The A to Z of the Vikings 34 ppsx

No survey of the British Isles has been published since Henry Loyn’s The Vikings in Britain, so for more up-to-date accounts incorporating recent archaeological evidence in particular, r

and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, which contain introductory

sur-veys alongside more detailed and discursive articles on individual aspects

of the Viking experience in these regions No survey of the British Isles

has been published since Henry Loyn’s The Vikings in Britain, so for

more up-to-date accounts incorporating recent archaeological evidence in particular, readers are instead referred to surveys of the individual

coun-tries: James Graham-Campbell and Colleen Batey’s Vikings in Scotland:

An Archaeological Survey, Mark Redknap’s Vikings in Wales: An Ar-chaeological Quest, and Julian Richards’s Viking Age England Barbara Crawford’s Scandinavian Scotland is a key work for students of the

Vikings in Scotland and is particularly useful because it deals with writ-ten and place-name evidence, as well as archaeological material Gillian Fellows-Jensen’s work on the place-names of the British Isles is an es-sential starting point for anyone interested in onomastics and in the den-sity of Scandinavian settlement in the British Isles, although it should be noted that her views have developed and changed over the period since she began publishing

In addition to the items listed in section VII, readers of French are

also directed to Lucien Musset’s Les Invasions: Le second assaut con-tre l’Europe chrétienne (VIIe–XIe siècles) Published in 1971 (Paris:

Presses universitaires de France), this remains a classic work on the Eu-ropean experience during the Viking Age The recently-published

col-lection of papers, L’héritage maritime des Vikings en Europe de l’Ouest

(Caen: Presses universitaires de Caen, 2002), edited by Elisabeth Ridel contains several articles on the Vikings in Normandy, including work on ships and the maritime vocabulary of the region Most articles also have short English summaries for those who do not read French

Recent years have seen fresh archaeological work on Scandinavian activity in Eastern Europe, which has led to a reassessment of the na-ture and role of the Rus in the mixed society of European Russia Simon

Franklin and Jonathan Shephard’s The Emergence of the Rus is a recent

and authoritative account of the Scandinavian contribution

Those seeking a general introduction to the range of Viking ships and navigation techniques are directed to the articles by Jan Bill and Arne Emil

Christensen in section IX Olaf Olsen and Ole Crumlin-Pedersen’s Five Viking Ships from Roskilde Fjord provides a good introduction to these

im-portant finds Judith Jesch’s book is a critical account of the vocabulary used in skaldic poetry and runic inscriptions to describe Viking ships and

their crews Seán McGrail’s Ancient Boats is a technical and comparative

account of the ships of northwest Europe and is recommended for those who require a more in-depth and contextual view of Viking ships and

ship-building Ian Heath and Angus McBride’s The Vikings is part of a popular

series on the “history, organization, appearance, and equipment of famous fighting men of the past and present” and contains color illustrations of how Viking warriors and weapons may have looked, as well as plates showing some of the more famous archaeological finds of weapons and ar-mor There is a small bibliography at the end of this book, but this is very general and somewhat outdated; those seeking more detail and more

ref-erences are advised to consult the entries “Weapons” and “Warfare” in Me-dieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (see section I).

Much of the evidence for Scandinavian society postdates the Viking Age and comes from Iceland, rather than Denmark, Norway, or

Swe-den Saga and Society, the English translation of Preben Meulengracht Sørensen’s 1977 Danish classic Saga og Samfund, provides an excellent

introduction into the literary evidence for Icelandic society in the me-dieval period However, runic inscriptions and skaldic poetry provide

some information about conditions in Scandinavia before c AD 1100.

Judith Jesch’s books on Viking women and men deal with both types of

this evidence, as well as other kinds However, while Women in the Viking Age is written as an introduction that can be read by both the be-ginner and the more experienced researcher, Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age is more detailed and more technical in its discussion and

fo-cuses on the precise meaning of social ranks that are referred to in in-scriptions and poetry Ruth Mazo Karras’s book on slavery remains the classic work on this subject

Helen Clarke and Björn Ambrosiani’s Towns in the Viking Age

con-tains accounts of individual towns across northern Europe, as well as more general information about the development of urban communities

in this period, and remains the best starting point for layman and scholar

alike Viking-Age Coinage in Northern Lands includes an introductory

article by A E Lieber on “International trade and coinage in the north-ern lands during the early Middle Ages” (pp 1–34) Readers of the Scandinavian languages are also encouraged to consult the entries

