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    The Vikings: A History
    The Vikings: A History
    The Vikings: A History
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Vikings: A History

    Written by Robert Ferguson

    Narrated by Michael Page

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Raiders and traders, settlers and craftsmen, the medieval
    Scandinavians who have become familiar to history as Vikings never lose
    their capacity to fascinate, from their ingeniously designed longboats
    to their stormy pantheon of gods and goddesses. Robert Ferguson is a
    sure guide across what he calls "the treacherous marches which divide
    legend from fact in Viking Age history". His long familiarity with the
    literary culture of Scandinavia is combined with the latest
    archaeological discoveries to reveal a sweeping picture of one of
    history's most amazing civilizations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 6, 2012
    ISBN9781452676234
    The Vikings: A History
    Author

    Robert Ferguson

    The author, Robert Ferguson, is a musician, songwriter, vegetarian, world traveller, writer and animal lover; especially cats. His current aim is to write more novels, which will always have a Scottish theme or connection; concealed somewhere in his writing. He just loves making up curious stories and writing them down. Robert lives in Alloa, Scotland, with his wife, Lorna, dog, Ziggy, cats, Jesse and Roxy. He has a son, Jamie, daughter-in-law, Gemma, granddaughter, Maya, and grandson, Cooper. The Beatles are his FAB 4!

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    Reviews for The Vikings

    3.5/5

    11 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Robert provides a detailed study of the Vikings. His writings show evidence of his extensive research and scholarly readings. The level of detail is often beyond my level of interest but there is a lot of information that Robert provides that is interesting. I recommend the book to any serious historian of the Vikings.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting book but a rather difficult read. Early Middle Ages were very dynamic times where rulers and local warlords rose and fell in a matter of months. As a result you end up with multitude of characters and it takes pretty good concentration and focus to discern who is who at what time.

      I read few reviews of this book and they said that book was sensationalistic in terms that it would bombard readers with pretty bizarre descriptions of torture. I agree that these are not things you would usually ind in historical texts but again these are all things that were common for the period. Brutal, yes they are [especially in our times] but they were common at the time.

      Interesting book, highly recommended to anyone interested in Early Middle Ages or Vikings themselves.

    • 4/5

      I found the reviews of this a bit surprising- I guess it is a bit hard to read at times, with all those names flying around, but given that Ferguson was trying to be a responsible historian, there's not much else he could have done. Viking history has to be seen from the outside, because outsiders were the ones who recorded that history for us. Stranger still are the complaints about his use of the word 'heathen,' a product, I can only assume, of peoples' bizarre inability to understand that when you're writing about the way something is perceived, you have to use the language of the perceivers. As for the goodreads reviewer who said Ferguson is 'obviously a Christian' who somehow has it in for the Vikings... uh... huh?

      The central oddity of this book is Ferguson's insistence that 'The Viking Age' of marauding and rapine was a kind of clash of civilizations between Christian and Heathen, in which Charlemagne's violent imposition of the former religion provoked the Scandanavians (who are taken to be not 'primitives', but just as civilized as the nations to their south, east and west) to burn churches and murder priests. It's timely, I guess, but the best evidence he can martial suggests just as much that the Vikes attacked churches because that's where the money was, and murdered priests and nuns to spread terror, which is a pretty sound military strategy. These civilized gentlemen pretty quickly converted to Christianity and assimilated wherever they settled. But note that Ferguson's presentation is perfectly objective; his reading of the archaeological, literary, and dendrochronological evidence, as well as all sorts of other stuff) never overwhelms his presentation of that evidence.
    • 2/5
      I was hoping for better from Robert Ferguson's The Vikings: A History. A picture of how Vikings lived, the motivation for their exploration and raiding, a description of what they believed about the universe and life and death would have made this an outstanding book. Unfortunately, what I got was mostly lists of battles and a very medieval Christian, Western European view of the Vikings. In the end, there's just not that much known about the Vikings outside writings by their victims and enemies - with all the problems that come from trying to understand a culture through unfriendly eyes. So I suppose it's not Ferguson's fault that the book is dull as dishwater. Still, I hoped for better.
    • 3/5
      Overall boring with occasional flashes of fascination: viking sacrifices, the conversion of Iceland, colonisation of Vinland, etc