Download or read book Saxons vs Vikings written by Ed West and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2023-06-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A witty and concise look at the beginnings of English history, when the nation consolidated after clashes between the Saxons and invading Vikings--now in paperback! In 871, three of England's four kingdoms were overrun by Vikings, the ruthless, all-conquering Scandinavian raiders who terrorized early medieval Europe. With the Norsemen murdering one king with arrows and torturing another to death by ripping out his lungs, the prospects that faced the kingdom of Wessex were bleak. Worse still, the Saxons were now led by a young man barely out of his teens who was more interested in God than fighting. Yet within a decade Alfred—the only English king known as the Great—had driven the Vikings out of half of England, and his children and grandchildren would unite the country a few years later. This period, popular with fans of television shows such as Vikings and The Last Kingdom, saw the creation of England as a nation-state, with Alfred laying down the first national law code, establishing an education system and building cities. Saxons vs. Vikings also covers the period before Alfred, including ancient Britain, the Roman occupation, and the Dark Ages, explaining important historical episodes such as Boudicca, King Arthur, and Beowulf. Perfect for newcomers to the subject, this is the second title in the new A Very, Very Short History of England series. If you’re trying to understand England and its history in the most informative and entertaining way possible, this is the place to start.

Download or read book The Viking Great Army and the Making of England written by Dawn Hadley and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring the latest scientific techniques and findings, this book is the definitive account of the Viking Great Army’s journey and how their presence forever changed England. When the Viking Great Army swept through England between 865 and 878 CE, the course of English history was forever changed. The people of the British Isles had become accustomed to raids for silver and prisoners, but 865 CE saw a fundamental shift as the Norsemen stayed through winter and became immersed in the heart of the nation. The Viking army was here to stay. This critical period for English history led to revolutionary changes in the fabric of society, creating the growth of towns and industry, transforming power politics, and ultimately leading to the rise of Alfred the Great and Wessex as the preeminent kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England. Authors Dawn Hadley and Julian Richards, specialists in Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age archaeology, draw on the most up-to-date scientific techniques and excavations, including their recent research at the Great Army’s camp at Torksey. Together they unravel the movements of the Great Army across England like a detective story, while piecing together a new picture of the Vikings in unimaginable detail. Hadley and Richards unearth the swords and jewelry the Vikings manufactured, examine how they buried their great warriors, and which everyday objects they discarded. These discoveries revolutionized what is known of the size, complexity, and social make-up of the army. Like all good stories, this one has plenty of heroes and villains, and features a wide array of vivid illustrations, including site views, plans, weapons, and hoards. This exciting volume tells the definitive account of a vital period in Norse and British history and is a must-have for history and archaeology lovers.

Download or read book The Vikings in Francia written by John Michael Wallace-Hadrill and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Saxons Viking Invasion written by David Beeson and published by Forest Edge. This book was released on 2011 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life does not get more difficult than this. The historical drama follows the events caused by the Viking invasion of England. It ends with King Alfred the Great's famous victory on Salisbury Plain in 877.

Download or read book The Viking Wars written by Max Adams and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of Britain in the violent and unruly era between the first Scandinavian raids in 789 and the final expulsion of the Vikings from York in 954. In 865, a great Viking army landed in East Anglia, precipitating a series of wars that would last until the middle of the following century. It was in this time of crisis that the modern kingdoms of Britain were born. In their responses to the Viking threat, these kingdoms forged their identities as hybrid cultures: vibrant and entrepreneurial peoples adapting to instability and opportunity. Traditionally, Alfred the Great is cast as the central player in the story of Viking Age Britain. But Max Adams, while stressing the genius of Alfred as war leader, law-giver, and forger of the English nation, has a more nuanced narrative approach to this conventional version of history. The Britain encountered by the Scandinavians of the ninth and tenth centuries was one of regional diversity and self-conscious cultural identities, depicted in glorious narrative fashion in The Viking Wars.

