List Price: $29.95
Save: $7.76 (26%)

FREE Shipping on orders over $35.

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Want it Wednesday, Dec. 9? Order within and choose Two-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

Buy Used

$18.96

Used: Good | Details

Sold by apex_media

Fulfilled by Amazon

Condition: Used: Good

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Sell yours for a Gift Card
We'll buy it for $6.51
Learn More
Trade in now

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

The Age of the Vikings Hardcover – September 7, 2014

by Anders Winroth (Author)

31 customer reviews

See all 4 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$13.27

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$22.19

$16.43

$17.75

Paperback

"Please retry"

$17.95

—

Audible, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

The Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships to explore. The Age of the Vikings tells the full story of this exciting period in history. Drawing on a wealth of written, visual, and archaeological evidence, Anders Winroth captures the innovation and pure daring of the Vikings without glossing over their destructive heritage. He not only explains the Viking attacks, but also looks at Viking endeavors in commerce, politics, discovery, and colonization, and reveals how Viking arts, literature, and religious thought evolved in ways unequaled in the rest of Europe. The Age of the Vikings sheds new light on the complex society, culture, and legacy of these legendary seafarers.

The Age of the Vikings

$22.19 FREE Shipping on orders over $35. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

Total price: $45.81

Buy the selected items together

This item:The Age of the Vikings by Anders Winroth Hardcover $22.19
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $35. Details
The Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok by Ben Waggoner Paperback $12.61
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $35. Details
The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings by Lars Brownworth Paperback $11.01
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $35. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Lars Brownworth

84

Paperback
$11.01
Ben Waggoner

59

Paperback
$12.61
Kirsten Wolf

19

Hardcover
$12.19
John Haywood

47

Paperback
$15.64
Robert Ferguson

59

Paperback
$16.31
Gareth Williams

11

Paperback
$29.36

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

(What's this?)

1. Viking Direct

Toutes Vos Fournitures à Prix Bas. Livraison gratuite pour Pro en 24h!

www.vikingdirect.fr/

Ad feedback

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Take an Extra 25% Off Any Book: Use promo code BOOKDEAL25 at checkout to get an extra 25% off any book for a limited time. Excludes Kindle eBooks and Audible Audiobooks. Restrictions apply. Learn more | Shop now

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Princeton University Press; 1st edition (September 7, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0691149852
ISBN-13: 978-0691149851
Product Dimensions: 1 x 6.5 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17 in Books > History > Europe > Scandinavia

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		61%
4 star		23%
3 star		16%
2 star		0%
1 star		0%

See all 31 customer reviews

Share your thoughts with other customers

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful

informative and Entertaining

By Drifter on October 8, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Anders Winroth is the author of the magnificent book The Conversion of Scandinavia, where he takes an interdisciplinary approach to recreate Scandinavia's conversion to Christianity from their own perspective (if you haven't read that book, go read it now). Here in The Age of the Vikings, he takes a similar in depth approach into the Viking Age in general. Every aspect of the Viking Age, from raiding, to trade, to religion, to art is explored carefully and vividly reconstructed. This book makes use of various sources from across all regions with Viking contact creating a very complete picture of the time. Winroth does all this in a lively writing style that is sure to keep you entertained as you go along on this informative journey. I recommend this for graduate students and casual readers alike.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful

Some of what you want to know about Vikings

By Kermit Carraway on December 12, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

The most interesting aspect of this book is the answer to the question why the Vikings were considered such vicious marauders while Charlemagne is considered a hero in Western Europe. After all, they used many similar methods in achieving their aims: increasing their wealth, status and territory. The answer provided by the author is that the Vikings aimed many of their raids at the only literate group of the time, monks and other churchmen. Those were the people that wrote histories. And why did the Vikings attack monasteries? To paraphrase, that's where the wealth was. So this book is in part a commentary on the economics of the time. Charlemagne supported the Christians and vice versa, increasing both his wealth and territory and theirs. Moreover, rather than being just raiders, the Vikings were traders and settlers, ultimately seeking territory for their families and friends. Thus, they aggravated the other powerful group of the time, the rulers of the territories they encroached, including the heirs of Charlemagne.
Beyond these questions this book is a fairly straightforward history of the period based on what little was written at the time and archeological findings. The most interesting other parts to me concerned the Viking ships and runestones, one source of information about the people of the Viking age. Considerable effort is put toward explaining Viking poetic sagas, which appear to be deliberately vague. I would have preferred to see more about their role as explorers and settlers of new territory.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Excellent History of the Vikings

By Mostofizadeh on January 8, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

This is a sober, even-handed and very entertaining account of the Viking Age, with attention to its unique artistic and poetic culture (to include the incredibly complex and obscure epic poetry of the skalds). It's a very good introduction for the general reader who wants to learn about the (in)famous Northmen of the early Middle Ages.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Slightly revisionistic but one of the best books on these violent people. They were creative, hardy and tough.

