Neil Price

'As brilliant a history of the Vikings as one could possibly hope to read' Tom Holland The 'Viking Age' is traditionally held to begin in June 793 when Scandinavian raiders attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria, and to end in September 1066, when King Harald Hardrada of Norway died leading the charge against the English line at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. This book, the most wide-ranging and comprehensive assessment of the current state of our knowledge, takes a refreshingly different view. It shows that the Viking expansion began generations before the Lindisfarne raid, and traces Scandinavian history back centuries further to see how these people came to be who they were. The narrative ranges across the whole of the Viking diaspora, from Vinland on the eastern American seaboard to Constantinople and Uzbekistan, with contacts as far away as China. Based on the latest archaeology, it explores the complex origins of the Viking phenomenon and traces the seismic shifts in Scandinavian society that resulted from an economy geared to maritime war. Some of its most striking discoveries include the central role of slavery in Viking life and trade, and the previously unsuspected pirate communities and family migrations that were part of the Viking 'armies' - not least in England. Especially, Neil Price takes us inside the Norse mind and spirit-world, and across their borders of identity and gender, to reveal startlingly different Vikings to the barbarian marauders of stereotype. He cuts through centuries of received wisdom to try to see the Vikings as they saw themselves - descendants of the first human couple, the Children of Ash and Elm. Healso reminds us of the simultaneous familiarity and strangeness of the past, of how much we cannot know, alongside the discoveries that change the landscape of our understanding. This is an eye-opening and surprisingly moving book.

A History of the Vikings

The Children of Ash and Elm

Magic, sorcery and witchcraft are among the most common themes of the great medieval Icelandic sagas and poems, the problematic yet vital sources that provide our primary textual evidence for the Viking Age that they claim to describe. Yet despite the consistency of this picture, surprisingly little archaeological or historical research has been done to explore what this may really have meant to the men and women of the time. This book examines the evidence for Old Norse sorcery, looking at its meaning and function, practice and practitioners, and the complicated constructions of gender and sexual identity with which these were underpinned. Combining strong elements of eroticism and aggression, sorcery appears as a fundamental domain of women's power, linking them with the gods, the dead and the future. Their battle spells and combat rituals complement the men's physical acts of fighting, in a supernatural empowerment of the Viking way of life. What emerges is a fundamentally new image of the world in which the Vikings understood themselves to move, in which magic and its implications permeated every aspect of a society permanently geared for war. In this fully revised and expanded second edition, Neil Price takes us with him on a tour through the sights and sounds of this undiscovered country, meeting its human and otherworldly inhabitants, including the Sámi with whom the Norse partly shared this mental landscape. On the way we explore Viking notions of the mind and soul, the fluidity of the boundaries that they drew between humans and animals, and the immense variety of their spiritual beliefs. We find magic in the Vikings' bedrooms and on their battlefields, and we meet the sorcerers themselves through their remarkable burials and the tools of their trade. Combining archaeology, history and literary scholarship with extensive studies of Germanic and circumpolar religion, this multi-award-winning book shows us the Vikings as we have never seen them before.

Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia

The Viking Way

In this timely collection, Neil Price provides a general introduction to the archaeology of shamanism by bringing together recent archaeological thought on the subject. Blending theoretical discussion with detailed case studies, the issues addressed include shamanic material culture, responses to dying and the dead, shamanic soundscapes, the use of ritual architecture and shamanism in the context of other belief systems such as totemism. Following an intial orientation reviewing shamanism as an anthropological construct, the volume focuses on the Northern hemisphere with case studies from Greenland to Nepal, Siberia to Kazakhstan. The papers span a chronological range from Upper Palaeolithic to the present and explore such cross-cutting themes as gender and the body, identity, landscape, architecture, as well as shamanic interpretations of rock art and shamanism in the heritage and cultural identity of indigenous peoples. The volume also addresses the interpretation of shamanic beliefs in terms of cognitive neuroscience and the modern public perception of prehistoric shamanism.

