Customer Reviews

Queen Emma and the Vikings: Power, Love, and Greed in 11th Century England

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many people these days believe that the history of England began in 1066 with the Norman Conquest. This book shows that there was a thriving society on that island for years before that event. Rather than see that time as a Dark Age, this book retells the history of a land and a culture that was subsumed after the Conquest. We get the stories of the Anglo-Saxon rulers, the Danish rulers, and the intermarriage with the Norman aristocracy that eventually led to Hastings. Queen Emma successfully bridged the gaps among those three disparate societies, and was the wife of two kings of England, and the mother of two onthers, not to mention the great aunt of Wiliam the Conqueror. It's an exciting story, one that often reads like fiction, but it is all true. Love, greed, murder, betrayal, and all of the other virtues and vices we know so well are present in this tale, and it is well worth reading!

This book is very well-written and well-researched. Plus, O'Brien writes in a reader-friendly way, so that even people new to the subject can "get it." She is very insightful in her assumptions about Queen Emma, adding just enough imagination with passages containing references to authentic texts. Her understanding of Kings Aethelred and Cnut are superb. This is a book well worth your while!

There are a couple of facts we need to remember when reading this particular book. First, and this is important, it, the book, is not a Doctorial Thesis and it is not written as such. This is a popular historical work, meant to inform, but at the same time, to entertain. Secondly, I too, like a couple of other reviewers, was a bit disappointed that more was not written about the main character, Emma, her personal life, etc. This leads to the second fact we must remember. Source documents from this era, in particular personal histories, are very, very hard to come by. Most documents from this time have simply disappeared, have been destroyed, or are lost in some historical black hole. This being said and this being remembered, as the book is being read, might help.

The author has given us a fascinating look into the life and politics during the latter part of the first century. A very troubled time for England, and indeed, most of Europe. True, she, the author, does not go into the depth of her subject as many of us would like, but as I have stated, the author had very few source documents of refer to. This work is done in the "popular mode," and is quite readable. The author has taken great pains to let us know when she is stating documented facts and when she drifts into the realm of speculation. This is important to understand what the author is trying to do. I found the author's style far from dry, considering the subject matter. Queen Emma was indeed a complex and fascinating woman and the author has gone to great lengths to bring this across.

This is one of those book I like to call a "tickler," or "seed book." It gives information to those who are interested in a subject, but not fanatical about it. My primary interest is in New World History, but I do like to know where we came from. Works such as this give me as much information as I need for my purposes. Granted, if I were doing a research paper, or was extremely interested in the subject, I would indeed want more. As it stands though, this work gave me a wonder glance into those days and times. Now that I have this information, I find I do have an interest and this work has "tickled" me into checking other works out. This is a good thing. Perhaps one day I could land a nice juicy government grant, travel to England, and check out some of the source documents myself. Would not that be fun!

All in all, I found the work to be very well done, enjoyable to read and quite helpful. I do recommend this one for any individual interested in those days and times and the Queen Emma.

The century or two leading up to the Norman Conquest is a favorite historical period for me, and I've read a number of books balanced roughly on the fulcrum of the year 1000, give or take. And Ms. O'Brien's was a very worthwhile addition to them. Like another reviewer, though, I wished for more on Emma -- or Aelfgifu as the Anglo-Saxons called her. Still, the book was quite a worthwhile and well-written portrait of the times and the characters involved in those fateful years.

And I still say Harold got a raw deal. Arrow in the eye (at least, according to the Bayeux Tapestry) -- that's gotta hurt! ;)

O'Brien's book is less a biography of Emma than a history of England during the years in which Emma was Queen. A typical chapter will contain long passages dealing with other major (male) characters, only mentioning in passing that Emma likely did this, or traveled there, or wore that. Given the lack of primary source material devoted to Queen Emma, this is understandable, but to try to portray the book as a solid biography is highly misleading. (The book is also riddled with typos, mixed verb tenses, and a rather surprising number of fragmented sentences.)

