Bibliography

General Studies:

Abrams, Holger. The Vikings. Translated by A. Binns. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1961. A survey with emphasis on archaeology and material life in Scandinavia.

Brondsted, J. The Vikings. Translated by K. Skov. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1960. Replaced by Roesdahl but still excellent on archaeology

Christiansen, Eric. The Norsemen in the Viking Age. London: Blackwell’s Publishers, 2002. Emphasizes material life and society in Scandinavia.

Foote, Peter, and David M. Wilson. The Viking Achievement: The Society and Culture of Early Medieval Scandinavia. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1970. Classic study with excellent discussion of arts and literature.

Graham-Campbell, J. The Viking World. New Haven: Ticknor and Fields, 1980. Lavishly illustrated, oversized book with fine discussions on arts, sites, and shipbuilding.

Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968. Classic political and military narrative of Vikings at home and overseas to 1066.

Logan, F. Donald. The Vikings in History. London: Hutchinson and Company Publishers, 1983. Strong on western Viking voyages.

Oxenstierna, Eric. The Norsemen. Translated by C. Hutter. Greenwich: New York Graphics Society, 1959. Recommended for discussion of trade routes and goods.

Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings. Translated by S. M. Margeson and K. Williams. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1998. Recommended introduction to be used in tandem with the Penguin atlas of John Haywood.

Sawyer, Birgit, and Peter Sawyer. Medieval Scandinavia from Conversion to the Reformation, c. 800−1500. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Excellent on social history and Scandinavia in the later Middle Ages.

Sawyer, Peter H. The Age of the Vikings. London: Edward Arnold, 1971. Seminal revisionist study on the Vikings.

———, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Collection of articles on specific topics.

Reference Works:

Haywood, John. The Penguin Atlas of the Vikings. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Excellent selection of maps best used in tandem with Rosedahl’s survey

Lindow, John. Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. A useful reference work.

Pulsiano, P., and K. Wolf, eds. Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, 1993. Strong on literature and social history.

Sources in Translation:

Adam of Bremen. History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. Translated by F. J. Tschan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Indispensable source for Christianity in Scandinavia.

Alexander, M., trans. The Earliest English Poems. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1966. Selection includes Old English heroic literature other than Beowulf.

Byock, Jesse, trans. The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Readable modern translation with excellent notes. Recommended for the heroic temper of the Viking Age.

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———, trans. The Saga of the Volsungs. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. Readable modern translation with excellent notes.

Cook, R., trans. Njal’s Saga. New York: Penguin Books, 1997. Readable modern translation with excellent notes on the longest and most celebrated family saga.

Douglas, David C. English Historical Documents. Vol. 1, 2nd ed. London: Methuen, 1979. Translation of all essential sources for English history during the period 500−1042.

Fell, C. E., and N. Lund, trans. Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred: The Ventures of Ohthere and Wulfstan Together with the Description of Northern Europe from the Old English Orosius. York: William Sessions, 1984. Crucial sources for trade and geography of Viking Age Scandinavia.

Fox, D., and H. Palsson, trans. Grettir’s Saga. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964. Recommended saga for the adventure of the Viking Age.

Gantz, Jeffrey, trans. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. New York: Penguin Books, 1981. Recommended start for comparative Celtic literature.

Helmold. The Chronicle of the Slavs. Translated by F. J. Tschan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1935. An important source on German-Danish relations.

Hollander, Lee M., trans. The Poetic Edda. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962. The best modern translation of the poems.

———, trans. The Saga of the Jomsviking. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1955. Exciting saga of late Viking Age Scandinavia.

Jones, Gwyn., trans. Erik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961. Recommended for short family sagas.

Keynes, S., and M. Lapidge, trans. Asser’s Life of Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. New York: Penguin Books, 1983. Recommended collection of sources on King Alfred the Great.

Magnusson, M., and H. Palsson, trans. Laxdaela Saga. New York: Penguin Books, 1969. The most romantic and appealing of the family sagas.

———, trans. The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of Americ. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1965. The two sources on the Norse settlement of Vinland.

Nelson, J. L., trans. The Annals of St-Bertin. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991. The main Carolingian chronicle on Viking raids.

Page, R. I. Chronicles of the Vikings: Records, Memorials and Myths. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. Useful collection of diverse sources.

Palsson H., trans. Hrafnkel’s Saga and Other Stories. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971. A collection of delightful family sagas.

Palsson, H., and P. Edwards, trans. Eyrbyggja Saga. Rev. ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. Recommended saga on Icelandic blood feud and family.

———, trans. Egil’s Saga. New York: Penguin Books, 1976. Saga of the swashbuckling Viking Egil.

———, trans. Knytlinga Saga: The History of the Kings of Denmark. Odense: Odense University Press, 1986. Older, dated translation of Cnut and the Danish kings.

