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Pocket Museum: Vikings
An informative introduction to Viking history that also provides an impressive collection of artifacts and new insights on the Norse people. The culture of the Viking world speaks of both violence and of beauty. This extensively illustrated volume brings together nearly 200 carefully chosen artifacts that reflect the art and daily life of Viking-Age Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes both iconic items and finds from recent excavations, providing a visual guide to the early-medieval Scandinavian world. Highlights include Norway’s famous ship burials, the only complete example of a Viking helmet, and the treasures looted from the monasteries of Britain, Ireland, and continental Europe. Equally important are the less familiar fragments of everyday a brooch, a woolen sock, even a loaf of bread. The juxtaposition of the outstanding and the everyday makes this volume unique in its field. Featuring sumptuous close-up photographs to best showcase its comprehensive collection of exquisite artifacts, Pocket Vikings is an informative introduction for newcomers to Viking history that also provides new insights for those familiar with the subject. c. 230 illustrations
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
Published October 16, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 5, 2019
Wonderfully illustrated and largely informative. Top notch material.
March 28, 2021
This pocket edition was a wealth of information that the reader can dip in and out of. I read it from cover to cover but you could go back many times to closely inspect these wonderful Viking artefacts. Excellent information of where items were found, what they were used for and where they are now in various museums. Books like this are fantastic for depicting who the Vikings were and how they lived in their every day life. I am going to read the Egypt one in this series and would like to source the one on Rome and Greece as well.
April 22, 2020
This book was another piece of evidence supporting my hypothesis – pictures make the books better. This book is short and easy to read with distilled information which is presented in a context of Early, Middle, and Late Viking Age. In real life, the artefacts presented here are scattered across countries, so the book facilitates exploring the Vikings from a comfortable armchair and without leaving the house.
Fun fact 1:
Year 793 is the traditional start date of the Viking Age. During this year, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes, the 'miserable destruction' by a Scandinavian raiding party of the monastic community at Lindisfarne, Northumbria took place.
Fun fact 2:
A cute word of the day is gullgubber (or guldgubber) which means 'little old men of gold'. That artefacts consisted of tiny gold pieces pressed with images of human figures. They appear to be deliberately deposited during some rituals, often under or around buildings.
Fun fact 3:
By the 10th century, York was producing large number of silver coins. These coins provide information about political history of York as they bear names of the city's rulers.
The St Peter's penny from York could be the most famous coin of the Viking Age. On the reverse there is word EBORACEI, while the obverse reads SCI PETRI MO ('St Peter's money') together with a cross, sword, and Thor's hammer.
Fun fact 4:
Harthacnut, son of Cnut, was the last Scandinavian king to rule England (1040-1042).
Fun fact 5:
The last recorded event in Norse Greenland was a wedding in 1408. After that, the settlement was deserted.
Fun fact 6:
Slaves were a major driving force of the Viking economy. Moreover, sometimes wealthy individuals were captured too and the Vikings were holding them for ransom.
Fun fact 1:
Year 793 is the traditional start date of the Viking Age. During this year, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes, the 'miserable destruction' by a Scandinavian raiding party of the monastic community at Lindisfarne, Northumbria took place.
Fun fact 2:
A cute word of the day is gullgubber (or guldgubber) which means 'little old men of gold'. That artefacts consisted of tiny gold pieces pressed with images of human figures. They appear to be deliberately deposited during some rituals, often under or around buildings.
Fun fact 3:
By the 10th century, York was producing large number of silver coins. These coins provide information about political history of York as they bear names of the city's rulers.
The St Peter's penny from York could be the most famous coin of the Viking Age. On the reverse there is word EBORACEI, while the obverse reads SCI PETRI MO ('St Peter's money') together with a cross, sword, and Thor's hammer.
Fun fact 4:
Harthacnut, son of Cnut, was the last Scandinavian king to rule England (1040-1042).
Fun fact 5:
The last recorded event in Norse Greenland was a wedding in 1408. After that, the settlement was deserted.
Fun fact 6:
Slaves were a major driving force of the Viking economy. Moreover, sometimes wealthy individuals were captured too and the Vikings were holding them for ransom.
November 19, 2021
Nice visual presentation of Viking era.
November 9, 2024
Such a good series. Perfect combination of info and pictures. I love the size context for each piece, and the museum lost where each is located.
January 4, 2026
Very interesting and loved all the photos.
December 14, 2021
This is a great little visual book with displays photographs of Viking artefacts from museums all over Scandinavia and the UK with brief descriptions of what they are - weapons, wooden ships, coins, brooches, tools, jewelry and more. I love the design of it and one learns a lot about how Vikings lived in smart, bite-sized blurbs.
May 26, 2022
Excellent reference book, covering a wide range of objects that lets us get closer to the people who used them, the vikings. Great pictures and information, and a tiny detail that made all the difference is the small illustrations in the corners showing the scale of each object. It made it much easier to visualise the object in practice.
This book made me realise how interconnected the world was back then, and how frequent and wide the cultural exchanges were. Which puts in perspective that while the vikings were a waring people, they were also traders as a people of the seas foremost. Yet, they also had a home, their origin, and it became obvious that besides these archaeological objects we know very little since there is little text preserved. Thus, it is wrong to simply assume that the modern day society mirrors the past one, especially concerning women's standing.
This book made me realise how interconnected the world was back then, and how frequent and wide the cultural exchanges were. Which puts in perspective that while the vikings were a waring people, they were also traders as a people of the seas foremost. Yet, they also had a home, their origin, and it became obvious that besides these archaeological objects we know very little since there is little text preserved. Thus, it is wrong to simply assume that the modern day society mirrors the past one, especially concerning women's standing.
July 8, 2024
epic
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews