Everyday Life in the Viking Age

216 Pages·1987·14.21 MB·English

by  Jacqueline Simpson

Too often the Vikings are typed as
seafaring marauders who built fine
ships, looted Christian settlements,
and recorded their barbaric adven­
tures in epic poetry. But this picture,
inspired by the hostile pens of monk-
chroniclers in England and Ireland,
is far from complete. The Vikings
were a civilised race, who flourished
on land as well as sea, as is shown by
the settlements excavated at Jarlshof,
Oseberg and Gokstad.
By relating these and other archaeo­
logical discoveries to the wealth of
early Scandinavian and Icelandic
literature that survives, Jacqueline
Simpson has produced an authentic
and vivid picture of everyday life in
Viking times. In separate chapters
she covers the expansion of the
Vikings; their life on the land; ships
and sea expeditions; the trade of
the merchants; weapons and war­
riors; families and social life; games,
arts and poetry; religion and funer­
ary rites. These themes are explored
from the eighth to the mid-eleventh
centuries, with emphasis on the great
Viking Age, when Swedes, Got-
landers, Norwegians or Danes had
embraced Normandy and England,
and travelled as far as Greenland and
perhaps America. The variety and
excitement of Viking life is reflected
in the book's illustrations—over 100
photographs and drawings specially
prepared from a wide range of
original sources.

Everyday Life in the Viking Age
1 Head of a Norseman
Detail of carving on the Oseberg w agon
Everyday Life in the
VIKING AGE
JACQUELINE SIMPSON
Drawings by Em Wilson
DORSET PRESS
New \ork
Text copyright © 1967 Jacqueline Simpson
Drawings copyright © 1967 B.T. Batsford Ltd.
All rights Reserved
First published by B.T. Batsford 1967
This edition published by Dorset Press,
a division of Marboro Books Corporation,
by arrangement with B.T. Batsford Ltd.
1987 Dorset Press
ISBN 0-88029-146-X
Printed in the United States of America
M 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To My Mother