posted on 19 Apr 2023

What it was like to be a VIKING by David Long, illustrated by Stefano Tambellini

Popular culture has bequeathed us a picture of the Vikings as people dedicated to violence, pillage and battle. We all know the typical image of the Viking arriving on the coast of some peaceful English coastal town in their long-ships, armed to the teeth and wearing their horned helmets and laying waste to everything they encountered. And, David Long’s new book for Barrington Stoke tells us, some of this was true – but only some of it.

In fact, the Vikings were a much more nuanced, rounded and complex people than we might have imagined. Their origins were in that part of the world that we now call Scandinavia but it’s not at all clear where the name ‘Viking’ came from. While some of them put their fantastic boat-building and weapon-making skills to use terrorising Anglo-Saxon Britain, that was by no means the whole picture:

“Most Vikings lived peaceful, normal lives. They loved poetry and telling stories as they sat around the fire at night. They made beautiful works of art out of stone and metal and by carving animal bones and antlers.”

The Vikings were, by instinct, explorers and traders and very successful ones at that. Their skill in boat construction allowed them to venture far and wide – not just to Britain in the West but still further and on to Iceland, Greenland and, in one case, on to the Americas. Further afield there is evidence of Viking goods that hint at a trading route to the Middle East.

Viking culture gave us the panoply of Norse Gods and the myths that surround them, runic writing and unparalleled metalworking. But before we get too carried away with what a wonderful society the Vikings created, it’s necessary to acknowledge that their skills as traders, their mastery of the sea and their wonderful weapons were also the basis for their transformation into raiders and occupiers. Once it becomes abundantly clear that it’s possible to get what you want by force rather than diplomacy, the temptation to force your will on other populations becomes difficult to resist.

So it was with the Vikings. Soon raiding parties were not enough to satisfy their demands for resources and wealth and Britain became the target of a full-on Viking invasion. The Vikings in Britain is, in its own right, a complex story that lasts right through until the Norman invasion in 1066 and which has left Britain with a heritage of Viking culture that most of us barely notice these days. 

David Long tells us this story in an easily understood format targeted at a readership of 9+. It will appeal to children who are keen on reading about history but I can also see how this could be an excellent resource for school libraries who want to have credible, modern historical resources for the children to draw on for topics and writing projects.

The book is published this April and can be ordered from your local independent bookshop if they don’t stock it on their shelves. Alternatively, go to the Barrington Stoke website and order it directly from them.

 

Terry Potter

April 2023