The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #137

by Julian D. Richards

The Viking reputation is one of bloodthirsty seafaring warriors, repeatedly plundering the British Isles and the North Atlantic throughout the early Middle Ages. Yet Vikings were also traders, settlers, and farmers, with a complex artistic and linguistic culture, whose expansion overseas led them to cross the Atlantic for the first time in European history. Highlighting the latest archaeological evidence, Julian Richards reveals the whole Viking world: their history, their culture, and their legacy of overseas expansion for trade, colonization, and plunder. Viking identity is explored through what we have learned about their towns, art, shipbuilding, and religious rituals. Here the Viking story is brought up to the present, from the tales of adventure found in medieval Icelandic sagas, to their exploitation as a symbol of nationalism in the nineteenth century by Wagner, and later by Hitler and the Nazi party. The author also highlights their impact and influence on the history and people of Northern Europe. Vikings, a fascinating new look at a people and culture that have been reinvented throughout history, will take readers closer to discovering who they really were.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Archaeology, Ancient History, British Literature, Academic

152 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2005

About the author

Julian D. Richards is professor of archaeology at the University of York. He is co-director of the Tents to Towns project, exploring the transition from Viking raiding to trading. Julian is author of Viking Age England, now in its third edition, and The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction.

Reviews

[Markus · Rating 2 out of 5]

A distinctly Anglocentric perspective on a phenomenon that deserves more than that. Richards presumably did not have time for more, but that is unfortunately a trap to fall into with these very short introductions.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great VSI. It approaches "the Vikings" from a detailed (and sometimes technical) archaeological perspective and foregrounds how the historical reality of "the peoples who lived in Scandinavia in the 9th to the 11th centuries" are often eclipsed by the ever-changing cultural myths (and fictions) of "the Vikings." There is not a lot here about that myth or Norse mythology; instead, the reader learns about how archaeology gives a messy picture of a range of mutable Scandinavian identities that changed as a result of exploration, violent expansion, and interaction with other cultures and ecosystems. For example, the Scandinavians who settled in England, Ireland, Greenland, Iceland, and elsewhere modified their behaviors and economic activities uniquely to suit these new environments. Even more interesting, they often exaggerated their Scandinavian distincticeness to maintain a cohesive identity amidst an alien world (i.e. developed an exaggerated "Scandinavian" architecture). The most interesting chapter is "Reinventing the Vikings," which looks at how 19th, 20th, and 21st people have used the idea of Viking identity for various personal, political, and artistic reasons. This does get too technical at times for an introduction (hence, 4/5), particularly as specific artifacts are catalogged objectively (very boring lists). However, this is a small price to pay for a very illuminating read that motivates further reading.

[Kadri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative with great further reading section. The book gives an introduction to who were vikings, were they lived, explored and raided and how the idea of vikings became prominent in 19th century. Very interesting.

[Sleepless Dreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dammit, I really wanted to love this book. I really did. I think there's a picture in my head of what Vikings were like but I'm not actually interested in making that picture accurate. I don't care about the dates and the people, I'm here for the society and the culture.

This book was simply boring. I finished it because I couldn't bear the thought of another unfinished book. You'd think its length would mean it would only have the interesting parts but I found myself skimming through pages about archeology.

I probably should pick a different book to read about Vikings, one that suits what I'm looking for. This just wasn't it, sorry. If you're into the historical kinda dry knowledge, this book is for you.

what I'm taking with me:
• I wish I could go Viking. So much adventure, ahh.
• It seems all the Nordic countries are constantly arguing over who has more legitimacy over Vikings.
• I didn't know the Viking love came from Denmark and Sweden losing wars.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy on the archaeology (the author's own field) but full of applied observations drawn from these sources to illuminate the material culture, social structure, worldview, and astounding reach of Norse civilization from the eastern Baltic across Scandinavia and the Atlantic Isles to North America for more than a thousand years well after the advent of the Christendom that replaced it.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Painfully tedious, much of the book is little more than lists of archaeological excavations with precious little on the history and culture of the Vikings

[Lucy Barnhouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucid, erudite, and engaging, this history provides a fine illustration both of the richness of evidence available for Viking (and/or 'Viking') history, and of the difficulties inherent in interpreting that evidence. Richards is an archaeologist, and he explicates material evidence well. Also well-handled are the figures who loom larger-than-life in Scandinavian saga literature and in Hollywood history alike, and the often unpleasant modern afterlives of the Vikings as imagined. I might have appreciated some more footnoting of specifics, but the apparatus is good.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Occasionally interesting but there wasn't much of a narrative to the information. Lots of descriptions of various archeological sites, which might be good for some people, but not so much for me.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will avenge you, Father ⚔️🐺
I will save you, Mother 🧝🏻‍♀️👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨
I will kill you, Fjölnir 🧌🌋

[Brian Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This provided a decent introduction to the Vikings, though with more of a slant toward the North Atlantic than the East, Baltic States, and Russia. It also didn't cover so much of the sagas - which perhaps might have merited their own chapter, as might beliefs.

