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Chargement... Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagaspar Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. This is an entertaining pop history read, following Viking voyages from the far North, west to North America, east to Russia, Constantinople, and points further south. Barraclough traces her narrative through Old Norse sagas, and she clearly has a scholar's grasp of her material. I found the chapters on the Arctic, Iceland, and Greenland fascinating; generally, as the narrative ventured farther from the Norse homelands, I found it more speculative and less tightly written. The light conversational style had grown a bit tired by that point as well. Every once in awhile, it reads more like a contemporary travelogue, which I found slightly distracting. There are nice maps and images throughout, but these were difficult to view on my Kindle. Thanks to Netgalley and OUP for this ARC. Very enjoyable account of what is known of the vikings from their own works and from their archeological leavings. I highly enjoyed the author's writing style and sense of humor, as well as the depth of her analysis countering various pop-culture assumptions about the Vikings. Note: Borrowed from Anne Arundel County Public Library because of this article: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/viking-beyond-northlands-norse-saga-... (2018) aucune critique | ajouter une critique
In the dying days of the eighth century, the Vikings erupted onto the international stage with brutal raids and slaughter. The medieval Norsemen may be best remembered as monk murderers and village pillagers, but this is far from the whole story. Throughout the Middle Ages, long-ships transported hairy northern voyagers far and wide, where they not only raided but also traded, explored and settled new lands, encountered unfamiliar races, and embarked on pilgrimages and crusades. To explore the sagas and the world that produced them, Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough now takes her own trip through the dramatic landscapes that they describe. Along the way, she illuminates the rich but often confusing saga accounts with a range of other evidence: archaeological finds, rune-stones, medieval world maps, encyclopaedic manuscripts, and texts from as far away as Byzantium and Baghdad. As her journey across the Old Norse world shows, by situating the sagas against the revealing background of this other evidence, we can begin at least to understand just how the world was experienced, remembered, and imagined by this unique culture from the outermost edge of Europe so many centuries ago. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)948.022History and Geography Europe Fenno-Scandinavia Consolidation; Migration 801-1397 Viking PeriodClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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I have had little interest in Vikings. I knew of them...I learned what I learned in school...but, unlike a host of other historical peoples and cultures, the Norse and their history has not been something that has caught my attention.
I am a bit of an armchair archaeologist, however, and recently there have been a number of discoveries in northern Europe and recently here on the coast of North America, which have spurred me to learn more.
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough's book is really well done and she managed to do what all good books do, in my opinion...made me want to learn more. I was particularly interested in the chapters regarding the Rus and the Varangian Guard in Constantinople.
I want to thank @Oxford University Press and the author for selecting me as a winner in this giveaway. Beyond the Northlands is a very good book and I am happy to add it to my shelf. ( )