The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction

The Vikings were traders, settlers, explorers and craftspeople as well as raiders, and archaeology has transformed our understanding of the societies behind the familiar warrior image. Julian D. Richards introduces the Viking Age through material evidence from Scandinavia, Britain and the wider regions reached by Norse expansion, examining ships, settlements, burials, towns, objects and landscapes.

Overseas migration and warfare sit alongside farming, commerce and religious life, including the gradual conversion to Christianity. Richards uses excavated evidence to test the stories preserved in later written sources. Graves, workshops and trading places can reveal experiences that chronicles of kings and raiding armies rarely describe.