I would have liked to have seen the Pictish question answered rather than raised, but there was some good info on Greenland. Not a bad book, but perhaps a little overwhelmed by the amount of geography it needed to cover by comparison to some of the previous works in this series.

[Matthew Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

It can feel like a risk, as someone with a background in archaeology, to read a short introductory volume on a period, culture, or peoples with whom you are unfamiliar. Knowing enough of the underlying theory about how archaeologists themselves speak about their material, but not knowing the specifics of the evidence of this particular group, can lead me to wonder about what is being left out, to worry about how material is being presented to non-specialists, while also feeling incapable of really calling out anything that is drastically wrong. Fortunately, Julian D. Richards’ The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction makes it very clear that it is discussing its subject in an up-to-date way that seriously questions what we mean when we say “Viking”, allowing him to discuss both the perception of Vikings and the archaeological history of Scandinavia at home and abroad in the centuries around 1000 CE.

I cannot, of course, comment on how The Vikings would come across to someone with no archaeological background. It seems to me to be clear and precise in what it describes, perhaps sometimes going into more detail than is necessary on certain sites and burials. I do think that it is worth flagging up a contrast between an article I read in Archaeology magazine, from 2021, and Richards’ approach to the historical accounts of the settlement of Iceland. In Archaeology, the archaeological undermining of the traditional date of settlement is presented as controversial and under debate. Richards, meanwhile, presents it as a closed discussion in which archaeologists know that the story of settlement is wrong and historians try to figure out why the ancient accounts present the story in the way they do. This contrast is familiar to me from my area of speciality, and I found myself more confident that I could trust Richards’ assessment of the evidence (even if at times he seems frustratingly even handed with conflicting interpretations).

I have some disagreements with some of Richards’ phrasing, in that I would use a different archaeological theory to shape the narrative of what he describes; I’m disappointed with some of the language used regarding the Indigenous peoples of what is currently Canada, especially given the early attention to the Saami of northern Scandinavia and the recognition that the supposed Viking settlement here has been used to undermine Indigenous heritage. I would really like to read Indigenous perspectives on the Vikings, both in Scandinavia and North America – although that is not what this book is. This book is a short introduction, and one that is generally very efficient in briefly discussing how we understand the identity of Vikings and Scandinavians, at home and abroad, in the so-called Viking age and up to the present day.

[George Fowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've got a bone to pick with this book because this is not the history of vikings, this is the history of Viking archaeology. The chapters are sectioned out between places the vikings went and every dam chapter is just Julian telling you where the vikings were based on archeology but he barely mentions what the vikings were doing in that place. Like there are Chronicles and annals and sagas that state dates and places for battles and conflicts with vikings, did Julian fucking mention them, no he did not, he's too busy telling you how many coins were found there. He only ever tells you where the vikings were but mentions barely any names of leaders or major conflicts or even any of the known trading/peace treatise they had there. Like what were the vikings fucking doing there Julian, tell me something about what the vikings were actually doing, what weapons were preferred, what clothes they wore, speech patterns they used, but nooo Julian wants to tell you about the lack of burials in the area yet again. Just let me fucking know about the Vikings as people Julian, I am literally begging you!...anyways Julian is an archeology professor at York University and I've been taught by him a few times and he seemed lovely, I just think he's writing the wrong book over here. It's all the Where's but rarely the Who, What, Why and Whens.

[Tor Pothecary · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction" is a boring, uniformative and tedious book to get through. It spends the vast majority of its time on the archeology of vikings and it felt like there was so much potential with this book but it just feel flat on its face. The authors own agenda seeping into the book with sentences like "Present-day school children are taught to appreciate ethnic diversity" appearing throughout didn't help much either.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent short overview, incorporating the latest archeological findings. Richards is especially strong on unpacking the mythology and meaning of the Vikings.

