What do you think?
Rate this book
The Northern Routes to Kingship: A History of Scandinavia AD 180 – 550
This book argues that tribal Scandinavia was set on the route to kingship by the arrival in the AD 180s–90s of warrior groups that were dismissed from the Roman army after defeating the Marcomanni by the Danube.
Using a range of evidence, this book details how well-equipped and battle-seasoned warriors, familiar with Roman institutions and practices, seized land and established lordly centres. It shows how these new lords acquired wealth by stimulating the production of commodities for trade with peers and Continental associates, Romans included, to reward retainers and bestow on partners. In these transcultural circumstances, lords and their retainers nurtured artisanal production of exquisite quality and developed a heroic ethos and refined hall etiquette. The topic of warfare, created by the volatile politics of lordly cooperation and competition, is also explored. Venturing substantially beyond the usual scope of syntheses of this period, this book looks at how the break-up of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of 'Great tribes' such as the Franks and Goths influenced lords and tribal leaders across Scandinavia to form kingdoms, emulating what they for centuries had considered the superior polity, the Roman Empire.
This book’s fresh take on disputed research topics will inspire scholars, students, and interested readers to delve further into this pivotal period of European history.
Using a range of evidence, this book details how well-equipped and battle-seasoned warriors, familiar with Roman institutions and practices, seized land and established lordly centres. It shows how these new lords acquired wealth by stimulating the production of commodities for trade with peers and Continental associates, Romans included, to reward retainers and bestow on partners. In these transcultural circumstances, lords and their retainers nurtured artisanal production of exquisite quality and developed a heroic ethos and refined hall etiquette. The topic of warfare, created by the volatile politics of lordly cooperation and competition, is also explored. Venturing substantially beyond the usual scope of syntheses of this period, this book looks at how the break-up of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of 'Great tribes' such as the Franks and Goths influenced lords and tribal leaders across Scandinavia to form kingdoms, emulating what they for centuries had considered the superior polity, the Roman Empire.
This book’s fresh take on disputed research topics will inspire scholars, students, and interested readers to delve further into this pivotal period of European history.
- GenresHistory
694 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2025
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 10, 2025
This is a book that could, should and probably will get discussed quite a bit.
Skre use it to throw out one of these big hypothesis to explain the emergence of south Scandinavian kingdomes in the period 180-550 AD. Its one of these "torch books" that are thrown to start a discussion. And I quite like those. Its a bout trying to answer the why and how questions in archaeology, instead of the what ones. And I like them as well.
But it will be criticized to death.
Its very scholarly, and I found quite a few things that I now need to read. But when you try to tackle these big questions, over this long time and this much area, you will miss a lot. I know a bit about this time in the far north, and one of his chapters discuss trade with the Arctic. And there where a lot of nitpicking I could have done here. A lot of data-points that does not fit with his grand story. And I have a feeling that if experts on other smaller parts of his book starts to critic it, there will be a lot more small problems.
But in the end, that dosent matter so much to me, as it is the big questions that is important in this book. Not all the small data-point. And its a book that many people will be able to use as a discussion point in the years to come. I think. I at least found quite a few things that I will take with me on the way forward.
Skre use it to throw out one of these big hypothesis to explain the emergence of south Scandinavian kingdomes in the period 180-550 AD. Its one of these "torch books" that are thrown to start a discussion. And I quite like those. Its a bout trying to answer the why and how questions in archaeology, instead of the what ones. And I like them as well.
But it will be criticized to death.
Its very scholarly, and I found quite a few things that I now need to read. But when you try to tackle these big questions, over this long time and this much area, you will miss a lot. I know a bit about this time in the far north, and one of his chapters discuss trade with the Arctic. And there where a lot of nitpicking I could have done here. A lot of data-points that does not fit with his grand story. And I have a feeling that if experts on other smaller parts of his book starts to critic it, there will be a lot more small problems.
But in the end, that dosent matter so much to me, as it is the big questions that is important in this book. Not all the small data-point. And its a book that many people will be able to use as a discussion point in the years to come. I think. I at least found quite a few things that I will take with me on the way forward.