“Coins and mints” and “Hoards” in Medieval Scandinavia: An Ency-clopedia (see section I), which includes a comprehensive bibliography

of works, many of which are written in Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish

Those seeking a good introduction to Norse mythology could start with

R I Page’s Norse Myths, a slim volume that nevertheless manages to

sur-vey all the major sources, tales, and provides a useful annotated select bibliography More detail about scholarship on the subject can be found

in John Lindow’s “Mythology and mythography.” Anthony Faulkes’s

translation of Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda (see section II) is essential

for those who wish to consult one of the two major primary sources for

this mythology Translations of the Poetic Edda are more difficult to

rec-ommend; Carolyne Larrington’s (see section II) is the most

recently-published, but see the review in Saga-Book 25, 1998, pp 92–95 The Christianisation of Scandinavia by Birgit Sawyer, Peter Sawyer, and Ian

Wood provides a vey useful introduction to the sources and debates sur-rounding the conversion of the Vikings In both Sweden and Norway, re-search projects on the conversion process have produced a number of important works in the Scandinavian languages that are included in

sec-tion XVII In particular, readers are directed to Kristnandet i Sverige,

ed-ited by Bertil Nilsson, which includes English summaries of most articles,

and to Fra hedendom til kristendom: Perspektiver på religionsskiftet i Norge, edited by Magnus Rindal.

The number of books and articles on Old Norse prose and poetry is huge, and the list included in section XIII is extremely selective

Per-haps the single best survey is Carol Clover and John Lindow’s Old-Norse Literature: A Critical Guide, which contains substantial articles

by experts in the fields on most of the major saga genres and on skaldic

and Eddic poetry Jónas Kristjansson’s Eddas and Sagas is a much

shorter, illustrated introduction to the subject, for those who require a more basic survey of the major sources

Ole Klindt-Jensen and David Wilson’s Viking Art, although published

many years ago, remains the classic work of reference on the subject, al-though it is not particularly lavishly illustrated The chapter on Viking art

in The Viking World, edited by James Graham-Campbell (see Section III),

has short accounts of each major art style and includes color illustrations Much of the published work on sculpture deals with England, where stone monuments were produced in large numbers following the

Scandi-navian settlements The series, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, is

a major source of reference, providing as it does a detailed catalog of all the stone sculpture from the areas settled by Vikings, accompanied by il-lustrations A less detailed but nevertheless invaluable survey, which

dis-cusses the significance of the material as a whole, can be found in Richard

Bailey’s Viking Age Sculpture in Northern England.

The section on language and place-names is dominated by work on the British Isles, where the continued debate on the scale of Scandina-vian settlement has made this material particularly important As men-tioned above, Gillian Fellows-Jensen’s work is a necessary starting point for anyone interested in this subject R I Page’s and David Par-sons’s articles on “How long did the Scandinavian language survive in England” are key works on this difficult question More recently and

in more detail, Matthew Townend has discussed the question of lin-guistic contact in England and includes a full account of the sources for

this topic in his Language and History in Viking Age England Much of

the work on language and place-names in Scandinavia is published

in the Scandinavian languages, and readers are advised to consult Gillian Fellows-Jensen’s article with bibliography “Place-name

re-search in Scandinavia 1960–1982,” and Medieval Scandinavia: An En-cyclopedia (see section I), under personal names and language for

further details In addition to this, the classic works on place-names in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have been included in section XVII Those readers seeking a general introduction to the evidence of runic

in-scriptions should consult Ray Page’s Runes, which includes material from

Viking-Age Scandinavia alongside that from Anglo-Saxon England and Dark-Age Europe More detailed surveys of the runes of Denmark and Sweden can be found in Erik Moltke and Sven B F Jansson respec-tively, both of which remain classic works Unfortunately, there is no sim-ilar English-language counterpart for the Viking-Age inscriptions from Norway, although admittedly there are far fewer runic inscriptions from this part of Scandinavia Michael Barnes’s and Ray Page’s work on the runic inscriptions of the British Isles is authoritative and scholarly, al-though both are primarily concerned with establishing the corpus and cor-rect readings of texts Katherine Holman’s book is, as the title suggests, a consideration of the historical significance of these inscriptions, but does also contain a list of all the known Scandinavian runic inscriptions in