The Archaeology of Shamanism

Pendant près de trois siècles, des peuples venus de Scandinavie ont profondément bouleversé les régions du Nord, jusqu’aux rivages de l’Amérique et aux steppes asiatiques. Au-delà des actes réels de violence et de pillage, auxquels on les réduit bien souvent, ils remanièrent la carte politique et culturelle de l’Europe et inventèrent de nouvelles formes de commerce, d’économie, de peuplement et de conflictualité. S’appuyant sur de nombreuses sources, et en particulier sur les dernières découvertes archéologiques mais aussi sur les grands récits de la littérature norroise, Neil Price revisite la légende viking. Le récit qu’il tisse se déploie d’un bout à l’autre de la diaspora, depuis la région du Vinland sur la côte est du continent américain jusqu’à Constantinople et à l’Ouzbékistan, les contacts s’étendant même jusqu’à la lointaine Chine. Remontant jusqu’à l’Antiquité tardive des VIe, VIIe siècles et élargissant ainsi les frontières géographiques du monde viking, il nous livre une image infiniment plus complexe de cette société, organisée autour de la guerre maritime, de l’esclavage, et marquée par d’importantes migrations familiales et l’existence de communautés pirates. Mais aussi, et surtout, Neil Price nous invite à découvrir de l’intérieur la mentalité et l’univers spirituel des Scandinaves de l’époque. Rejetant les poncifs véhiculés depuis des siècles à leur sujet, il s’efforce de voir les Vikings comme eux-mêmes se voyaient, comme les descendants du premier couple d’êtres humains, nés de morceaux de bois flotté trouvés sur la plage, les enfants du frêne et de l’orme. Il nous rappelle aussi que le passé, à la fois familier et étranger, nous reste en partie inaccessible et mystérieux, malgré les découvertes qui modifient la compréhension que nous en avons. Un formidable ouvrage de synthèse qui transforme notre regard et dont on ressort étonnamment ému... Titulaire de la chaire d’archéologie de l’université d’Uppsala (Suède), Neil Price occupe également un poste de professeur au sein du Conseil suédois de la recherche. Ses ouvrages ont été publiés dans seize langues et ses travaux de recherche et d’enseignement l’ont conduit dans plus de quarante pays.

Une histoire des Vikings

Les Enfants du frêne et de l'orme

Nytt og helhetlig blikk på vikingtiden av en av de største autoritetene på feltet. Tradisjonelt regnes vikingtiden fra år 793, da vikinger angrep klosteret i Lindisfarne, til Harald Hardrådes død ved slaget ved Stamford Bridge i år 1066. I denne boken retter den anerkjente arkeologen Neil Price et nytt blikk på denne oppfatningen. Price viser at vikingenes ekspansjon startet flere generasjoner før Lindisfarne-angrepet, og går århundre tilbake for å finne røttene til fenomenet 'viking'. Ask og Emblas barn er den mest vidtrekkende og komplette samlingen av all kunnskap vi besitter om vikingene i dag. Fortellingen bringer leseren på tvers av hele vikingenes oppland - fra Vinland i dagens Canada til Konstantinopel - ja, helt til kontaktpunkter i Kina. I særlig grad tar Price oss med på innsiden av norrøn tankegang og åndelige verden. I dette store, nye standardverket skjærer han gjennom århundrer med etablert kunnskap på jakt etter vikingenes selvbilde som etterkommerne etter de første menneskene på jorda: Ask og Embla. «Det kommer ut tusener av bøker om vikingene. Dette er en av de aller beste.» Dan Jones, Sunday Times «En av mine favoritter - en strålende bok for alle med interesse for denne dramatiske perioden i norsk historie». Tore Skeie, forfatter av Hvitekrist. Neil Price er professor i arkeologi ved Universitetet i Uppsala. Han har skrevet flere anerkjente verk om vikingtiden og menneskene som befolket den. Price er fagkonsulent for den nye vikingfilmen The Northman.