Download or read book Mother of Kings written by Poul Anderson and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This epic tale based on Norse sagas by the Science Fiction Grand Master “proves that he is indeed a master!” (Robert Jordan, #1 New York Times–bestselling author). In Mother of Kings, Poul Anderson “brings to life the bloodthirsty Norse as they evolve into the looting, plundering Vikings of popular lore” (Publishers Weekly). During the tenth century, Gunnhild, the daughter of a Norse warlord, is sent to study sorcery under the auspices of two Finnish wizards. She is able to ensnare as a husband a man she has only seen in visions—the formidable Norse king Eirik Blood-Ax—and bears him nine children. Wielding her magic as a weapon, Gunnhild survives political intrigues and power struggles at Eirik’s side, forging a family dynasty that will cement its place in Scandinavian legend and lore . . . “An unquestionably great work.” —Kirkus Reviews “The genre’s guru blends mythology and history into a powerhouse of a tale that tells readers the story of Gunnhild, a real persona who has received legendary status over the last millennium. The gritty but vivid story line provides a powerful look at the tenth century as rarely seen by literature except perhaps [in] Beowulf and that is a few centuries earlier. The beginning of the end of the Age of the Vikings is fitting posthumous triumph from one of the greats.” —AllReaders.com

Download or read book Anglo Saxon England in Icelandic Medieval Texts written by Magnús Fjalldal and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval Icelandic authors wrote a great deal on the subject of England and the English. This new work by Magnús Fjalldal is the first to provide an overview of what Icelandic medieval texts have to say about Anglo-Saxon England in respect to its language, culture, history, and geography. Some of the texts Fjalldal examines include family sagas, the shorter þættir, the histories of Norwegian and Danish kings, and the Icelandic lives of Anglo-Saxon saints. Fjalldal finds that in response to a hostile Norwegian court and kings, Icelandic authors - from the early thirteenth century onwards (although they were rather poorly informed about England before 1066) - created a largely imaginary country where friendly, generous, although rather ineffective kings living under constant threat welcomed the assistance of saga heroes to solve their problems. The England of Icelandic medieval texts is more of a stage than a country, and chiefly functions to provide saga heroes with fame abroad. Since many of these texts are rarely examined outside of Iceland or in the English language, Fjalldal's book is important for scholars of both medieval Norse culture and Anglo-Saxon England.

Download or read book Saxons Vikings and Celts The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland written by Bryan Sykes and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2007-12-17 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve, a perfect book for anyone interested in the genetic history of Britain, Ireland, and America. One of the world's leading geneticists, Bryan Sykes has helped thousands find their ancestry in the British Isles. Saxons, Vikings, and Celts, which resulted from a systematic ten-year DNA survey of more than 10,000 volunteers, traces the true genetic makeup of the British Isles and its descendants, taking readers from the Pontnewydd cave in North Wales to the resting place of the Red Lady of Paviland and the tomb of King Arthur. This illuminating guide provides a much-needed introduction to the genetic history of the people of the British Isles and their descendants throughout the world.

Download or read book The Consolation of Philosophy Sedgefield translation written by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-11-13 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consolation of Philosophy (Latin: Consolatio Philosophiae) is a philosophical work by Boethius, written around the year 524. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West on Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great Western work of the Classical Period. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius (c. 480–524 or 525 AD), was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and prominent family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after Odoacer deposed the last Western Roman Emperor. Boethius, of the noble Anicia family, entered public life at a young age and was already a senator by the age of 25. Boethius himself was consul in 510 in the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. In 522 he saw his two sons become consuls. Boethius was imprisoned and eventually executed by King Theodoric the Great, who suspected him of conspiring with the Eastern Roman Empire. While jailed, Boethius composed his Consolation of Philosophy, a philosophical treatise on fortune, death, and other issues. The Consolation became one of the most popular and influential works of the Middle Ages.

Download or read book The Wolf Age written by Tore Skeie and published by Pushkin Press. This book was released on 2022-11-08 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Skeie’s account of ruthless conflict, political intrigue, and diplomatic machinations reads like a real-life Game of Thrones—without the dragons. Medieval history buffs will be riveted.” --Publishers Weekly Thrilling history provides a new perspective on the Viking-Anglo Saxon conflicts and brings the bloody period vividly to life, perfect for fans of Dan Jones The first major book on Vikings by a Scandinavian author to be published in English, The Wolf Age reframes the struggle for a North Sea empire and puts readers in the mindset of Vikings, providing new insight into their goals, values, and what they chose to live and die for. Tore Skeie ("Norway's Most Important Young Historian") takes readers on a thrilling journey through the bloody shared history of England and Scandinavia, and on across early medieval Europe, from the wild Norwegian fjords to the wealthy cities of Muslim Andalusia. Warfare, plotting, backstabbing and bribery abound as Skeie skillfully weaves sagas and skaldic poetry with breathless dramatization as he entertainingly brings the world of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons to vivid life. In the eleventh century, the rulers of the lands surrounding the North Sea are all hungry for power. To get power they need soldiers, to get soldiers they need silver, and to get silver there is no better way than war and plunder. This vicious cycle draws all the lands of the north into a brutal struggle for supremacy and survival that will shatter kingdoms and forge an empire…