———, trans. Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney. New York: Penguin Books, 1978. The heroicized settlement of the western islands.

———, trans. Seven Viking Romances. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. Highly recommended selection.

Saxo Grammaticus. The History of the Danes, Books I−IX. Edited and translated by H. E. Davidson and Peter Fisher. Woodbridge: Boyell and Brewer, 1998: Translation of only the legendary books.

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Smiley, J., and R. Kellogg, eds. The Sagas of the Icelanders: A Selection. New York: Penguin Books, 1997: A recommended introduction to the range of family sagas.

Sturluson, Snorri. Edda. Translated by A. Faulkes. London: Everyman, 1987. Currently the only complete translation in English but in a stilted style.

———.King Harald’s Saga. Translated by M. Magnusson and H. Palsson. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1966. A modern translation of the saga of King Harald Hardardi taken from Hemiskringla; recommended.

———.Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. Translated by Lee M. Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964. Highly recommended source for the Viking Age.

———.The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology. Translated by J. I. Young. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965. Readable selections of parts 1 and 2 of Snorri’s handbook.

Truso, J. F., ed. Beowulf: The Donaldson Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1975. Recommended translation with excellent articles and notes putting the poem in a Scandinavian context.

Whaley, D., trans. Sagas of Warrior-Poets. New York: Penguin Books, 1997. Recommended selection.

Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. and trans. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Revised Translation. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1965. An indispensable source.

Monographs:

Abels, Richard. Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England. London: Longman, 1998. Recommended biography

Bagge, Sverre. Society and Politics in Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. A fine scholarly study on medieval Norway and Snorri.

Bates, David. Normandy before 1066. London: Longman, 1982. Recommended modern study.

Blackburn, M. A. S., ed. Anglo-Saxon Monetary History: Essays in Memory of Michael Dolley. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1986. Selection of learned essays but premised on Dolley’s implausible reconstruction of Anglo-Saxon coinage and royal finances.

———, and D. N. Dumville. Kings, Currency, and Alliances: History and Coinage of Southern England in the Ninth Century. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1998. Includes scholarly articles on coinage to elucidate the Vikings in England.

Blair, P. H. An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Best introduction to Anglo-Saxon England.

———. The World of Bede. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. Recommended study for early Anglo-Saxon intellectual life.

Blondal, Sifgus. The Varangians of Byzantium: An Aspect of Byzantine Military History. Translated and revised by B. S. Benedikz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978. Recommended introduction.

Blunt, C. E., B. H. I. Stewart, and C. S. S. Lyon. Coinage in Tenth-Century England from Edward the Elder to Edgar’s Reform. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. A collection of studies also premised on the implausible Dolley thesis.

Brogger, A. W., and H. Shetelig. The Viking Ships. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1971. A classic study.

Bruce-Mitford, R., ed. Recent Archaeological Reports in Europe. London: Routledge and Keegan, 1975. A collection of scholarly articles on northern Europe in the Celtic, Roman, and Viking Ages.

Byock, Jesse. Viking Age Iceland. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. A brilliant work on society and sagas; a model study.

Chadwick, Nora. The Celts. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1970. A survey of literary sources and archaeology of the Celts of the British Isles before the Viking Age.

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Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades. 2nd ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1997: Excellent study on Scandinavia and the Baltic in the later Middle Ages.

Clarke, H., and B. Ambrosiani. Towns in the Viking Age. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1991. An important scholarly study.

Crumlin-Pedersen, Ole, ed. The Skuldelev Ships I: Topography, Archaeology, History, Conservation, and Display. Roskilde/Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2004. Study and analysis of the important finds of Viking ships.

Davidson, H. R. Ellis. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1964. Recommended study.

———. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988. Judicious comparison of Germanic and Celtic cults; fine use of archaeology and classical literary texts.

De Vries, J. Heroic Song and Heroic Legend. Translated by B. J. Timmer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963. Older but recommended introduction.

De Vries, Kelly. The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1999. Detailed military study of the invasion of Harald Hardardi.

Dolley, Michael. Viking Coins of the Danelaw and of Dublin. London: British Museum, 1965. Illustrated handbook.

Duffy, Sean. Ireland in the Middle Ages. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987. Standard political and genealogical narrative of Celtic Ireland with little attention to the Norse.

Dumezil, Georges. Gods of the Ancient Northmen. Translated and edited by H. Haugar. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. Provocative and controversial anthropological analysis.

Forte, A., R. Gram, and F. Pedersen. Viking Empires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. New study of the Viking impact in the British Isles with an up-to-date bibliography.

Geary, Patrick J. Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Best introduction for the Age of Migrations.

Grierson, Philip, and Mark Blackburn. Medieval European Coinage I: The Early Middle Ages (5th−10th

Centuries). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Superb study on coinage and history in the early medieval West.