En historie om vikingene

Ask og Emblas barn

«I vichinghi godono di un interesse e di un apprezzamento che poche altre culture antiche condividono. Difficile trovare qualcuno che non abbia mai sentito parlare di loro. In soli tre secoli, dal 750 al 1050 d.C. circa, i popoli scandinavi trasformarono il Nord lasciando segni che sono tuttora riconoscibili. Cambiarono la mappa politica e culturale dell'Europa e configurarono assetti commerciali ed economici, fondando insediamenti e provocando conflitti in un'area che, sostanzialmente, si estende dalla costa orientale dell'America del Nord alla steppa asiatica.» In qualità di commercianti, esploratori e colonizzatori, esportarono tecnologie, idee e credenze intrecciando contatti con oltre cinquanta culture diverse e raggiungendo luoghi che oggi appartengono a circa quaranta paesi, da Islanda, Groenlandia, Canada a Turchia, Russia e Iraq. Eppure, questi popoli ci sono stati a lungo presentati attraverso una lente distorta, convenzionalmente compromessa da uno stereotipo legato alle cruente incursioni marittime, ai saccheggi e alle razzie. Attingendo da una pluralità di fonti documentarie e dal vasto patrimonio emerso grazie agli scavi più recenti, Neil Price, docente di archeologia all'Università di Uppsala, presenta per la prima volta un nuovo e affascinante ritratto dei vichinghi. Esplorando i labili confini fra vivi e morti, i riti funebri e la cosmologia, nonché le relazioni fra uomini e spiriti sovrannaturali mediate da streghe e indovini, l'autore traccia un vivido affresco di politica, religione, arte e cultura nordiche spaziando dalla vita quotidiana in pace e in guerra alle gerarchie di potere e ai codici di legge. Delle comunità vichinghe esamina la sfera pubblica e privata, le relazioni di genere, le dinamiche familiari, l'oppressione patriarcale, la violenza efferata e la schiavitù che caratterizzavano una società pur tuttavia convintamente multiculturale e multietnica. Price firma un'opera magistrale su uno dei periodi più affascinanti che ha cambiato per sempre il corso della storia del continente europeo.

Vichinghi

Lower Class Responses to Marginality in Bequia Island, St Vincent

Behind the Planter's Back

Steve Smallman

Who's Bad and Who's Good, Little Red Riding Hood?

Mixed Up Fairytales

Odin's Whisper provides the first full treatment of this subject, giving an in-depth account that uses the stories of Norse mythology and the most recent archaeological evidence to draw a vivid picture of the Viking mind. Neil Price contextualizes their understanding of death within the Ragnarök, the immense battle of living and dead, gods and humans that would ultimately consume all the world in fire, to illustrate that the Vikings' conception of the afterlife was only ever viewed as a respite before this ultimate end. The violence and extravagance that marked their conception of the afterlife equally informed their funeral practice, as Price illustrates with blood-curdling contemporary accounts of the sacrifices and rapes that occasionally marked Viking burial.

Death and the Vikings

Odin's Whisper

The Viking Age -- from 750 to 1050 -- saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples into the wider world. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they ranged from eastern North America to the Asian steppe. But for centuries, the Vikings have been seen through the eyes of others, distorted to suit the tastes of medieval clerics and Elizabethan playwrights, Victorian imperialists, Nazis, and more. None of these appropriations capture the real Vikings, or the richness and sophistication of their culture. 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 and religion, their material world. Known today for a stereotype of maritime violence, the Vikings exported new ideas, technologies, beliefs, and practices to the lands they discovered and the people they encountered, and in the process were changed themselves. From Eirík Bloodaxe, who fought his way to a kingdom, to Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, the most traveled in the world, Children of Ash and Elm is the definitive history of the Vikings and their time.

Vikingos

Stefan Brink

Filling a gap in the literature for an academically oriented volume on the Viking period, this unique book is a one-stop authoritative introduction to all the latest research in the field. Bringing together today’s leading scholars, both established seniors and younger, cutting-edge academics, Stefan Brink and Neil Price have constructed the first single work to gather innovative research from a spectrum of disciplines (including archaeology, history, philology, comparative religion, numismatics and cultural geography) to create the most comprehensive Viking Age book of its kind ever attempted. Consisting of longer articles providing overviews of important themes, supported by shorter papers focusing on material of particular interest, this comprehensive volume covers such wide-ranging topics as social institutions, spatial issues, the Viking Age economy, warfare, beliefs, language, voyages, and links with medieval and Christian Europe. This original work, specifically oriented towards a university audience and the educated public, will have a self-evident place as an undergraduate course book and will be a standard work of reference for all those in the field.

Neil Price

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