The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year 1000 A.D. (Paperback)

by James Reston Jr. (Author) "THE BATTLE AT MALDON was but a minor way station in the already heroic life of a huge and athletic young prince of Norway known..." (more)
Key Phrases: moot field, last apocalypse, King Olaf, Olaf Trygvesson, Svein Forkbeard (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
With the turn of the century approaching, talk of the apocalypse runs rampant. In The Last Apocalypse, James Reston reminds us that such talk is nothing new. At the previous turn of the millennium, Vikings, Moors, and Hungarian Magyars beseiged Europe with wanton cruelty and violence, spreading fear and destruction wherever they went and leading many to believe that the end of the world was near. Such colorful characters as Sigrid the Haughty, Svein Forkbeard, Ethelred the Unready, and Al-Mansor the Illustrious Victor were the heroes and villains of the era.

Reston, author of previous works that include Galileo: A Life and Sherman's March, evokes the historical essence of the time using limited legal and church documents, archaeological artifacts, and rare contemporary literary accounts. Reston's history reads like an engrossing novel, carefully crafted without getting bogged down in dry details. He skillfully interweaves the complex story of how each European country dealt with these changes, bringing the period back to life.

Reston portrays A.D. 999 as a profound turning point for mankind, mapping out the fate of each country as the Christian kingdoms, unified in belief, brutally conquered and imposed the will of Christianity upon heathen Europe. In the space of 60 years, the established ruling elite were slaughtered or forced to succumb to the turning religious tide. By A.D. 1050, the sign of the cross fell like an ominous shadow across Europe, paradoxically signifying the dawn of peace under Christian unity. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Reston theorizes that the year A.D. 999?the focus of this highly colorful narrative?was a turning point in history, marking the Christian West's joining of forces against the triple heathen threat of Vikings, Hungarian Magyar tribes and the Moors in Spain. His popular history actually shuttles back and forth from the early eighth century to the death of Hungary's Christianizing King Stephen in 1038. Biographer (Galileo), television writer and journalist, Reston draws liberally from period poems, folktales, sagas, myths, legends and holy chronicles to stitch together an entertaining tapestry replete with revenge, murder, treachery, carnal lusts, rape, geopolitical royal matchmaking and snatches from Norse lyrics. Most memorable are the odd, outsize characters such as Swedish pagan queen Sigrid the Strong-Minded, who burned her spurned suitors to death in a beer hall. Reston also evokes a Byzantine court rife with conspiracy, a corrupt papacy, the end-of-the-millennium broodings of Christians and heathens alike and the cosmopolitan culture of Moorish Spain.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (February 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385483368
• ISBN-13: 978-0385483360
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #100,095 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard to discern historical fact from Reston's imagination, April 6, 1999

By	Susan Zuckerman (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

Reston writes a highly entertaining, "popular" history, although I have some definite quibbles with his interpretations. It seems Reston wants to cash in on a "millenium" book, and has construed history to conform to this theme. At the turn of the millenium in which we are now living, most people on the planet are abundantly aware of this as an event. Not so in much of Europe around the year 1000. In particular, much of Northern Europe, still being pagan, did not follow the Julian Calendar. Even those who were aware of the 1000th anniversary since the birth of Christ, may have seen little significance in that number, as a full circle was seen as being divided into 1/12ths, and thus multiples of 12 were more "complete" and significant numbers than multiples of 10. The questions that are begged, therefore, are: How significant is a purely symbolic event if folk are not aware of it as anything special? Might an apocalyptic interpretation be cast over just about any time in history? Regardless, Reston's book is an entertaining read, and will give a vivid, imaginative sense of that period in Europe, as long as you don't count on it for historical accuracy.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Balanced, December 10, 1999

By	David Haggith (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Last Apocalypse : Europe at the Year 1000 A.D. (Hardcover)

I found this entertaining and informative book quite useful in researching my own book. What I liked most about it-outside of the fascinating stories-was that Reston pretty much lets his readers form their own conclusions about the causes of change during the last millennial transition.

So, I would take mild exception with the reviewer who indicated that Reston gives too much credit to the year-1000 rollover. That reviewer pointed out that "At the turn of the millenium in which we are now living, most people on the planet are abundantly aware of this as an event. Not so in much of Europe around the year 1000. In particular, much of Northern Europe, still being pagan, did not follow the Julian Calendar." While it's true that most of Europe was probably not aware that they were living 1,000 years after the birth of Christ, I don't recall Reston ever saying that the changes that occurred around the year 1000 had anything to do with millennial concern. He simply points out that many highly significant changes did, in fact, occur during this time frame. He leaves it up to the reader to deduce how much of this had anything to do with concern over the year 1000.

So, I think it's a well balanced and intriguing book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, if stretched., May 5, 2004

By	M. Seidl (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In this volume Reston demonstrates his talent for readable popular history. There's nothing new in his story of close of the first millenium. Rather, it's an entertaining synthesis of what had long been known about those years. As reviewer Susan Zuckerman rightly suggests (see below), Reston forces his thesis a bit. The pagan Norse of Norway and Iceland, for example, would surely have seen Olaf Tryggvason as a fierce and successful warrior, but hardly as a bearer of the apocalypse, a Christian concept still foreign to them. Still, if you're looking for a page-turner about a fascinating moment of medieval history, give The Last Apoclaypse a try.