Some book sources to get you started. This is not an exhaustive list!
- Viking Age : everyday life during the extraordinary era of the Norsemen
- "Though infamous for their pirating and raiding, active Vikings were actually only a tiny fraction of the total Scandinavian population during the so-called Viking Age. This exploration of their culture goes beyond the myths into the prosaic realities and intimate details of family life; their attitude toward the more vulnerable members of society; their famed longships and extensive travels; and the role they played in the greater community. In addition to images and maps, a timeline lays out Viking history."--Publisher description.
- ISBN: 9781454909064
- Children of ash and elm : a history of the Vikings
- "The Viking Age--between 750 and 1050--saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they reshaped the world between eastern North America and the Asian steppe. Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Children of Ash and Elm tells the story of the Vikings on their own terms: their politics, their cosmology, their art and culture. From Björn Ironside, who led an expedition to sack Rome, to Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, the most traveled woman in the world, Price shows us the real Vikings, not the caricatures they've become in popular culture and history"-- Provided by publisher.
- ISBN: 9780465096985
- My European family : the first 54,000 years
- "Karin Bojs grew up in a small, broken family. At her mother's funeral she felt this more keenly than ever. As a science journalist, she was eager to learn more about herself, her family and the interconnectedness of society using DNA research. After all, we're all related. And in a sense, we are all family. My European Family tells the story of Europe and its people through its genetic legacy, from the first wave of immigration to the present day, weaving in the latest archaeological findings. Karin goes deep in search of her genealogy; by having her DNA sequenced she was able to trace the path of her ancestors back through the Viking and Bronze ages to the Neolithic and beyond into prehistory, even back to a time when Neanderthals ran the show. Traveling to dozens of countries to follow the story, she learns about early farmers in the Middle East, flute-playing cavemen in Germany and France, and a whole host of other fascinating characters. This book looks at genetics from a uniquely pan-European perspective, with the author meeting dozens of geneticists, historians and archaeologists in the course of her research. The genes of this seemingly ordinary modern European woman have a fascinating story to tell, and in many ways it is the true story of Europe. At a time when politics is pushing nations apart, this book shows that, ultimately, our genes will always bind us together."--Jacket.
- This book also touches on how Karin Bojs went about tracing her family back to the Viking Age and the conflict that has arisen in the discussion of the word Viking.
- ISBN: 9781472941473
- Nordic religions in the Viking Age
- "The popular image of the Viking as a horn-helmeted berserker plying the ocean in a dragon-headed long boat is firmly fixed in history. Imagining Viking "conquerors" as much more numerous, technologically superior, and somehow inherently more warlike than their neighbors has overshadowed the cooperation and cultural exchange which characterized much of the Viking Age. In actuality, the Norse explorers and traders were players in a complex exchange of technology, customs, and religious beliefs between the ancient pre-Christian societies of northern Europe and the Christian-dominated nations surrounding the Mediterranean. DuBois examines Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Mediterranean traditions to locate significant Nordic parallels in conceptions of supernatural beings, cults of the dead, beliefs in ghosts, and magical practices. These beliefs were actively held alongside Christianity for many years, and were finally incorporated into the vernacular religious practice. The Icelandic sagas reflect this complex process in their inclusion of both Christian and pagan details." --Google Books
- "This work differs from previous examinations in its inclusion of the Christian thirteenth century as part of the evolution of Nordic religions from localized pagan cults to adherents of the larger Roman faith." --back of the book (continuation of above)
- ISBN: 0812235118
- The Viking and the red man : the Old Norse origin of the Algonquin language
- "The discovery of the North American continent by Leif Ericson in the year 1000 A. D. and the subsequent voyages of other Norsemen within the next twenty years are recorded in the Icelandic Sagas and have long enjoyed general recognition. It has been generally supposed, however, that these visits were merely brilliant and accidental “guest appearances” -- flashing across the pages of history and leaving no wake. But to those who know the sinewy persistency of the old Norseman it is incredible that these expeditions to a rich new land could have ended as abruptly as they started. Is it not reasonable to suppose that they made a sincere effort to colonize “Vinland”? Concrete proof has not yet been found. Bits of armor have been turned up here, runic inscriptions there; but no certain evidence in any one spot where one might say, “Here dwelt to a Norse colony.” Mr. Sherwin has not made his explorations in the ground. He has chosen a finer field--the language of the men who once came here and that of the natives. From his comparison he is convinced that Norsemen remained here long enough and in such numbers as to leave a lasting imprint on the language of the Indian tribes in the regions along the northeast coast--the tribes of the Algonquin family of Indians. In this book the author presents a thousand Algonquin terms with their Old Norse equivalents. The parallel will astonish the scholarly world." --jacket
- Viking tales of the North. The sagas of Thorstein, Viking's son, and Fridthjof the Bold
- Contents: The Saga of Thorstein, Viking’s Son; The Saga of Fridthjof the Bold; Tegnér’s Fridthjof’s Saga; Stephen’s Preface to Fridthjof’s Saga; Franzén’s Sketch of the Life and Career of the Author of Fridthjof’s Saga; Introductory Letter from Bishop Tegnér to George Stephens (translated); Canto I Fridthjof and Ingeborg, II King Bele and Thorstein, Viking’s Son, III Fridthjof Succeeds to his Father’s Inheritance, IV Fridthjof’s Courthship, V King Ring, VI Fridthjof in at Chess, VII Fridthjof’s bliss, VIII The Parting, IX Ingeborg’s Lament, X Fridthjof at Sea, XI Fridthjof at the Court of Angantyr, XII Fridthjof’s Return, XIII Balder’s Pyre, XIV Fridthrjof goeth into Banishment, XV The Viking Code, XVI Bjorn and Fridthjof, XVII Fridthjof cometh to King Ring, XVIII the Sledge Excursion, XIX Fridthjof’s Tempation, XX King Ring’s Death, XXI Ring’s Dirge, XXII The Election to the Kingdom, XXIII Fridthjof on his Father’s Barrow, XXIV The Reconciliation; Notes; Vocabulary
