Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga Ed. by William W. Fitzhugh and Elisabeth Ward

Edited by William W. Fitzhugh, the director of the National Museum of Natural History's Arctic Studies Center, and Elisabeth Ward, a curatorial specialist in Viking Studies, this volume is a companion to a Smithsonian exhibition The Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.

In this work, some three dozen scholars examine the growing archaeological evidence of the Viking presence in the New World--including such items as a Norse coin excavated in Maine, runic stones from the Canadian Arctic, and farming implements found in Newfoundland. The contributors consider the sometimes friendly, sometimes warlike history of Viking interactions with the native peoples of northeastern North America (whom the Norse called skraelings, or "screamers"); compare the archaeological record with contemporary sagas and other records of exploration; and argue for the need to better document the Viking contribution to New World history.

According to this excellent work, there's a lot more to the Vikings than the ill-informed contemporary imagination often allows. The book doesn't only correct misperceptions--it uses the history of the Vikings as a framework for a range of events in world history. This large-sized, heavily illustrated volume celebrates that little-understood time. 

Softcover.

 

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