What she does offer us is fascinating, and only made me want to know more about her subject. Emma, of course, was a Norman noblewoman who was first married to Aethelred, the Anglo-Saxon King of England; she later married the Danish Cnut, whose father had defeated Aethelred and conquered England. Later, two of her sons - Harthacnut (by Cnut) and Edward (by Aethelred) would also be crowned Kings of England, not to mention that William I "The Conqueror" was her grandnephew.

But O'Brien doesn't really delve into much beyond the facts. She recounts all the events that occurred during Emma's life, without giving us any real insight into them. Emma's marriage to Cnut was apparently much happier than her marriage to Aethelred - but why? O'Brien mentions the fact and then moves on, never giving us any hint (or even any evidence, beyond her say-so) as to why those two were so affectionate, or (more importantly) whether this might have later predisposed Emma to prefer Harthacnut to her sons by Aethelred - an important detail, given how influential Emma ostensibly was in the succession after Cnut's death.

That's just one example, but there are plenty more. O'Brien's book is a good introduction, I suppose, to the facts surrounding Emma's life, but personally I wanted so much more. A good biography should help you to understand the subject, and O'Brien just never manages that.

It is difficult to write a positive review of this book. I would not call it good. The writer begins each chapter with a fanciful, novel- style account of what Queen Emma might have felt and done, which, in my view, is out of place in a scholarly work. This is not to be confused with actual historical fact. Also the book is permeated with slang terms that irritate. In addition there is a great deal of detail on subjects that have nothing whatsoever to do with the Queen, such as cures for pimples and warts. These sorts of reminiscences are more in line with a book on the life and times of Anglo Saxon England than with Queen Emma herself. Historical fact on the Queen is thin and is hidden in a lot of extraneuous detail. It is a mildly interesting book, once you get past all the irrelevant detail, but no more than that. In short, the author could have written the details of the Queen's life in half the words she has used.

It's clear that Emma didn't passively attain this distinction. How did she do it? The records for the era are hardly extensive, so the biographer has a lot of work to do.

O'Brien did the work and has produced a solid bio. I particularly liked the parts on how Emma commissioned her book and how the assigned monk may have constructed her spin on history. I also liked the chronological chart at the end which sets Emma and her time within not just a European timeline, but also a worldwide framework.

The amount of research that goes into a volume like this is to be respected, but I held back a star because the question of how Queen Emma made her comebacks is only technically answered. You do not get the feeling you understand Emma the way you come to understand the central characters in a Fraser or Weir biography.

I really enjoyed this book, I remember learning a bit about this time period in school (educated in England) but there was no mention of Emma.

What I liked about this book is that the author does not make suppositions regarding the characters motives and inner thoughts as a lot of authors tend to do. It is based on recorded facts and the author's interpretation of them.

It is very well written and Emma is an interesting character, reminicent of Eleanor of Aquitane

I highly recommend this book

Emma was certainly remarkable. This Norman noblewoman was married to two kings of England, one Saxon, one Viking, and was mother to another king. The life and its violent times of this pragmatic survivor are expertly told in this book, in which author Harriet O'Brien does a good job of fitting together thousand-year-old puzzle pieces and telling a coherent story even in the face of the sometimes limited information at her disposal. Queen Emma is a book that educates and entertains, and above all else illuminates an often forgotten and ill-chronicled era in the history of the English peoples.

Emma of Normandy was the daughter of Richard I and his Danish "handfast" wife, Gunnor, whose origins are obscure. She married Aethelred II of England, was widowed, and married the Danish invader, Canute the Great the next year. One of her sons by each husband subsequently ruled England. She also became the mother-in-law of Henry III of Germany and was the great-aunt of William the Conqueror. But Emma wasn't the typical royal spouse. She learned how to wield power, played an expert political game, and suffered the failings of greed and scandal. Because of her wide and deep connections between the conquering Danes and Normans and the conquered English, this lively, well-written volume is more than a biography. Though the author is a journalist rather than an academic, she has produced a popular history with thorough source citations that is well worth the reading.