Far from being just "wild, barbaric, ax-wielding pirates", the Vikings created complex social institutions, oversaw the coming at Christianity to Scandinavia, and made a major impact on European history through trade, travel, and far-flung colonization. This encyclopedic study brings together wide-ranging research on Viking art, burial customs, class divisions, jewelry, kingship, poetry, and family life, and, in this revised edition, recent discoveries. The result is a rich and compelling picture of an extraordinary civilization that flourished for three hundred years, civilization well into the eleventh century.