By lyndonbrecht on March 2, 2015

Format: Hardcover

This is something of a revisionist history. It is excellently written and the graphics are good, as you would expect from Princeton. There are scores of books about the Vikings, and many of them are good. This one is very good, and might be a good place to start.

The revisionist stuff? Winroth says that the macabre and famous "blood eagle" is a myth, and the famed and equally macabre "berserkers" are also myth. He situates the Vikings as a vigorous group of peoples in a violent age. The merit of his approach is that the Vikings are presented as violent but no more so than their neighbors, not so much the scourges of God as opportunistic predators, a common if gory element in Europe at that time.

The book has chapters on violence in a violent age, Viking age migrations, ships and boats to sea and the afterworld, trade, religion, chieftains and kings, home on the farm and Viking arts. The arts chapter is a tough read, as it is mostly a description of the highly elaborate verse and the complexity of the poets' kenning. I personally found the chapter on ships and boats to be the most interesting.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

YOU WANT THE FACTS ON VIKINGS? HERE THEY ARE, ALL IN 1 BOOK,THIS BOOK

By Harrison R.T.Davis on December 5, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

TRULY A FABULOUS BOOK About the Vikings, who were active and prosperous during Europe's Dark Ages. When you have read this book, you do not need to read anymore books on The Vikings. Contains a heart-warming story of a real Viking woman's life,
her trials and tribulations, and how she left us a message on RUNESTONES. Also contains some territory gathering, slaves gatherings, and much booty (treasure) raids to secure same.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Age of the Vikings - a good read before visiting Scandanavia

By RC on March 18, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

I bought this book specifically to prepare for a visit to the Viking Ship museum in Oslo. The book places the Vikings in the proper context of peoples in Europe in the 9th century. Life for everyone was nasty, brutish and short. The Vikings were just the best able to take advantage of the situation with their skill as marine engineers, seamen and traders and when profitable, as very effective warriors. Reading this prepared me well for the Viking ship museum. This small venue is not to be missed when in Oslo.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

Well researched but still a pleasant read

By Roest on December 16, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

A well-written overview of many aspects of the people of the nordic countries around the orst millenium. It describes things like their religion, their art and of course the raids for which the Vikings are known. A nice touch is that the author makes it clear how (un)certain all the information is that we have about this age. Although well researched and annotated, the book is still very accessible to non-historians.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

See all 31 customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review

Most Recent Customer Reviews

It was the first book that I've read that gave good analysis of viking...

I read historical fiction about the vikings, so this book with hard historical data was interesting to me. Read more

Published 13 days ago by Tom Arneson

Odin guide you!

Generally a good read...

Published 13 days ago by Daniel Kapla

Four Stars

Very well written and readable.

Published 19 days ago by Jeffrey Yona Byrd

Not as good as most other accounts of Viking history.

Published 1 month ago by Judith N. Alger

Not exactly what I expected

A very nice overview of Viking society, but it is not a political history. Some of the chapters were a little slow.

Published 1 month ago by John Guard

This is a great book for a non-specialist who is willing to read ...

This is a great book for a non-specialist who is willing to read material that is a bit denser than your average popular history. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Barry A. Klinger

Bloody, Bloody, but can't stop watching it. ...

Bloody, Bloody, but can't stop watching it. I wish there was a little more information about their social structure other than the looting and pillaging. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer

Decent book

I had to read this book to write a research paper comparing the Vikings and the Normans. This book was very factual and was not a difficult book to read. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Christian Eckenrode

Good read

This book is very informative. I enjoyed reading it and had a hard time putting it down. Being Swedish and a fan of the show vikings I have a lot of interest in the Norse way of... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Jennifer

educational read

Detailed historic summary of Viking history. A good educational read not intended for entertainment.

Published 5 months ago by Tom hansen

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more