Halsall, Guy. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450−900. New York: Routledge, 2003. Recommended introduction with a fine bibliography of older literature.

Hansen, I. L., and C. Wickham, eds. The Long Eighth Century: Production, Distribution and Demand. Leiden: Brill, 2000: Seminal scholarly articles on economic history.

Haskins, Charles H. The Normans in European History. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915. Classic study.

Hodges, Richard. Dark Age Economics: The Origins of Towns and Trade, A.D. 600−1000. 2nd ed. London: Duckworth, 1989. Analysis based on new archaeology.

———. Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne. London: Duckworth, 2003. Fine study of the strength of the Carolingian economy.

———, and David Whitehouse. Mohammed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983. Recommended introduction to early medieval trade.

Howard, Ian. Swein Forkbeard’s Invasions and the Danish Conquest of England, 991−1017.

Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2003. Recommended study, with an excellent discussion on the formation of the Danish kingdom.

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Ingstad, H., and A. S. Ingstad. The Viking Discovery of America: The Excavations of the Norse Settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001. Definitive study of the site in Newfoundland and evaluation of the sagas.

Klindt-Jensen, Ole. Denmark before the Vikings. London: Thames and Hudson, 1957. A sound archaeological study.

Lawson, M. K. Cnut: The Danes in England in the Eleventh Century. London: Longman, 1993. Recommended modern biography; strong on the institutions in England.

Lyon, H. R. The Vikings in Britain. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977. Recommended survey of legal sources, archaeology, and place names, especially important for Vikings in Scotland..

McCormick, Michael. Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, A.D 300−900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Major study on the European economy.

Nelson, J. L. Charles the Bald. London: Longman, 1992. Recommended biography.

Petersson, H. B. A. Anglo-Saxon Currency: King Edgar’s Reform to the Norman Conquest. Lund: Berlingska Boktryckeriet, 1969. Important collection on the coin hoards in Scandinavia but flawed in its interpretation of the production and distribution of Anglo-Saxon coins.

Randsborg, K. The Viking Age in Denmark: The Formation of a State. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980. Recommended study that makes fine use of rune stones as a source of social history.

Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Translated by M. I. Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993. Recommended introduction.

Rollason, David. Northumbria, 500−1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Wide-ranging scholarly study on northern England.

Russell, J. C. The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. A ponderously written analysis of Christianizing but a useful collection of sources and bibliography.

Sawyer, Birgit. The Viking-Age Rune-Stones: Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Sophisticated use of rune stones as sources of social history.

Sawyer, Peter H. Kings and Vikings. London: Methuen, 1982. Recommended survey.

Smith, B., ed. Britain and Ireland, 900−1300: Insular Responses to Medieval European Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. A collection of provocative articles on the Viking impact.

Smyth, Alfred P. King Alfred the Great. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Major bibliography, but speculative and based on a questionable interpretation of sources.

———.Scandinavian Kings in the British Isles, 850−880. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. Controversial study on political history.

———.Scandinavian York and Dublin: The History and Archaeology of Two Related Viking Kingdoms. New Jersey: Templekeiran Press, 1979. A telling comparison of two Viking societies but controversial in its political history.

Spufford, Peter. Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Recommended study on the role of medieval coinage.

Turville-Petre, G. The Heroic Age of Scandinavia. London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1951. A thoughtful study of the period from the Age of Migrations through the Viking Age by a great literary scholar.

Unger, R. W. The Ship in the Medieval Economy, 600−1600. London/Montreal, 1980. An excellent study.

Verhulst, A. The Carolingian Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Fine use of archaeology and text to demonstrate economic growth and trade.

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Williams, Ann. Aethelred the Unready. London: Hambledon and London, 2003. The newest study with a bibliography that includes older literature.

Wilson, David M., and O. Klindt-Jensen. Viking Art. 2nd ed. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1986. The standard study.

Internet Resources:

http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/walker/Iceland/mosfell.html. The website of Professor Jesse Byock, University of California, Los Angeles, leading authority on Viking Age Iceland, with information on his archaeological project in the Mosfell Valley.

http://www.gettysburg.edu/~cfee/courses/English4012001/English4012001.html. The website of Professor Christopher Fee, University of Gettysburg, with emphasis on Viking settlement in the British Isles.

http://www.vikings.ucla.edu. An additional website from Jesse Byock. http://viking.hgo.se/. The website of the popular Viking Heritage publication.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/bloodofthevikings/. The website of the BBC documentary.

http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/varangians.htm. A popular summary of Vikings in the East, with a useful introductory bibliography.

http://ww.vikingart.com/VikingArt.htm. A useful website, with an introduction and illustrations of the main Viking decorative styles.

http://www.worldofthvikings.com/. Guide to Viking sources on the Internet.

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