Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price-656 pages
This is a sweeping look at the Vikings and the Viking Age (roughly 750-1050). I have seen Vikings on screen (Vikings on History Channel, in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla the video game, and other places) and I am very interested in learning more about the "real" Vikings and how they lived. I was not disappointed with this book. It is a good, fairly easy read. Vikings did not live glorious lives nor should they be glorified or celebrated. In many ways, Vikings were a very brutal people and Price compares them aptly to pirates (especially those who operated in the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th Centuries). Vikings owned and sold slaves and a goal of many raids was to capture slaves to be sold. Slaves were called thralls at this time and were treated very poorly. Thralls had no real rights or freedom and had little recourse to attain freedom. Many thralls were even sacrificed, sometimes to be buried with their owners when they died. Viking burials are explored in great detail in a chapter and an elaborate boat/ship burial is explained. A Viking male who was almost assuredly of some prominence was buried with several different animals who had been sacrificed and butchered (which was apparently common practice, according to the author). Furthermore (and more brutal, disturbing), a female thrall volunteered herself to be sacrificed and buried with him. According to Price, the female thrall was thence repeatedly raped by males of the community before being ritually butchered and buried with her owner. It paints a pretty picture, right! Price also explores the religion of the Vikings. He explains that they didn't have any real organized religion but they did have somewhat of a relationship with the gods (Thor, Odin, Freyya, Freyr, etc.). They did sacrifice and pray to one or more of the gods at times and they did believe in an afterlife, although not necessarily in the since of heaven and hell/good and bad. Price discusses much of the politics and everyday life of Vikings. For a while, they didn't have unified countries with rulers, but they operated more in war bands and communities. What I found most fascinating in this book, though, was Price's discussion of the raids and battles that took place throughout the Viking Age. The raids started as isolated events, but became much more coordinated as the Viking Age continued. The Vikings held much of England more than once with the longest period being during the Danelaw. They left their imprint on much of Europe and even into North America, the Middle East, and Russia. By the end of the Viking Age, they had raided and/or explored/colonized Frankia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Vinland, Iceland, Egypt, Spain, and Greenland among potentially others. Some of their coordinated attacks may have included hundreds of Viking longships and thousands of warriors. It wasn't really until the 11th Century that Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland started to become more unified and kings tried to unite and rule. This somewhat coincided with the influx of Christianity to Scandinavia. I was fascinated by reading this sweeping history on the Vikings and I have a better grasp on how they lived and their psychology.