Download or read book The Anglo Saxon Chronicle written by and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Danes in Wessex written by Ryan Lavelle and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2015-11-30 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There have been many studies of the Scandinavians in Britain, but this is the first collection of essays to be devoted solely to their engagement with Wessex. New work on the early Middle Ages, not least the excavations of mass graves associated with the Viking Age in Dorset and Oxford, drew attention to the gaps in our understanding of the wider impact of Scandinavians in areas of Britain not traditionally associated with them. Here, a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to the problems of their study is presented. While there may not have been the same degree of impact, discernible particularly in place-names and archaeology, as in those areas of Britain which had substantial influxes of Scandinavian settlers, Wessex was a major theater of the Viking wars in the reigns of Alfred and Æthelred Unræd. Two major topics, the Viking wars and the Danish landowning elite, figure strongly in this collection but are shown not to be the sole reasons for the presence of Danes, or items associated with them, in Wessex. Multidisciplinary approaches evoke Vikings and Danes not just through the written record, but through their impact on real and imaginary landscapes and via the objects they owned or produced. The papers raise wider questions too, such as when did aggressive Vikings morph into more acceptable Danes, and what issues of identity were there for natives and incomers in a province whose founders were believed to have also come from North Sea areas, if not from parts of Denmark itself? Readers can continue for themselves aspects of these broader debates that will be stimulated by this fascinating and significant series of studies by both established scholars and new researchers.

Download or read book The Anglo Saxon World written by Nicholas J. Higham and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the Anglo-Saxon period of English history from the fifth century up to the late eleventh century, covering such events as the spread of Christianity, the invasions of the Vikings, the composition of Beowulf, and the Battle of Hastings.

Download or read book Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf written by Sean Duffy and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2013-10-11 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brian Boru is the most famous Irish person before the modern era, whose death at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 is one of the few events in the whole of Ireland's medieval history to retain a place in the popular imagination. Once, we were told that Brian, the great Christian king, gave his life in a battle on Good Friday against pagan Viking enemies whose defeat banished them from Ireland forever. More recent interpretations of the Battle of Clontarf have played down the role of the Vikings and portrayed it as merely the final act in a rebellion against Brian, the king of Munster, by his enemies in Leinster and Dublin. This book proposes a far-reaching reassessment of Brian Boru and Clontarf. By examining Brian's family history and tracing his career from its earliest days, it uncovers the origins of Brian's greatness and explains precisely how he changed Irish political life forever. Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf offers a new interpretation of the role of the Vikings in Irish affairs and explains how Brian emerged from obscurity to attain the high-kingship of Ireland because of his exploitation of the Viking presence. And it concludes that Clontarf was deemed a triumph, despite Brian's death, because of what he averted – a major new Viking offensive in Ireland – on that fateful day.

Download or read book Invaders written by Jill Honnywill and published by Collins Primary History. This book was released on 1992-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at a range of issues relating to the Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions. It focuses on who the invaders actually were and the results of these people living and settling together, in terms of language, towns and Christianity. - This book provides a variety of activities in each chapter which link to the statements of attainment. - It is in full colour, with source material.

Download or read book The Age of the Vikings written by Anders Winroth and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-07 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major reassessment of the vikings and their legacy 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.

Download or read book The Anglo Saxons written by Marc Morris and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping and original history of the Anglo-Saxons by national bestselling author Marc Morris. Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Grand cities and luxurious villas were deserted and left to crumble, and civil society collapsed into chaos. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters. The Anglo-Saxons traces the turbulent history of these people across the next six centuries. It explains how their earliest rulers fought relentlessly against each other for glory and supremacy, and then were almost destroyed by the onslaught of the vikings. It explores how they abandoned their old gods for Christianity, established hundreds of churches and created dazzlingly intricate works of art. It charts the revival of towns and trade, and the origins of a familiar landscape of shires, boroughs and bishoprics. It is a tale of famous figures like King Offa, Alfred the Great and Edward the Confessor, but also features a host of lesser known characters - ambitious queens, revolutionary saints, intolerant monks and grasping nobles. Through their remarkable careers we see how a new society, a new culture and a single unified nation came into being. Drawing on a vast range of original evidence - chronicles, letters, archaeology and artefacts - renowned historian Marc Morris illuminates a period of history that is only dimly understood, separates the truth from the legend, and tells the extraordinary story of how the foundations of England were laid.