Britain Birgit Sawyer has recently published The Viking-Age Rune-Stones,

which brings together a number of Sawyer’s theories about the historical significance of 2,307 Viking-Age rune-stones from Scandinavia and cen-ters around her main argument that the entire corpus can be viewed as the result of concern for inheritance and property The published editions of

Scandinavian runic inscriptions are listed in section XVIII for those who read the Scandinavian languages

I REFERENCE WORKS

A Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Cleasby, Richard, and Gudbrand Vigfusson An Icelandic-English Dictionary.

2nd ed Supplement by William A Craigie Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957

Ekwall, Eilert The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names 4th ed.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960

Haywood, John Encyclopedia of the Viking Age London: Thames & Hudson,

2000

Lapidge, Michael, with John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg, eds The

Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.

Pulsiano, Philip, ed Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia New York:

Gar-land, 1993

Simek, Rudolf, ed Dictionary of Northern Mythology Translated by Angela

Hall Cambridge: D S Brewer, 1993

Williams, Ann, Alfred P Smyth, and D P Kirby A Biographical Dictionary of

Dark Age Britain: England, Scotland and Wales, c 500–c 1050 London:

Seaby, 1991

B Bibliographies

Bekker-Nielsen, Hans Old Norse-Icelandic Studies: A Select Bibliography.

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967

Fry, Donald K Norse Sagas Translated into English: A Bibliography New

York: AMS, 1980

Keynes, Simon Anglo-Saxon England: A Bibliographical Handbook for

Stu-dents of Saxon History 2nd ed Cambridge: Department of

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 2001

Syrett, Martin Scandinavian History in the Viking Age: A Select Bibliography.

Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, University

of Cambridge, 2001

II PRIMARY SOURCES

A General

Allen, W E D “The poet and the spae-wife: An attempt to reconstruct

Al-Ghazal’s embassy to the Vikings.” Saga-Book 15:3 (1960): 1–102.

Page, R I Chronicles of the Vikings: Records, Memorials and Myths London:

British Museum, 1995

B Scandinavia

Adam of Bremen History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen Translated

with introduction and notes by Francis J Tschan; with new introduction and selected bibliography by Timothy Reuter New York: Columbia University Press, 2002

Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum Edited and translated by M J Driscoll

Lon-don: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1995

The Book of Settlements Translated by Herman Pálsson and Paul Edwards.

University of Manitoba Icelandic Studies, 1 Winnipeg: University of Mani-toba, 1972

Dennis, Andrew, et al., trans Laws of Early Iceland: Grágás Winnipeg:

Uni-versity of Manitoba Press, 1980

Egil’s Saga Translated by Herman Pálsson and Paul Edwards Harmondsworth:

Penguin, 1976

Eyrbyggja Saga Translated by Herman Pálsson and Paul Edwards

Har-mondsworth: Penguin, 1989

Færeyinga Saga, or the Tale of Thrond of Gate Translated by F York

Pow-ell London: David Nutt, 1896 Facsimile reprint by Felinfach: Llanerch, 1995

Göngu-Hrolf ’s Saga Translated by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards

Edin-burgh: Canongate, 1980

Grettir’s Saga Translated by Denton Fox and Hermann Pálsson Toronto:

Uni-versity of Toronto Press, 1974

Kny´tlinga Saga: The History of the Kings of Denmark Translated by Hermann

Pálsson and Paul Edwards Odense: Odense University Press, 1986

Laxdæla Saga Translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson

Har-mondsworth: Penguin, 1969

Morkinskinna Edited by Theodore M Andersson and Kari Ellen Gade Ithaca,

NY: Cornell University Press, 2000

Njal’s Saga Translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson

Har-mondsworth: Penguin, 1960

The Norse Atlantic Saga [includes the Book of the Icelanders] Translated by

Gwyn Jones 2nd ed Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986

The Poetic Edda Translated by Carolyne Larrington Oxford: Oxford

Univer-sity Press, 1996

Runes See SECTION XVI.

