The World's Greatest Civilizations: The History and Culture of the Vikings

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Jack Nolan

Length: 1 hr and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Analyzes the legends and mischaracterizations of the Vikings, separating fact from fiction. Discusses the everyday life, settlements, history, religion, and culture of the Vikings. Includes a table of contents.

Over the centuries the West has become fascinated by the Vikings, one of the most mysterious and interesting European civilizations. In addition to being perceived as a remarkably unique culture among its European counterparts, what's known and not known about the Vikings' accomplishments has added an intriguing aura to the historical narrative. Were they fierce and fearsome warriors? Were they the first Europeans to visit North America? It seems some of the legends are true, and some are just that: legends.

The commonly used term, Viking, for the trading and raiding peoples of Scandinavia may have originated from Viken (the large bay leading to Oslo), or it may have come from the Old Scandinavian words vikingr (sea warrior) or viking (expedition over the sea). The people from the north were known in Western Europe at the time as Northmen or Danes, in England as Danes or pagans, and in Ireland as Finngall for those of Norwegian origin and Dubgall for those from Denmark. In the east, in Russia and in the Byzantine Empire, the Scandinavians were called Vaeringar or Varyags (Varangians) or Rus', the latter perhaps derived from the name Roslagen, a province in Uppland in Sweden.

The ubiquitous picture of the Vikings as horn-helmeted, brutish, hairy giants that mercilessly marauded among the settlements of Northern Europe is based on a smattering of fact combined with an abundance of prejudicial historical writing by those who were on the receiving end of Viking depredations.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Global Warming

This is a great way to quickly learn about a subject you have an interest in, but don't have the time for study or long courses. At an hour it pretty much gets to the point. It was not real exciting, just like any history lesson, it is dates, names and places, but only for an hour. I did learn a couple of things. I have always wondered what made the Vikings so mean and why did they think it was okay to rape, pillage and kill. According to this, they were not any worse then any other group at the time. The world was full of tribes, gangs, bullies, who were doing the same as the Vikings. They earned this reputation because they robbed churches and killed priests. It seems everybody else was doing the same as the Vikings, except they left the churches alone. The natives could not believed they sacked churches.

I also discovered that when the Vikings discovered Greenland and Iceland, the harbors were clear of Ice because the world was going through a warming phase at the time. Since then we have had Global Cooling and the harbors are often frozen over..

informative

much can be learned of this book. from sagas two kings and all the places they had arrived

Just Horrible

The content reads like a high school history report. The narrator sounds as though he isn't even paying attention to what he's reading. 2 stars is quite generous.