July 27, 2025
"The Northern Route to Kingship" covers Scandinavia from roughly 180 AD through 550 AD - bordering right up to the emergence of the Viking Age. It does so from a perspective that is simultaneously both emic (understanding a culture from within its own perspective - contrasted with a colonialist approach) and grounded in understanding Scandinavian affairs from a wider geopolitical vantage point: specifically, the influence of interactions with the Roman Empire. This is obviously the author's magnum opus, as the author Dagfinn Skre has over 40 years of scholarly and archaeological experience.
The main argument of the book, supported by extensive treatment of archaeological findings and numismatics in sometimes quite lengthy and digressing coverage, is that Scandinavian warriors and warlords who participated in the Marcomannic Wars from AD 166-180 returned to Scandinavia with advanced military expertise and aggressively took over territories, leading to the centralization of rulership across much of Scandinavia. These new rulers were not integrated into existing tribes, but rather added a new layer and type of polity, the lordship, existing in parallel with tribes. At the same time, domestic tribal leaders evolved into more centralized rulers as well, partly in response to the oncoming threat. These were decades of significant change, including the conception/increased use of runic writing, the first hall buildings, new burial practices, the establishment of the first market sites, evidence of large scale warfare, and a surge in the number of Roman items in graves and deposits. By the mid-500s, the author argues, kingdoms were established in all Scandinavian regions.
The author demonstrates that the large number of Roman items found in graves and deposits cannot be ascribed to trade alone - warriors were buried with belts containing their personal equipment, including Roman denarii and Roman swords. Denarius finds cluster in the same areas where warrior graves and Roman items cluster. (Interestingly, there are practically no coin or silver or gold bullion finds between AD 550-800, meaning that both the Roman denarii and the Islamic dirham were introduced in societies with no practice of paying with coinage). The concentration of denarii as opposed to other Roman coinage in Scandinavia is argued to have been the result of soldiers in the employ of the Romans being primarily paid in denarii. (Coins in the Roman Empire proper would have seen a significantly lower concentration of denarii as opposed to other coins).
Skre also shows how the three sites Gudme, Uppåkra, and Sorte Muld were organized hierarchically, with a deposit of weapons close to the central settlement, reflecting militarized central rule. He also shows how Uppåkra at this time shows the introduction of seeds from plants common to Roman gardens at the time but new to Scandinavia. He argues that the site layout is reminiscent of Roman military camps, rectangular in shape, and divided into four sectors by two main streets - with the famous great halls being echoes of the Roman basilica. Farm structures and building sizes changed at this time as well, showing a reorganization of land rights.
Scandinavia at this time was closely integrated with the rest of "Germanic Barbaricum" and only divided socioeconomically and socioculturally in the mid-sixth century. Either ancient authors or modern scholars have made the claim of Scandinavian origin for a large number of tribes: Rugi, Ulmerugi, Burgundians, Longobards, Gepids, Heruli, and Goths. The Danir appear to have migrated from the continent and taken control of southern Scandinavia, forming a kingdom. The 6th century Eastern Roman historian Jordanes in fact described Scandinavia as the "workshop that produces tribes" and the "womb of nations." These tribal formations all took place at the same time that multiple continental tribes formed, including the Goths, Alemanni, and the Franks. Skre argues that post-Roman Europe consisted of mostly independent cities in the Roman zones and new larger polities in the peripheries: including England, France, Preussen, the Austrian Empire, and the Scandinavian kingdoms.
Skre argues that there were three zones within Scandinavia from where the armies that undertook long-distance campaigns were recruited: (1) Jutland, Scania, and the islands in between; (2) the western-central Scandinavian peninsula; and (3) the eastern part of the peninsula. There appear to have been both conflicts and alliances between these zones in the third century, with peaceful relations between the Atlantic and southern zones and an economic boom from the late third century suggesting stable relations.
In AD 406, the Roman legions withdrew from the Rhenish limes, disrupting contact between the Scandinavian lords and the Romans. In the 450s-80s, troops from Scandinavian lordships and militarized tribes participated in the Danubian wars and brought significant amounts of gold to their homelands, causing further political changes. The Danir, as previously mentioned, appear to have invaded in the 400s, as demonstrated by a recent aDNA study that shows a significant change in the genetic profile of people living in southern Jutland, southern Sweden, and the islands in between. Skre argues that the Danir were the first route to kingship in Scandinavia, with other kingly institutions modeled on those of the tribes and lordship. The site of Danir/Danish central power was Gudme from roughly the 450s onwards, and then shifted to Lejre by the early sixth century, as the saga Scylding kings appear to have taken power. (Due to events on the continent including the withdrawal of Roman legions and associated events in Germanicum in the 400s, as well as the major volcanic episodes of 536 onwards, there was a 200-year period from ca. the mid-500s to the mid-700s with a more inward-focused Scandinavia and reduced Scandinavian-continental interactions, until a new period of increased interaction started anew with the early Viking Age).
Skre's coverage is exciting, but sometimes longwinded, and I got lost particularly in the sections on onomastics. Entire chapters appear to be excursions before they take us back to the main argument. Skre is also clear that some of his hypotheses stand on thinner empirical grounding than others. But overall, I am left with the impression that Skre is more or less correct: that the influence of the Roman Empire upon the Scandinavians was profound, that warriors returned from fighting with the Romans to pursuing power and conquests home in Scandinavia - alongside tribal authorities that internally developed to exert greater power and conquests as well. From the days of the Roman Empire to the days of the Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire, and the East Roman Empire, Scandinavian affairs have been very much entangled with the affairs of the continent - and internal developments cannot be truly fully understood as isolated nationalist historians but must rather be understood in a wider global context as those of the peripheries outside of, but often still connected to, the imperial core.
The main argument of the book, supported by extensive treatment of archaeological findings and numismatics in sometimes quite lengthy and digressing coverage, is that Scandinavian warriors and warlords who participated in the Marcomannic Wars from AD 166-180 returned to Scandinavia with advanced military expertise and aggressively took over territories, leading to the centralization of rulership across much of Scandinavia. These new rulers were not integrated into existing tribes, but rather added a new layer and type of polity, the lordship, existing in parallel with tribes. At the same time, domestic tribal leaders evolved into more centralized rulers as well, partly in response to the oncoming threat. These were decades of significant change, including the conception/increased use of runic writing, the first hall buildings, new burial practices, the establishment of the first market sites, evidence of large scale warfare, and a surge in the number of Roman items in graves and deposits. By the mid-500s, the author argues, kingdoms were established in all Scandinavian regions.
The author demonstrates that the large number of Roman items found in graves and deposits cannot be ascribed to trade alone - warriors were buried with belts containing their personal equipment, including Roman denarii and Roman swords. Denarius finds cluster in the same areas where warrior graves and Roman items cluster. (Interestingly, there are practically no coin or silver or gold bullion finds between AD 550-800, meaning that both the Roman denarii and the Islamic dirham were introduced in societies with no practice of paying with coinage). The concentration of denarii as opposed to other Roman coinage in Scandinavia is argued to have been the result of soldiers in the employ of the Romans being primarily paid in denarii. (Coins in the Roman Empire proper would have seen a significantly lower concentration of denarii as opposed to other coins).
Skre also shows how the three sites Gudme, Uppåkra, and Sorte Muld were organized hierarchically, with a deposit of weapons close to the central settlement, reflecting militarized central rule. He also shows how Uppåkra at this time shows the introduction of seeds from plants common to Roman gardens at the time but new to Scandinavia. He argues that the site layout is reminiscent of Roman military camps, rectangular in shape, and divided into four sectors by two main streets - with the famous great halls being echoes of the Roman basilica. Farm structures and building sizes changed at this time as well, showing a reorganization of land rights.
Scandinavia at this time was closely integrated with the rest of "Germanic Barbaricum" and only divided socioeconomically and socioculturally in the mid-sixth century. Either ancient authors or modern scholars have made the claim of Scandinavian origin for a large number of tribes: Rugi, Ulmerugi, Burgundians, Longobards, Gepids, Heruli, and Goths. The Danir appear to have migrated from the continent and taken control of southern Scandinavia, forming a kingdom. The 6th century Eastern Roman historian Jordanes in fact described Scandinavia as the "workshop that produces tribes" and the "womb of nations." These tribal formations all took place at the same time that multiple continental tribes formed, including the Goths, Alemanni, and the Franks. Skre argues that post-Roman Europe consisted of mostly independent cities in the Roman zones and new larger polities in the peripheries: including England, France, Preussen, the Austrian Empire, and the Scandinavian kingdoms.
Skre argues that there were three zones within Scandinavia from where the armies that undertook long-distance campaigns were recruited: (1) Jutland, Scania, and the islands in between; (2) the western-central Scandinavian peninsula; and (3) the eastern part of the peninsula. There appear to have been both conflicts and alliances between these zones in the third century, with peaceful relations between the Atlantic and southern zones and an economic boom from the late third century suggesting stable relations.
In AD 406, the Roman legions withdrew from the Rhenish limes, disrupting contact between the Scandinavian lords and the Romans. In the 450s-80s, troops from Scandinavian lordships and militarized tribes participated in the Danubian wars and brought significant amounts of gold to their homelands, causing further political changes. The Danir, as previously mentioned, appear to have invaded in the 400s, as demonstrated by a recent aDNA study that shows a significant change in the genetic profile of people living in southern Jutland, southern Sweden, and the islands in between. Skre argues that the Danir were the first route to kingship in Scandinavia, with other kingly institutions modeled on those of the tribes and lordship. The site of Danir/Danish central power was Gudme from roughly the 450s onwards, and then shifted to Lejre by the early sixth century, as the saga Scylding kings appear to have taken power. (Due to events on the continent including the withdrawal of Roman legions and associated events in Germanicum in the 400s, as well as the major volcanic episodes of 536 onwards, there was a 200-year period from ca. the mid-500s to the mid-700s with a more inward-focused Scandinavia and reduced Scandinavian-continental interactions, until a new period of increased interaction started anew with the early Viking Age).
Skre's coverage is exciting, but sometimes longwinded, and I got lost particularly in the sections on onomastics. Entire chapters appear to be excursions before they take us back to the main argument. Skre is also clear that some of his hypotheses stand on thinner empirical grounding than others. But overall, I am left with the impression that Skre is more or less correct: that the influence of the Roman Empire upon the Scandinavians was profound, that warriors returned from fighting with the Romans to pursuing power and conquests home in Scandinavia - alongside tribal authorities that internally developed to exert greater power and conquests as well. From the days of the Roman Empire to the days of the Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire, and the East Roman Empire, Scandinavian affairs have been very much entangled with the affairs of the continent - and internal developments cannot be truly fully understood as isolated nationalist historians but must rather be understood in a wider global context as those of the peripheries outside of, but often still connected to, the imperial core.
May 24, 2026
Okay, so this book is a doozy. It’s a very dense academic work with a lot of good information, but also highly convoluted and very speculative. Basically, it’s a hypothesis, wrapped in speculation, inside a theory. Fortunately, Skre is always very open and honest about the lack of evidence and when/where he veers into conjectural territory. Which abounds. But the basic premise and facts associated with it—Scandinavian soldiers who returned from service in the Roman military went on to found the region’s first lordships that then evolved into kingships—is, for the most part at least, pretty solid. The more nuanced aspects are where things get murkier and more conjectural; there just isn’t that much material or textual evidence. For example, the analysis of a small smatter of place names dated to the time period in question is extrapolated (and weighed against other evidence like gold/silver deposits) to draw some pretty vast conclusions about where warriors settled as retainers of lords. It makes sense and is well argued, but it’s a bit of a house of cards sort of construction. That said, Skre does a good job of looking at everything he can to draw what conclusions he may and is honest about the information he has to work with.
As a full-on academic book, this one is drowning in theories advanced by prior researchers that Skre draws upon to make his analyses. This is fine (and to be expected of a book of this nature), but—lo! How it affects readability. There is also a lot of skipping around (“see page X which is 40 pages from now” or “see page Y which was 200 pages ago” sort of thing). Overall, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone VERY genuinely interested in the time period and region in question and how the warrior ethos came to be there with the rise of the mead hall way of life and all that good stuff. I would not recommend this to anyone with a more passive interest. The information is fascinating, and a general interest book covering the same topic (well, the best-attested aspects of it, anyway) would be grand.
My interest in this book was most keenly piqued with the commentary regarding the [now] Swedish islands of Öland and Gotland. In terms of Öland, I appreciated the overview and attempt to explain its destruction in the late 5th century. Skre’s hypothesis diverged here from what Swedish archaeologists working on the site of Sandby Borg think happened. A massacre happened (that’s for sure), and while the Swedish archaeologists think this was a result of the Fall of Rome and increased competition on the island for an associated decline in resources and wealth, Skre thinks the massacre happened first (and that other massacres also happened on the island at the same time) and that the decline of material wealth followed. So it’s hypothesis vs. hypothesis right there.