[Scott Mitchinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a previous reviewer mentioned, the book suffers from repetitious discussion of burial excavations that can often meld into one continuous and lengthy discussion. I think the decision the author outlines in the beginning to take a topical approach rather than a narrative approach was undoubtedly an error. There are some interesting topics but these could have been covered without returning constantly to the description of grave goods. A single chapter could have been devoted to the practice of Viking archeology and would likely have been interesting, given the scarcity of written evidence. This would have avoided the monotonous and repetitive discourse that plagues what should and could have been an interesting VSI. Having read numerous VSIs, this is one of the more arduous reads and not because the author doesn't have anything interesting to say on the topic. It's a shame but I wouldn't recommend this or consider it to be of the average VSI standard.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The British Archaeologist Julian D. Richards wrote The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction. I read the edition that was published in 2018. The book had illustrations, including maps. The book had a timeline and an index. The book had a section entitled “further reading” (Richards 139-142). Due to Richards being an archaeologist, the book is focused on the archaeology of the Norse people and the Vikings. Richards’ book is focused on what is known about the Norse culture and the Vikings. The book also focuses on how the Vikings are remembered by people after the era of the Norse and the Vikings. I found reading Richards’ book on Vikings and historian John Blair’s book on Anglo-Saxon England insightful. Richards’ and Blair’s books have slightly different understandings of how the Anglo-Saxons interacted with Vikings in the British Isles. This could be explained by how historians and archeologists view historical evidence. The book has a sidebar illustrating the life of famous Vikings or people who shaped our understanding of Vikings. Richards writes ‘“Viking’ is a nebulous concept in different contexts. Vikings have been” many different kinds of people. Richards writes, “It is also a relatively recent concept-originally used to refer only to pirate activity. It came to be used as an ethnic term to refer to a whole people and then as a chronological label, giving its name to the Viking Age. Our modern usage of Viking owes more to later reinventions than original reality” (Richards 2). Richards believes the concept of Vikings is still helpful for understanding this era of European history. Richards’ book is a well-done introduction to the archaeology of the Viking era and the cultural memory of the Vikings.
Works Cited:
Blair, John. 2000. The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. Kindle.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading and learning about this often misunderstood culture. This book is written by a professor who has been involved with many archaeological digs. I believe I would enjoy being a student in one of his classes. He has brought a Culture II life in this book, giving flesh and bone to eight people who are mostly shown in movies as on thinking, barbaric monsters Who delight only in rape, plunder, and battle. As is often the case, reality is much more interesting and unusual than fiction.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter 1: Vikings then and now
Chapter 2: Early Scandinavian kingdoms
Chapter 3: Pagans and Christians
Chapter 4: Changes in the countryside
Chapter 5: Towns and trade
Chapter 6: Across the ocean: seafaring and overseas expansion
Chapter 7: Settlers in England
Chapter 8: Raiders and traders around the Irish Sea
Chapter 9: Vikings and Picts: genocide or assimilation?
Chapter 10: Landnám in the North Atlantic
Chapter 11: The edge of the world: Greenland and North America
Chapter 12: Reinventing the Vikings

[Marieca Wegener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent informative introduction to The Vikings. Julian D Richards is an expert filling you with confidence about his sources and the information he presents. For such a small book I feel I learnt a great deal on a subject I am already familiar with. Richards’ style is highly readable and the book is well structured. Like all the ‘Short Introductions’ this book fits perfectly in a handbag or a pocket, great for snatching a few moments to read.

[Gonzalo Martínez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering this is a very short introduction, I feel that the author spent too much time on academic detail, and too little providing the reader with a set of general ideas which might help understand the Vikings overall. It is definitely a rigorous account for such a short book, but not what I was looking for in an introductory text.

[Michael]

This book consists of a lot of archaeological descriptions which is not my favourite kind of history writing but the author is a professor of archaeology so I guess it is to be expected. A lot of the chapters had very specific foci and did not necessarily give great well-rounded overviews of their topics but I still enjoyed the sections on Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland.

[A R · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is Julian Richards an archeologist? His book reads more like a list of underground finds than a history of the Norse people. If the book starts with a disclaimer that not all Scandinavians were Vikings (Viking was a profession), why is the book (titled Vikings) completely focused on the history of the Scandinavian race?

[Kylie Gambrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book is an engaging and thoughtful presentation of the stereotypical and actual “Viking” ethnicity. Richards’ use of archaeological evidence to support the reader’s geographical journey through 400 years of Scandinavia/every-place-they-colonized sheds light on Viking influence across Europe.

Very enjoyable read!!

[Ocean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one I read a while ago but realized isn't on my list, but I reference it often. This is a great overview of the history of the Vikings, but I have some frustrations on how it approaches religion. There's a comment in there about women and the afterlife that exists in both the first and second editions that is just false, and it has a view on Norse polytheism that I just don't think bears out. Religious perspective aside, it's a great little book, especially on the archeological angle.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a short book it was hard to read. A little bit too academic. A lot of our ideas about Vikings come from fiction and operas and films. Horned helmets is from Wagner. I still like their myths and the runes! Will read more.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For such a short book, has far too much repetition, and a lot of the wrong kind of detail. Much of it is arranged area by area, which means lists of archaeological finds with some brief narrative on top. But it's hard to follow the differences between regions in this format.

[Powerofthehero · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to who vikings were, where they came, where they went and what they did. +3 points on knowledge about vikings.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this short history of the Vikings. Very readable and very interesting.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though this is an introduction to the Viking era, I still found it tedious and ended up just skimming through.

[nehcid · Rating 2 out of 5]

too much archaeology for the vikings rarely write and document their history.