Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough

 Embers of the Hands by Eleanor Barraclough --373 pages

This book examines the lives of ordinary people from the Viking Age, most of whom were farmers, merchants, wives, and children, rather than the raiders and warlords most commonly associated with the Norse. The author describes various artifacts used in grooming, playing board games, and making cloth. The photos show some of the oldest items that contain writing in runes. (The book's title is a Norse poetic reference to gold held in the hand.) The book ranges from Russia to Greenland over several centuries of Nordic expansion, and will be of interest to archaeology and history readers.