulers, and resources for further reading and research including primary-source materials. VERDICT Delivering a well-researched and thoroughly captivating work, Haywood gives readers an expansive view of the Viking Era and peoples who continue to capture the collective imagination.--Lyndsie Robinson, Milne Lib., SUNY Oneonta

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
Haywood's subtitle is sobering, indicating as it does that the astonishing violence of Europe's northernmost peoples spanned four-and-a-half centuries. Haywood proceeds chronologically overall while switching sectional focus from England to France to Scotland and so forth, backing up in time as needed. In western Europe, Norwegian and Danish Vikings were pirates with plenty of coast to raid, plundering, killing, and taking captives to sell as slaves. In the east, Swedes sailed up the rivers of Russia and down those flowing into the Black and Caspian seas; trade figured sooner and more extensively in their depredations. Both western and eastern Vikings settled and cooperated as they raided, and the national agglomeration and centralization of those they attacked they gradually developed back home. Toward the end of their era, having adopted Christianity, they participated in crusades in both the Holy Land and their own precincts. Although Haywood doesn't seem to know the word whom, and the reader boggles at all the Erics, Sveins, and Olafs, Northmen is probably the Viking history for our time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)