Now, onto Gotland, a perennially favorite subject of mine thanks to its potential relation to Beowulf and the fact that this connection is huge in Sweden and downright neglected everywhere else. The theory had new life blown into it a few years ago with a book by prominent Swedish archaeologist, Bo Gräslund, and has been advanced since in a book by Hans Wanneby and Rikard Evertsson. The two main tenets of Gräslund’s theory is that Beowulf was first composed somewhere in what is now Sweden roughly in the mid first millennium and that the Geats were from the island of Gotland. This is a dramatic departure from most scholarship that assumes Beowulf was first composed in England much later and that the Geats came from the Swedish mainland in what is now Götaland. Skre agrees with Gräslund in the poem’s composition occurring in Sweden at an earlier date, but disagrees regarding the homeland of the Geats. This is another one of those things that will never be proven one way or another, but I found that Skre’s argument did not hold up well in this particular matter; at the very least, he left some big holes in his reasoning.
Basically, Skre declares that there is an absence of lordly hall life of the sort depicted in Beowulf on Gotland during the time period in question and that Gotland lacked a tradition of land endowments, relations with the Swedes, etc. but that Götaland had all those things. But Gräslund’s conclusion is that Beowulf takes place and depicts the early to mid-500s, and was composed then or in the following decades, apparently being “frozen” around the year 700, and Skre seems to agree with this conclusion. But Skre also states that kingship appears to have been introduced on Gotland in the late 400s (page 557), which is at odds with his declaration that Gotland didn’t have the sort of lordly hall life shown in Beowulf for the time period in question (kingly life being more advanced than lordly life). Plus on page 308 Skre suggests that Gotland did have lordly life, which is contradictory to his main point, though it might have been an oversight or type-o on his part. But he does the same thing again, more openly, on page 391 in relation to Gotland’s hill forts being indicative of a presence of lords. Skre also uses Gotland’s hill forts to help make a point that the island was more susceptible to an attack by sea than most of Götaland, though perhaps this seems self-evident since Gotland is an island (and Götaland’s densest settlements were inland near the big lakes). Beowulf makes clear that the wars between the Swedes and Geats involved travel by water, and given the location of the Swedes being centered on/around Uppsala, the water traversed by them and the Geats to attack one another seems to make more sense as the Baltic than Vänern or Vättern (or even Bråviken as an initial route, though there are hill forts in its vicinity). Lastly, Skre also lifts Lejre in Denmark up as the sort of emblematic hall illustrated in Beowulf (and was itself perhaps Hrothgar’s hall) but ignores the hall at Stavgard on Gotland, which was 1.5 the size of the one at Lejre. Gräslund regards Stavgard as Beowulf’s hall. Perhaps Skre simply regards Stavgard as an especially large farm building among an island of freeholding, militarized farmers, but it would have been helpful to see his commentary on the matter one way or the other. He addressed certain aspects of Gräslund’s ideas head-on, but neglected some important ones that he should have addressed since he flagrantly dismissed Gräslund’s identification of the Geats. At any rate, thanks to certain instances of self-contradiction and a lack of logic in the geographical reasoning, I didn’t find Skre’s argument that the Geats were the Götar to be very convincing. Again, the identity of the Geats is one of those things that will never be conclusively proven, but I’ve yet to come across a thorough and convincing refutal of Gräslund’s theory.
Anyway, enough on Geats and Beowulf. As stated above, this book has a lot of good information and a lot of fascinating speculation. Read it if you’ve got a genuine interest in the subject matter and are willing to be led down various strands of social theory as Skre takes you on a hopscotch style journey through Rome’s vast influence on early first millennium Scandinavia.
As a full-on academic book, this one is drowning in theories advanced by prior researchers that Skre draws upon to make his analyses. This is fine (and to be expected of a book of this nature), but—lo! How it affects readability. There is also a lot of skipping around (“see page X which is 40 pages from now” or “see page Y which was 200 pages ago” sort of thing). Overall, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone VERY genuinely interested in the time period and region in question and how the warrior ethos came to be there with the rise of the mead hall way of life and all that good stuff. I would not recommend this to anyone with a more passive interest. The information is fascinating, and a general interest book covering the same topic (well, the best-attested aspects of it, anyway) would be grand.
