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Vikings of the Irish Sea
Vikings began raiding islands and monasteries on the Atlantic fringes of Europe in the 790s. The Irish Sea rapidly became one of their most productive hunting-grounds. Attacks, battles and destruction were accompanied by trade - in slaves, silver and fine objects. Vikings crossed and re-crossed the Irish Sea in search of land, wealth and power. Raids were followed by settlement, firstly in fortified camps, and later in towns, market enclaves and rural estates.
Vikings came into contact with existing populations in Ireland, Britain and the Isle of Man. Viking paganism, demonstrated by spectacular burials, was gradually eclipsed by Christianity. By 1050, the process of assimilation was well under way, yet Viking influence and distinctiveness did not altogether disappear. This book takes the sea as its starting point, and looks afresh at the story of a supremely opportunistic people who left their mark in ways which still resonate today.
Vikings came into contact with existing populations in Ireland, Britain and the Isle of Man. Viking paganism, demonstrated by spectacular burials, was gradually eclipsed by Christianity. By 1050, the process of assimilation was well under way, yet Viking influence and distinctiveness did not altogether disappear. This book takes the sea as its starting point, and looks afresh at the story of a supremely opportunistic people who left their mark in ways which still resonate today.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 20, 2021
Vikings of the Irish Sea, David Griffiths, 2012, 160 pages
This book is a good introduction to the vikings of the Irish Sea. It is fairly general in discussing the political events, so you won't learn a lot about the sometime political relationships between Dublin and York or the struggles for mastery in Dublin itself. You will, however, get a good overview of trade, settlement and cultural assimilation.
The chapters include:
Introduction
Raids and early settlement in Ireland
Exporting violence and seeking landfall c850 – c1050
Land-take and landscape
Burial: changing rites, new places
Trade, silver and market sites
Towns and urbanisation
Assimilation and cultural change
Conclusion
There is quite a lot on each page, but with plenty of diagrams and maps it doesn't feel that stodgy, although the prose could have been a touch more user friendly in places. Whilst I'm not competent to talk about vikings in Ireland, I have read a few books on Anglo-Saxon England and as his comments here are free from fringe theories, I'm assuming that the sections dealing with Ireland, Wales, Man and Scotland are equally sensible, too.
The main things that I took away from this book were the idea of the Irish Sea as a highway instead of a barrier (although it was never any kind of united province) and the amount of assimilation between the different cultures. Griffiths states that it simply wasn't a case of viking and native in opposition - the reality was less binary than this. I found the chapter concerning settlements to be the most interesting, although trade was a close second. It was fascinating to learn that the viking settlements appear to fit within existing land arrangements, instead of overriding them.
Although I think that this book could have gone further into the greater political impact of the Irish Sea vikings on the surrounding polities, this was a reasonable introduction to the topic, without being either too challenging or too simplistic.
This book is a good introduction to the vikings of the Irish Sea. It is fairly general in discussing the political events, so you won't learn a lot about the sometime political relationships between Dublin and York or the struggles for mastery in Dublin itself. You will, however, get a good overview of trade, settlement and cultural assimilation.
The chapters include:
Introduction
Raids and early settlement in Ireland
Exporting violence and seeking landfall c850 – c1050
Land-take and landscape
Burial: changing rites, new places
Trade, silver and market sites
Towns and urbanisation
Assimilation and cultural change
Conclusion
There is quite a lot on each page, but with plenty of diagrams and maps it doesn't feel that stodgy, although the prose could have been a touch more user friendly in places. Whilst I'm not competent to talk about vikings in Ireland, I have read a few books on Anglo-Saxon England and as his comments here are free from fringe theories, I'm assuming that the sections dealing with Ireland, Wales, Man and Scotland are equally sensible, too.
The main things that I took away from this book were the idea of the Irish Sea as a highway instead of a barrier (although it was never any kind of united province) and the amount of assimilation between the different cultures. Griffiths states that it simply wasn't a case of viking and native in opposition - the reality was less binary than this. I found the chapter concerning settlements to be the most interesting, although trade was a close second. It was fascinating to learn that the viking settlements appear to fit within existing land arrangements, instead of overriding them.
Although I think that this book could have gone further into the greater political impact of the Irish Sea vikings on the surrounding polities, this was a reasonable introduction to the topic, without being either too challenging or too simplistic.
May 9, 2021
2.5 ⭐️
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews