![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Winroth is Professor of History at Yale University. In his book Winroth debunks some popular myths about the Vikings, such as the ‘carving of the blood eagle’ and the existence of so-called berserkers, both of which spring from a flawed interpretation of early medieval sources by high medieval writers, who also happened to have an excessive imagination at their disposal. The author writes about trade, religion, farming life, art and literature, which each in its own way, was as representative for the Scandiniavian culture at the time as were the violent raiding campaigns. Naturally, violence was part of that society, but Viking culture was much richer than that. In his book, Winroth tries to give the reader a concise but complete view on the Vikings and their society. Because of their attacking of monasteries and the Church in general, and the fact that the Church almost held the monopoly on literacy in the early Middle Ages, the Vikings still suffer from the distorted image of bloodthirsty heathen devils Christian monks made them in their writings. Vikings have a disproportionate bad press, argues Anders Winroth, the author of The Age of the Vikings. Unmasking the popular perception on Vikings Hardcover with dust jacket, with maps, illustrations in black and white, further reading section, notes, bibliography and index Princeton University Press, Princeton, Oxford 2014 ![]()
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