Viking Connections: Proceedings of the Nineteenth Viking Congress

The Viking Age was a world of connections that cannot be traced through raids alone. Viking Connections gathers thirty-two papers from the Nineteenth Viking Congress, held in Wales and North-West England in 2022, to follow the movement of people, objects and ideas across that world. Clare Downham, Fiona Edmonds, Nancy Edwards and David Griffiths edit contributions drawn from archaeology, history, language, literature and the study of material culture.

The Irish Sea emerges as a particularly rich meeting ground. Essays reconsider Viking activity in Wales, Scandinavian settlement in Cumbria and burial traditions around western Britain and Ireland. Others travel further, following silver, trading routes and settlements such as Ribe and Hedeby. The range of evidence is part of the point: coins, place-names, poetry and graves reveal different sides of encounters that a written chronicle alone cannot explain.