Download or read book Viking Hersir 793 1066 AD written by Mark Harrison and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 1993-07-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Norwegian Vikings first raided the European coast in the 8th century AD, their leaders were from the middle ranks of warriors known as hersirs. At this time the hersir was typically an independent landowner or local chieftain with equipment superior to that of his followers. By the end of the 10th century, the independence of the hersir was gone, and he was now a regional servant of the Norwegian king. This book investigates these brutal, mobile warriors, and examines their tactics and psychology in war, dispelling the idea of the Viking raider as simply a killing machine.
Download or read book Armies of the Vikings AD 793 1066 written by Gabriele Esposito and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth, illustrated look at the campaigns, tactics, and weapons of some of history’s fiercest and most legendary warriors. Viking warriors were feared by their contemporaries and their ferocious reputation has survived to the present day. This book covers the military history of the Vikings from their early raiding to the final failure of their expansionist ambitions directed against England. In that period, Viking warbands and increasingly large armies had left their Scandinavian homelands to range across vast regions, including the whole of Northern Europe and beyond, even reaching North America. The British Isles were terrorized for two centuries and at times largely conquered. In Normandy, Russia, and elsewhere they also settled and founded states. As far afield as Constantinople, the Byzantine emperors employed them as their elite Varangian Guard. Tough, skilled and resourceful, with a culture that embraced the pursuit of immortal fame and a heroic death in battle, their renown as warriors was second to none. In this book, Gabriele Esposito outlines the history of their campaigns and battles and examines in detail their strategy, tactics, weapons, armor, and clothing. In addition, dozens of color photographs of replica equipment in use bring this fascinating subject to life.
Download or read book Anglo Saxon Thegn AD 449 1066 written by Mark Harrison and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 1993-11-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collapse of Roman rule in Britain was not so much a sudden catastrophe as a long and drawn-out decline. The 'Celtic' Britons retreated gradually to the highland areas of Wales, Cornwall and the south-west of Scotland. Control of the fertile eastern lowlands was lost to warriors of Germanic origin who migrated from the Continent. These Germanic conquerors have become known to history as the 'Anglo-Saxons'. They were to dominate the lowland zone of Britain until their final defeat at Hastings in 1066. This title gives an insight into the everyday life, equipment, dress, battle tactics and life on campaign of the typical Anglo-Saxon warrior of this period – the thegn.
Download or read book The Viking Age written by Angus A. Somerville and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2019-11-20 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this extensively revised third edition of The Viking Age: A Reader, Somerville and McDonald successfully bring the Vikings and their world to life for twenty-first-century students and instructors. The diversity of the Viking era is revealed through the remarkable range and variety of sources presented as well as the geographical and chronological coverage of the readings. The third edition has been reorganized into fifteen chapters. Many sources have been added, including material on gender and warrior women, and a completely new final chapter traces the continuing cultural influence of the Vikings to the present day. The use of visual material has been expanded, and updated maps illustrate historical developments throughout the Viking Age. The English translations of Norse texts, many of them new to this collection, are straightforward and easily accessible, while chapter introductions contextualize the readings.
Download or read book The Vikings written by René Chartrand and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of the Vikings is bloody and eventful, and Viking warriors capture the popular imagination to this day. They made history, establishing the dukedom of Normandy, providing the Byzantine Emperors' bodyguard and landing on the shores of America 500 years before Columbus. Beautifully illustrated with colour photographs and original Osprey artwork, this book presents a new window into their way of life including detailed studies of the Hersir, the raiding warrior of the Viking world, and the legendary Viking longship.
Download or read book Medieval Warfare A History written by Maurice Keen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1999-08-26 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This richly illustrated book explores over seven hundred years of European warfare, from the time of Charlemagne to the end of the middle ages (c.1500). The period covered has a distinctive character in military history. It was an age when organization for war was integral to social structure, when the secular aristocrat was by necessity also a warrior, and whose culture was profoundly influenced by martial ideas. Twelve scholars, experts in their own fields, have contributed to this finely illustrated book. It is divided into two parts. Part I seeks to explore the experience of war viewed chronologically with separate chapters on, for instance, the Viking age, on the wars and expansion of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, on the Crusades and on the great Hundred Years War between England and France. The chapters in Part II trace thematically the principal developments in the art of warfare; in fortification and siege craft; in the role of armoured cavalrymen; in the employment of mercenary forces; the advent of gunpowder artillery; and of new skills in navigation and shipbuilding. In both parts of the book, the overall aim has been to offer the general reader an impression, not just of the where and the when of great confrontations, but above all of the social experience of warfare in the middle ages, and of the impact of its demands on human resources and human endurance.
