Vikings

Description

The Vikings famously took no prisoners, relished cruel retribution, and prided themselves on their blood-thirsty skills as warriors. But their prowess in battle is only a small part of their story, which stretches from their Scandinavian origins to America in the west and as far as Baghdad in the east. As the Vikings did not write their history, we have to discover it for ourselves, and that discovery, as Neil Oliver reveals, tells an extraordinary story of a people who, from the brink of destruction, reached a quarter of the way around the globe and built an empire that lasted nearly 200 years. Drawing on the latest discoveries that have only recently come to light, Neil Oliver goes on the trail of the real Vikings. Where did they emerge from? How did they really live? And just what drove them to embark on such extraordinary voyages of discovery over 1000 years ago? VIKINGS will explore many of these questions for the first time in an epic story of one of the world's great empires of conquest.

Neil Oliver is a Scottish archaeologist, historian, broadcaster and writer. He is perhaps best known as the charismatic presenter of the award-winning documentary series COAST, as well his two critically acclaimed landmark BBC history series, A HISTORY OF SCOTLAND and A HISTORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. He lives in Stirling with his wife and three children.

This is an engaging and enjoyable look at the fierce race who dominated the North Sea in the early medieval period, traversing as far as central Asia all the way to the Americas. In his likeable, young-professor style, Oliver looks at the wider historical context in which these fascinating people lived, and (as always) explores the archaeological evidence they left behind. * CATHOLIC HERALD * This book derives from one of Neil Oliver's TV series, and is just like them: engaging, informative, good on both landscapes and seascapes, and with a lot of Neil Oliver in it, leaping about. * BBC HISTORY *