Customer Reviews

Everyday Life in the Viking Age

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In this book Ms Simpson sets out to construct an accurate image of what is known about Viking life. She succeeds remarkably well.

Ms Simpson points out that both those who see the Vikings as mere bloodthirsty savages and those who depict them as perfect heroes tend to ignore a great deal of what is known about the Vikings. She then seeks to describe in great detail what life was like, from the construction of farm houses to life in the cities, from warfare to religious rites.

On the whole I felt that Ms Simpson's work succeeded in its original mission-- to depict accurately the typical elements of Viking life. Additionally, she supports even those ideas I thought were questionable well enough that it is clear that she has important points to make on these subjects.

I would highly recommend this work.

From The Antiquarian Resource

Written by Jacqueline Simpson, Dorset Press, 1987 (second edition)

This book offers tons of details that I never knew before about the Vikings. Ms. Simpson offers historical findings derived from archeological discoveries which produce a vivid picture of Viking life. It is easy to just see the vikings stereotpically as seafaring mauraders and plunderers. Many of those images come down to us from angry monk chroniclers from Britain.

This is the first time I've read so much about how they really lived, their life on the land, shps, families and social life, etc. Very interesting. I would recommend it to any historian or casual reader of these times.

There is also a useful index and about 90 illustrations of drawings of some ships, artifacts and their life.

The Antiquarian Resource