NCW Libraries

The Vikings are mostly known for their adventures on the sea and for their barbarous warring tactics. However, they were also innovators of weapons, jewelry, and clothing. This book explains who the Vikings were and how their inventions inspired other cultures around the world, both in the past and today. Full-Color Photographs, Further Information Section, Glossary, Illustrations, Index, Sidebars, Timelines, Websites.

An acclaimed bioarchaeologist traces the path of an ancient piece of jewelry found in a Viking grave in England back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, explaining that the Vikings' route may have been far more varied than previously known.

"Scholars and laymen alike have long projected their fantasies onto the great expanse of the global North, whether it be as a frozen no-man's-land, an icy realm of marauding Vikings, or an unspoiled cradle of prehistoric human life. Bernd Brunner reconstructs the encounters of adventurers, colonists, and indigenous communities that led to the creation of a northern "cabinet of wonders" and imbued Scandinavia, Iceland, and the Arctic with a perennial...