The Viking Art of War (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Paddy Griffith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Greenhill Military Paperbacks | Publication Date: August 1998

& 54 maps, tables, and charts & 6 x 9 & A best-selling study of the Viking genius for war & Explodes myths and reveals the facts behind the fearsome reputation This groundbreaking and authoritative study of the Vikings establishes the facts behind their rise to prominence, and cuts away the myths about their military and seafaring skills, reputation, and exploits. The author applies modern military thinking to the Viking art of war and examines their tactics, seamanship, mobility, strategy, and how they exploited victories and dealt with defeats. Learn how the Vikings established colonies in hostile territory and defeated a diverse array of enemies, including the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks, the Volga Bulgars, and the wild tribes of Ireland, in three centuries of military adventure. Paddy Griffith was a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for 16 years. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the history of warfare, including Battle Tactics of the Western Front, 1916-18 and The Art of War of Revolutionary France, 1789-1802.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Greenhill Books (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853673374
• ISBN-13: 978-1853673375
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,728,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worst of the "serious" books on the topic, June 12, 1999

By 

Harald Hansen - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Viking Art of War (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

This book was written for a series on the ART OF WAR. In effect, it is a generic book on Vikings, derived from secondary source material. the best parts of the book are the discussions of source material at the very end. The author seems not to care about his subject enough to search for the correct verb, make the conclusions presented consistent with the facts provided, or thoroughly learn his subject. The editing of the some of the charts and tables is poor, the one on page 59 about Magyars "mopping up whatever enclaves have escaped the Viking assault from the sea." is laughable - almost certainly not the fault of the author. The sections on navigation, its hazards and ship building are shockingly bad. The phrasing in some of the sentences creates unintentional humor e.g. "for all their much- vaunted military muscle the Vikings managed to erase only one race permanently from the map of Europe- the Picts- and even then it was surely not out of any deliberate policy of genocide." The choice of the verb "managed" implies an effort at genocide and "even then...surely not" implies that they SHOULD have had such a policy. Again slipshod editing. Finally, the tone is more suited to a book on politics -and P. Griffith does demonstrate a mastery of polemics- a lot of "attitude" shows through which is often at variance with the information presented. A good editor could have helped. There are many good scholarly works on this subject, (Gwyn Jones and P. Sawyer for example), but this is not one of them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An insight to consider, nothing more..., May 15, 2008

By 

ThorBjorn "Norseman" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Viking Art of War (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

In this volume, the author proclaims to examine the military capabilities of the early Medieval Scandinavians. Although this book appears to be a bit contemtuous of the Vikings, it does contain some interesting insights. In general, the only sources of information we have on Nordic warfare, are the Icelandic Sagas, and some mostly biased chronicles written from the view-point of cultures which were in conflict with the Scandinavians. The nature of the conflict varied from overt states of warfare, economic and political rivalry, to cultural supremecy, and this has to be taken into account. Beyond the ancient literature, we have only the findings of modern-day archeologists.
The author has utilized the available information in his analysis, in conjunction with his academic skills as Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy, to give us his interpretation. Of course, the written word can tell you only so much, and surely there is a vast amount of information that has been lost to time, information one could only know by actually experiencing the time and place.

In regard to British authors, we see many books of the highest academic standard, and we also see publications reflecting blatant bias. This book is really niether one entirely. An admirer of Nordic culture may find some aspects of the author's perspective mildly irritating, but there is a lot of interesting information within. The author has included much material that will inspire the reader to research other topics related to the theme.

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Definite Miss, June 11, 2001

By 

Luke P. Gallagher (Conneaut, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Viking Art of War (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

The conclusions the author reaches are hardly substantiated by the historical record. While he writes intelligently, he does not know his subject very well. It is almost as if he were an expert in another area, but was forced to write a book outside his area of expertise. One of the few books I've read where I alternated at being mad about the ineptness of the historical conclusions drawn, and laughing at the absurdness of the same conclusions. Truly a miss.