The Saga of the Jómsvikings Translated by Lee M Hollander Austin:

Univer-sity of Texas Press, 1955

The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer

Trans-lated by Jesse L Byock Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990

Saxo Grammaticus The History of the Danes: Books I–IX Translated by Peter

Fisher, edited and commentary by Hilda Ellis Davidson Cambridge: D S Brewer, 1979–80

Skaldic Poetry See SECTION XIII.

Snorri Sturluson Prose Edda Translated by Anthony Faulkes London: J M.

Dent, 1987

——— Heimskringla: Sagas of the Norse Kings 3 vols Translated by Samuel

Laing London: Dent, 1961–64

Theodericus Monachus: Historia de antiquitate regum Norwagensium An Ac-count of the Ancient History of the Norwegian Kings Translated by David

and Ian McDougall, and introduction by Peter Foote London: Viking Soci-ety for Northern Research, 1998

Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred: Ohthere and Wulfstan Edited by

Niels Lund, translated by Christine E Fell, with essays by Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, P H Sawyer, and Christine E Fell York: William Sessions, 1984

The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America Grœnlendinga saga and Eirik’s saga Translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson

Har-mondsworth: Penguin, 1965

The Works of Sven Aggesen, Twelfth-Century Danish Historian Translated by

Eric Christiansen London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1992

C British Isles

Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources Translated by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge London:

Pen-guin, 1983

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Translated and edited by Michael J Swanton.

London: J M Dent, 1996

The Annals of Ulster (to AD 1131) Translated and edited by Seán Mac Airt and

Gearóid Mac Niocaill Dublin: Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, 1983

Ashdown, Margaret English and Norse Documents Relating to the Reign of

Ethelred the Unready Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930 Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286 2 vols Collected and

trans-lated by Alan Orr Anderson Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1922

Encomium Emmae Reginae Edited and translated by Alistair Campbell, with

new introduction by Simon Keynes Camden Classic Reprints, 4 Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998

Orkneyinga Saga Translated by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards London:

Penguin, 1981

Rollason, David, with Derek Gore, and Gillian Fellows-Jensen Sources for

York History to AD 1100 The Archaeology of York, 1 York: York

Archaeo-logical Trust, 1998

“Translatio Sancti Ælfegi Cantuariensis archiespiscopi et martyris: Osbern’s account of the translation of St Ælfheah’s relics from London to Canter-bury, 8–11 June 1023.” An annoted edition by Alexander R Rumble with

a translation of the text of Rosemary Morris and Alexander R Rumble in

The Reign of Cnut: King of England, Denmark and Norway, edited by

Alexander R Rumble, 283–315 London: Leicester University Press, 1994

War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, or The Invasion of Ireland by the Danes and other Norsemen Translated and introduced by J H Todd Rerum

Britanni-carum medii ævi scriptores, 48 London: Rolls Series, 1867

Whitelock, Dorothy, ed English Historical Documents c 500–1042 2nd ed.

London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1979

D Continental Western Europe

The Annals of Fulda Translated and annotated by Timothy Reuter Ninth-Century

Histories, 2 Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992

The Annals of St-Bertin Translated and annotated by Janet L Nelson

Ninth-Century Histories, 1 Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991

Dudo of St-Quentin History of the Normans Translated by Eric Christiansen.

Woodbridge: Boydell, 1998

The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni Edited and translated by Elisabeth M C van Houts

Ox-ford: Clarendon Press, 1992–95

van Houts, Elisabeth, trans and ed The Normans in Europe Manchester:

Man-chester University Press, 2000

Scholz, Walter Bernard, with Barbara Rogers, trans Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories Ann Arbor: University of

Michigan Press, 1970

Stefansson, Jón, trans “The Vikings in Spain from Arabic (Moorish) and

Span-ish sources.” Saga-Book 6 (1909): 31–46.

E Eastern Europe

Constantine Porphyrogenitos De Administrando Imperio Edited by G.

Moravcsik, translated by R J H Jenkins Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1967

Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text Edited and translated by Samuel

H Cross and Olgerd P Sherbowitz-Wetzor Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 1953

Smyser, H M “Ibn Fadlan’s account of the Rus with some commentary and

some allusions to Beowulf.” In Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honor of

Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr., edited by Jess B Bessinger Jr and Robert P.

