Bibliographical Essay

Most sources central for studying Viking history are translated and collected in Angus A. Somerville and R. Andrew MacDonald (eds.), The Viking Age: A Reader, 2nd edn (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), which however does not distinguish clearly between contemporary texts and those produced much later in the Middle Ages, notably the Icelandic sagas composed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

The modern study of Viking history began with P. H. Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings (London: Arnold, 1962; 2nd edn, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1972), which set the Vikings and their violence in their proper historical context, bringing a sense of proportion to the subject. Sawyer was also innovative in his use of numismatic evidence to expand our understanding of the Vikings.

Although many written sources have become better understood in recent decades, real advances of knowledge have mainly come through archaeological investigations. Else Roesdahl, The Vikings, 2nd edn (London: Penguin, 1998) summarised many of these advances. Stefan Brink with the collaboration of Neil Price (eds.), The Viking World (London: Routledge, 2008) is a valuable collection of brief and up-to-date thematic essays on all aspects of Viking history and culture, written by experts. Many essays focus on archaeological materials, while others deal with written sources.

While an older, romantic image of uniquely violent Vikings survives in some recent treatments, the path opened by Sawyer has been followed by most recent examinations of the Vikings. Notable among them are Peter Sawyer (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), F. Donald Logan, The Vikings in History, 3rd edn (New York: Routledge, 2006) and Anders Winroth, The Age of the Vikings (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014). Specifically focused on violence, but uncritical, especially in its attitudes towards the Icelandic sagas, is Kim Hjardar and Vegard Vike, Vikings at War (Philadelphia: Casemate, 2016).