My interest in this book was most keenly piqued with the commentary regarding the [now] Swedish islands of Öland and Gotland. In terms of Öland, I appreciated the overview and attempt to explain its destruction in the late 5th century. Skre’s hypothesis diverged here from what Swedish archaeologists working on the site of Sandby Borg think happened. A massacre happened (that’s for sure), and while the Swedish archaeologists think this was a result of the Fall of Rome and increased competition on the island for an associated decline in resources and wealth, Skre thinks the massacre happened first (and that other massacres also happened on the island at the same time) and that the decline of material wealth followed. So it’s hypothesis vs. hypothesis right there.
Now, onto Gotland, a perennially favorite subject of mine thanks to its potential relation to Beowulf and the fact that this connection is huge in Sweden and downright neglected everywhere else. The theory had new life blown into it a few years ago with a book by prominent Swedish archaeologist, Bo Gräslund, and has been advanced since in a book by Hans Wanneby and Rikard Evertsson. The two main tenets of Gräslund’s theory is that Beowulf was first composed somewhere in what is now Sweden roughly in the mid first millennium and that the Geats were from the island of Gotland. This is a dramatic departure from most scholarship that assumes Beowulf was first composed in England much later and that the Geats came from the Swedish mainland in what is now Götaland. Skre agrees with Gräslund in the poem’s composition occurring in Sweden at an earlier date, but disagrees regarding the homeland of the Geats. This is another one of those things that will never be proven one way or another, but I found that Skre’s argument did not hold up well in this particular matter; at the very least, he left some big holes in his reasoning.
Basically, Skre declares that there is an absence of lordly hall life of the sort depicted in Beowulf on Gotland during the time period in question and that Gotland lacked a tradition of land endowments, relations with the Swedes, etc. but that Götaland had all those things. But Gräslund’s conclusion is that Beowulf takes place and depicts the early to mid-500s, and was composed then or in the following decades, apparently being “frozen” around the year 700, and Skre seems to agree with this conclusion. But Skre also states that kingship appears to have been introduced on Gotland in the late 400s (page 557), which is at odds with his declaration that Gotland didn’t have the sort of lordly hall life shown in Beowulf for the time period in question (kingly life being more advanced than lordly life). Plus on page 308 Skre suggests that Gotland did have lordly life, which is contradictory to his main point, though it might have been an oversight or type-o on his part. But he does the same thing again, more openly, on page 391 in relation to Gotland’s hill forts being indicative of a presence of lords. Skre also uses Gotland’s hill forts to help make a point that the island was more susceptible to an attack by sea than most of Götaland, though perhaps this seems self-evident since Gotland is an island (and Götaland’s densest settlements were inland near the big lakes). Beowulf makes clear that the wars between the Swedes and Geats involved travel by water, and given the location of the Swedes being centered on/around Uppsala, the water traversed by them and the Geats to attack one another seems to make more sense as the Baltic than Vänern or Vättern (or even Bråviken as an initial route, though there are hill forts in its vicinity). Lastly, Skre also lifts Lejre in Denmark up as the sort of emblematic hall illustrated in Beowulf (and was itself perhaps Hrothgar’s hall) but ignores the hall at Stavgard on Gotland, which was 1.5 the size of the one at Lejre. Gräslund regards Stavgard as Beowulf’s hall. Perhaps Skre simply regards Stavgard as an especially large farm building among an island of freeholding, militarized farmers, but it would have been helpful to see his commentary on the matter one way or the other. He addressed certain aspects of Gräslund’s ideas head-on, but neglected some important ones that he should have addressed since he flagrantly dismissed Gräslund’s identification of the Geats. At any rate, thanks to certain instances of self-contradiction and a lack of logic in the geographical reasoning, I didn’t find Skre’s argument that the Geats were the Götar to be very convincing. Again, the identity of the Geats is one of those things that will never be conclusively proven, but I’ve yet to come across a thorough and convincing refutal of Gräslund’s theory.
Anyway, enough on Geats and Beowulf. As stated above, this book has a lot of good information and a lot of fascinating speculation. Read it if you’ve got a genuine interest in the subject matter and are willing to be led down various strands of social theory as Skre takes you on a hopscotch style journey through Rome’s vast influence on early first millennium Scandinavia.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews