A Book Review: Vikings by Neil Oliver We would like to share our latest reads with you. Vikings tell the historical narrative of what we have come to know as the Vikings

Tell us about your book

 

As an historian I like to learn about history and about older civilisations. One such group I knew very little about, except what I had seen on tv shows and movies were Vikings. Vikings tell the historical narrative of what we have come to know as the Vikings. For many of us, when we hear the term Vikings we think of longboats, axes, big beards and the invasion of Britain. This book follows the narrative of the emergence of the Vikings, from pre-history to post the invasions of Britain, including their culture and the impact of their interactions with different cultures and how they developed as a society. The book is told as a mixture of narrative and historical analysis, supported by the use of sources which as an historian really appealed to me. I was left with a greater understanding of the Vikings and a desire to learn a lot more…

What have you enjoyed about the book?

 

I love the fact that I was able to learn things about the Vikings that I never knew including about individuals who I had previously heard of, but learning about them in their own context gave me a different insight into their lives. I was also able to find out some really interesting facts (like where Bluetooth gets its name from).

 

Why should someone else read it?

 

For me, I think we often create in our minds opinions of different cultures, or we see different groups shown in a particular ways through movies. Reading this book will give you very different view of a group of people who often are shown as barbaric and savage….

 

Simon McRoberts

Head of Secondary