Download or read book The Vikings written by Don Nardo and published by Greenhaven Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2010-09-10 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Known for hit-and-run raids that struck terror into the hearts of villagers across Europe during the Middle Ages, the Vikings were independent farmers but also daring explorers, sailing far from Scandinavia in search of new land to conquer and farm. Author Don Nardo unpacks the many myths surrounding the Vikings with this comprehensive account of the their culture and impact upon the course of history. Chapters approach the subject with accessible language, maps, and timelines to broaden student understanding and facilitate research. Topics discussed in this edition include: the origin of the Vikings, conquests and expansions, the nature of Viking communities, Norse mythology, explorations of the West, and the end of the Viking age.
Download or read book Vikings written by W. B. Bartlett and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive new history of the infamous Vikings. Those men and women raided and traded their way into history whilst at the same time helping to build new nations in Scandinavia and beyond.
Download or read book Weapons of the Viking Warrior written by Gareth Williams and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the late 8th and late 11th century Viking warriors had a massive impact not just in northern Europe, but across a huge arc from the western Mediterranean round through northern Europe and the Baltic to the Middle East and Central Asia. Their success depended in part on their skills in battle, their unique sense of strategic mobility, and on the quality of their weapons and equipment. Written by an expert on early medieval weaponry, this book examines the weapons of the typical Viking warrior, dispels some of the myths of the popular image, such as double-headed axes, and considers the range of weapons that actually underpinned the Vikings' success including bows and arrows. Drawing upon contemporary literary and historical accounts from the North Atlantic to the Arab world, surviving examples of weapons and armour, and practical experimentation and reconstructions by modern weapon-smiths and re-enactors, this study casts new light on how Viking weapons were made and used in battle.
Download or read book The Viking Siege of Paris written by Si Sheppard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-20 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Vikings' siege of Paris in 885–86 was a turning point in the history of both Paris and France. In 885, a year after Charles the Fat was crowned King of the Franks, Danish Vikings sailed up the Seine demanding tribute. The Franks' refusal prompted the Vikings to lay siege to Paris, which was initially defended by only 200 men under Odo, Count of Paris, and seemingly in a poor state to defend against the Viking warriors in their fleet of hundreds of longships. Paris was centred around the medieval Île de la Cité, the natural island now in the heart of the city, fortified with bridges and towers. The Vikings attempted to break the Parisian defenders, but the city itself still held out, and after a year Charles' army arrived to lift the siege. But Charles then allowed the Vikings to sail upstream against the revolting Burgundians. Outraged at this betrayal, the Parisians refused to let the Vikings return home via the Seine, forcing them to portage their boats overland to the Marne in order to reach the North Sea. When Charles died in 888, the people of the of the Île de France elected Odo as their king. The resistance of Paris therefore marked the end of the Carolingian line and the birth of a new kingdom. This fully illustrated volume, accompanied with maps and strategic diagrams tells the full story of the Vikings' expedition to conquer medieval Paris, highlighting a key moment in the history of France and its foundation as a nation.
Download or read book The Vikings written by Martin Arnold and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2006-11-08 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This concise and balanced history traces the 300-year saga of the pirates and warlords who poured out of Scandinavia between the eighth and eleventh centuries, terrorizing, conquering, and ultimately settling vast tracts of land throughout Europe. Undaunted by the might of the Arab caliphates and the Byzantine Empire, they founded Russia, originated the bloodline that came to rule France, and created a North Sea empire that included England. They also established settlements across the North Atlantic, notably in Iceland and Greenland, and their adventurous spirit and extraordinary seafaring skills led them to explore and briefly build colonies in North America. These were the Vikings, initially ferocious pagan warriors seeking land and booty under the banners of their gods, but eventually belligerent Christian kings commanding vast armies. Martin Arnold provides a lively and accessible account of the early medieval period that became known as the Viking Age. Drawing on rich literary and archaeological source material, the first half of the book focuses especially on Viking culture, religious beliefs, and battle tactics and weaponry. The second half ranges over the four main theaters of Viking activity—the British Isles, Western Europe, the Slavic regions, and the North Atlantic settlements. Arnold vividly illustrates the two faces of the Vikings: on the one hand, savage, greedy, and implacable; on the other, adventurous, innovative, and artistic.