Creed, 92–119 London: Allen & Unwin, 1965

Vikings in Russia: Yngvar’s Saga and Eymund’s Saga Translated by Hermann

Pálsson and Paul Edwards Edinburgh: Polygon, 1989

Zenkovsky, Serge A., trans and ed Medieval Russia’s Epics, Chronicles, and

Tales Rev ed New York: Penguin, 1974 [includes Russian Primary Chron-icle].

III GENERAL SURVEYS OF THE THE VIKING AGE

A Monographs

Foote, Peter G., and David M Wilson The Viking Achievement 2nd ed

Lon-don: Sidgewick & Jackson, 1980

Graham-Campbell, James, ed Cultural Atlas of the Viking World Oxford:

An-dromeda, 1994

——— The Viking World 2nd ed London: Windward and Frances Lincoln, 1989 Haywood, John The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings London: Penguin,

1995

Jones, Gwyn A History of the Vikings 2nd ed Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 1984

Logan, F Donald The Vikings in History 2nd ed London: Routledge, 1991 Roesdahl, Else The Vikings Rev ed London: Penguin, 1998.

Sawyer, P H Kings and Vikings London: Methuen, 1982.

——— The Age of the Vikings 2nd ed London: Edward Arnold, 1971 Turville-Petre, G The Heroic Age of Scandinavia London: Hutchison, 1951 Wilson, David M The Vikings and Their Origins London: Thames & Hudson,

1970

B Collections of Articles

Almqvist, Bo, and David Greene, eds Proceedings of the Seventh Viking

Congress, Dublin, 15–21 August 1973 Dublin: Royal Irish Academy,

1976

Ambrosiani, Björn, and Helen Clarke, eds The Twelfth Viking Congress:

De-velopments Around the Baltic and the North Sea in the Viking Age Birka

Studies, 3 Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet and Statens Historiska Museer, 1994

Andersson, Thorsten, and Karl Inge Sandred, eds The Vikings: Proceedings of

the Symposium of the Faculty of Arts of Uppsala University, June 6–9, 1977.

Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1978

Bekker-Nielsen, Hans, Peter Foote, and Olaf Olsen, eds Proceedings of the

Eighth Viking Congress, Århus, 24–31 August 1977 Odense: Odense

Uni-versity Press, 1981

Eldjárn, Kristján, ed þriðji Vikingafundur: Third Viking Congress, Reykjavík

1956 Árbók hins íslenzka fornleifafélags fylgirit 1958 Reykjavik:

Ísafoldarprentsmi∂ja, 1958

Falck, Kjell, ed Annen Viking Kongress Bergen 1953 Universitet i Bergen

år-bok 1955, Historisk-antikvarisk Rekke 1 Bergen: Universitet i Bergen, 1955

Farrell, R T., ed The Vikings London: Phillimore, 1982.

Faulkes, Anthony, and Richard Perkins, eds Viking Revaluations London:

Viking Society for Northern Research, 1993

Fitzhugh, William W., and Elisabeth I Ward, eds Vikings: The North Atlantic

Saga Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2000.

Foote, Peter, and Dag Strömbäck, eds Proceedings of the Sixth Viking

Con-gress, Uppsala 3–10 August 1969, Bonäs, Dalarna 10–12 August 1969.

Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1971

Knirk, James E., ed Proceedings of the Tenth Viking Congress, Larkollen,

Nor-way, 1985 Universitets Oldsaksamlings Skrifter, new series, 9 Oslo:

Uni-versitets Oldsaksamling, 1987

Larsen, Anne-Christine, ed The Vikings in Ireland Roskilde: The Viking Ship

Museum, 2001

Niclasen, Bjarni, ed The Fifth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, July 1965

Tór-shavn: Føroya Landssty´ri, Tórshavnar By´ráð, Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, and Føroya Fornminnissavn, 1968

Roesdahl, Else, and David M Wilson, eds From Viking to Crusader:

Scandi-navia and Europe 800–1200 The 22nd Council of Europe Exhibition.

Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers and The Council of Europe, 1992

Sawyer, Peter, ed The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings Oxford:

Ox-ford University Press, 1997

Simpson, W Douglas, ed The Viking Congress, Lerwick, July 1950 Aberdeen

University Studies, 132 Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1954

Small, Alan, ed The Fourth Viking Congress, York, August 1961 Aberdeen

Uni-versity Studies, 149 Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1965