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History Medieval

The Viking Age

A Reader, Fourth Edition

by (author) Angus A. Somerville & R. Andrew McDonald

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2025
Category
Medieval, Archaeology, Scandinavian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781487550059
    Publish Date
    Mar 2025
    List Price
    $62.95

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Description

The fourth edition of The Viking Age provides an extensive deep dive into the world of the Vikings, spanning from the eighth and ninth centuries to the present, while also featuring key scholarly interpretations from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Building on the structure and content of previous editions, nearly every chapter has been reworked and expanded, with the addition of an entirely new chapter on commerce and trade. This edition broadens the range of materials while preserving the innovations of earlier editions and advancing them in new directions.

 

In The Viking Age, readers are submerged in a comprehensive exploration of the Viking era, covering essential topics such as the role of women in Viking society, the significance of slavery in the Viking economy, commerce and trade, the use of Arabic sources, Viking religion, fertility gods, guardian spirits, the exploits of the Norse kings of Man and the Isles, the importance of Scandinavian and maritime law, the enduring legacy of the Vikings, and more. This extensively revised edition ultimately brings the Vikings and their world to life for twenty-first-century students and instructors.

About the authors

Angus A. Somerville is Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Brock University. He is a contributor to The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (2010) and co-author of The Vikings and Their Age (2013).

Angus A. Somerville's profile page

R. Andrew McDonald is Professor, Department of History, Brock University, and former Director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Brock University. His previous titles include Manx kingship in its Irish Sea setting, 1187-1229: King Rognvaldr and the Crovan dynasty (Four Courts Press, 2007) and Outlaws of Medieval Scotland: Challenges to the Canmore Kings 1058-1266 (Tuckwell Press, 2003).

R. Andrew McDonald's profile page

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