Download or read book God s Viking Harald Hardrada written by Nic Fields and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2020-02-19 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic historical biography of the Norwegian king who laid claim to the thrones of Denmark and England. Harald Hardrada is perhaps best known as the inheritor of “seven feet of English soil” in that year of fateful change, 1066. But Stamford Bridge was the terminal point of a warring career that spanned decades and continents. Thus, prior to forcibly occupying the Norwegian throne, Harald had an interesting (and lucrative) career in the Varangian Guard, and he remains unquestionably the most notable of all the Varangians who served the Byzantine emperors. In the latter employment he saw active service in the Aegean, Sicily, Italy, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Bulgaria, while in Constantinople he was the hired muscle behind a palace revolution. A man of war, his reign in Norway was to be taken up with a wasteful, vicious, and ultimately futile conflict against Denmark, a kingdom (like England) he believed was his to rule. We follow Harald’s life from Stiklestad, where aged fifteen he fought alongside his half-brother, King Olaf, through his years as a mercenary in Russia and Byzantium, then back to Norway, ending with his death in battle in England. Praise for God’s Viking “A gripping story of the last great Viking who is remembered most for his boast to the Saxons that he had come to conquer their land and ended up with just enough to contain his body . . . . Most highly recommended.” —Firetrench
Download or read book As Told in the Great Hall written by Martin Hackett and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second in Amberley Publishing's wargaming series covers the Dark Ages.
Download or read book The Bayeux Tapestry written by John F. Szabo and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-06-18 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commanding its own museum and over 200 years of examination, observation and scholarship, the monumental embroidery, known popularly as the Bayeux Tapestry and documenting William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in October 1066, is perhaps the most important surviving artifact of the Middle Ages. This magnificent textile, both celebrated and panned, is both enigmatic artwork and confounding historical record. With over 1780 entries, Szabo and Kuefler offer the largest and most heavily annotated bibliography on the Tapestry ever written. Notably, the Bayeux Tapestry has produced some of the most compelling questions of the medieval period: Who commissioned it and for what purpose? What was the intended venue for its display? Who was the designer and who executed the enormous task of its manufacture? How does it inform our understanding of eleventh-century life? And who was the mysterious Aelfgyva, depicted in the Tapestry’s main register? This book is an effort to capture and describe the scholarship that attempts to answer these questions. But the bibliography also reflects the popularity of the Tapestry in literature covering a surprisingly broad array of subjects. The inclusion of this material will assist future scholars who may study references to the work in contemporary non-fiction and popular works as well as use of the Bayeux Tapestry as a primary and secondary source in the classroom. The monographs, articles and other works cited in this bibliography reflect dozens of research areas. Major themes are: the Tapestry as a source of information for eleventh-century material culture, its role in telling the story of the Battle of Hastings and events leading up to the invasion, patronage of the Tapestry, biographical detail on known historical figures in the Tapestry, arms and armor, medieval warfare strategy and techniques, opus anglicanum (the Anglo-Saxon needlework tradition), preservation and display of the artifact, the Tapestry’s place in medieval art, the embroidery’s depiction of medieval and Romanesque architecture, and the life of the Bayeux Tapestry itself.
Download or read book Forging the Runes written by Josepha Sherman and published by Baen Books. This book was released on 1996 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning author Josepha Sherman returns with the sequel to The Shattered Oath as Elven Prince Ardagh is forced to choose between standing by his sworncomrade or regaining all that he has lost--and to be in truth as well as name Ardagh Oathbreaker.
Download or read book Harald Hardrada written by John Marsden and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-10-24 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the greatest medieval warriors Harald Sigurdsson, nicknamed Hardrada (Harold the Ruthless or hard ruler) fell in battle in an attempt to snatch the crown of England. The spectacular and heroic career which ended at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire on 25 September 1066 had taken Harald from Norway to Russia and Constantinople and saw him gain a kingdom by force and determination rather than right or inheritance. He was one of the most feared rulers in Europe and was first and foremost a professional soldier, who acquired great wealth by plunder and showed no mercy to those he conquered. 'Harald Hardrada: The Warrior's Way' reconstructs a military career spanning three and a half decades and involving encounters with an extraordinary range of allies and enemies in sea-fights and land battles, sieges and viking raids across a varity of theatres of war. John Marsden's superbly researched and powerfully written account takes us from the lands of the Norsemen to Byzantium and the Crusades and makes clear how England moved decisively from three hundred years of exposure to the Scandinavian orbit to a stronger identification with continental Europe following the Norman invasion.
Download or read book The Viking Age written by Paul Belloni Du Chaillu and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
