The Hammer and the Cross: A New History of the Vikings

Robert Ferguson presents a wide-ranging history of the Viking Age from the attack on Lindisfarne in 793 to the transformation of the Scandinavian world around the end of the eleventh century. The narrative follows Viking expansion west to Iceland, Greenland and North America and east through the Baltic and Rus to Byzantium, while also examining the political and social changes taking place within Scandinavia itself.

Ferguson is particularly interested in the difficult boundary between history, literature and legend. He combines archaeological evidence, runes, picture-stones, ships and objects with the sagas, Eddic poetry and skaldic verse, weighing what these very different sources can reveal about Viking society. The encounter between Norse pagan traditions and expanding Christianity provides a central thread throughout. Substantial but highly readable, the book offers an accessible synthesis of Viking history, culture, belief and the sources through which the period is known.