Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

Synopsis: Neil Price takes the common stereotypes of Vikings and confirms or refutes everything we think we know about Vikings. He touches on nearly every facet of Viking life from gender roles (and gender fluidity), polygeny, raids and exploration, paganism and the onslaught of Christianity, and community and the spread of traditional Viking genetics. Children of Ash and Elm is deeply rooted in scientific discovery and Price does an excellent job of noting where the anthropological community has solid evidence or where there’s more speculation than fact.Likes: I loved how Price made subtle references to pop culture throughout this book. He hinted at shows like Vikings and even Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings. Many stories have characters or worlds inspired by Scandinavia and Vikings, so those connections were helpful to read to connect dots - or separate fact from fiction.Comments: The only comment I have on this book is how slow and dry it got in places. During some of the chapters on Viking movement throughout Eurasia, I lost concentration. I also felt there was more detail than I (personally) wanted around the genetic connections between Vikings and modern-day Western Russians. It’s interesting, but the detail exceeded my interest in it. Otherwise, the book was awesome!

To precede this review, I would like to clarify my level of expertise. I am not a scholar, nor do I have any formal education in the studies of the Viking Age. I have studied the Viking Age and Norse mythology recreationally for over three-and-a-half years (though my casual interest dates back 17 years), and I have read English translations of both eddas, many sagas (definitely not all!), and several nonfiction books focusing on the Viking Age and Norse mythology. I do not speak or read Old Norse or any modern Scandinavian languages. All that said, any knowledge I possess is at the mercy of others scholars I have read and/or listened to, and their translations of the source material and sagas.With that being said, I found a lot to enjoy in Neil Price's The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. Price delves into extraordinary detail about some of the minutiae of life for the Scandinavians during the Viking Age, so much so that many have decried this work as a glorified textbook and far too academic in nature. I myself applaud these choices by Price to discuss many of the aspects of Scandinavian life and culture that are not covered in more mainstream works regarding this culture, and given Price is an archaeologist, he is able to provide an insight that is shockingly rare to find among published Viking Age scholars.However, given my current knowledge of the Viking Age, I found some of Price's claims odd. Yes, there is the issue that reviewers seem to hone in on the most: Viking Age Scandinavians' attitudes toward LGBT+ issues. I will not spend much time on this, as it has already been discussed ad nauseum by other reviewers, but despite my hopes, I have to agree that his claims that Viking Age Scandinavians had more progressive (by modern US standards) views on gender seems a bit far-fetched. There is nothing wrong with speculating, but by the end of this book, what he initially clarifies is speculation he later states as fact. Based on both the sagas and law codes that have been recovered, Scandinavians during this time period were not tolerant of homosexuality (at least male-on-male homosexuality) or cross-dressing, so it is a stretch to assume they embraced transgenderism, to say the least.More importantly, there are other claims he makes that do not seem to be based on the source material (namely, skaldic/eddic poetry and the sagas). I could pick several examples, but I will only discuss the one I feel most qualified to speak on. While discussing "Hervararkviða" (known as "The Waking of Angantýr" in modern English), Price makes two verifiably false claims: 1) That the eleven berserkers who were buried alongside Angantýr are his bodyguards; and 2) Hervor seeks the cursed sword, Tyrfing, for revenge. Nowhere in this poem or the accompanying saga, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (The Saga of Hervor and Heidrek), are either of these claims verified. In fact, the first claim—that the eleven other berserkers are Angantýr's bodyguards—is contradicted in the poem, where the eleven other berserkers are Angantýr's brothers (they are referred to as the sons of Arngrím), and the saga. Additionally, nowhere in the poem is it stated that Hervor seeks Tyrfing for revenge of any sort. (In any case, the murderer of the only person she would seek revenge for—her father, Angantýr—was killed during his duel with Angantýr.)These may seem like insignificant, nitpicky details, but they call into question the veracity of other claims made by Price. (And indeed, these are far from the only claims made that do not seem to have any basis in the source material.) The issue seems to lie in the sources that Price sites, which very largely consist of other scholars who have written works about specific topics. The problem here is that scholars sometimes interpret the source material in ways that fit their idea of what the literature is conveying, which unfortunately is not always based in the facts as we currently know them, but rely on speculation.Rather than in-text citations to reference his claims, Price (somewhat understandably) includes a "References" section at the end of the book. However, this allows some claims (such as the example of the claims made about "Hervararkviða") to be included in the book without any citation, further calling into question the source of some of Price's claims. As someone who questions virtually everything, this becomes a hard pill to swallow as more and more facts that pop up in the book seem to conflict with the source material and other scholars' claims. This, as well as some jarring shifts in the book's tone (vacillating between formal and extremely informal writing, including cheeky asides taking a too-contemporary tone from the point-of-view of Viking Age Scandinavians), are why I rated this book three stars.I do not mean for this review to claim I know more than an accomplished archaeologist who has devoted his life to the study of the Viking Age. I objectively do not. However, even with my limited knowledge, I have read many of the sources and so can confirm that some of the claims in The Children of Ash and Elm stretch the truth, if they are not outright incorrect. In a field of study that relies largely on scholars sharing information with one another, seeing a scholar's reference section chock full of works by other scholars to inform his perspective rather than the eddas, sagas, and law codes themselves, raises questions about how many of the "facts" are actually factual as opposed to subjective interpretation. Unfortunately, the only way to definitively answer that question would be to read each work cited by Price, and I regrettably neither have the time nor money to do that. As it stands, I have to approach The Children of Ash and Elm with a fair amount of skepticism, based on the knowledge that some claims in the book are not presented accurately.

Always love reading about the Viking age. Worth the time and money spent.

This is a good read for those of you who want to learn more about the Vikings and their times from a current archaeological point-of-view.Scientific measurements are getting more precise and nuanced all the time. Genetic traces can identify ethnicities and genders of persons long dead (A few surprises here), and radiocarbon isotopes can tell you where a person was born and raised, where they lived as an adult, and of course we already know (habeas corpus) where they died.We also have relatively new insights about the effects of certain natural catastrophies on matters such as climate change - it is now thought that a series of unusually large volcanic eruptions which occurred in the 6th century A.D. in southeastern Asia may have kicked up enough dust around the planet to cause the climate to cool precipitously for up to eighty years - an event which apparently caused a large scale die off of the Scandinavian population due to agricultural collapse, and which was the motivating driver behind the ‘Migration Period’, when northern peoples went south crashing into the Roman frontier in order to survive the cold-induced famine.The author also has some cautionary notes about what our northern friends were really like. One of my favorites was:‘When one looks closer, the real power,and the means of producing it, can take unexpected forms. Some years ago, a prominent historian despaired of the constant focus on the Vikings as maritime warriors, and instead stressed the fact that most of the Scandinavian population stayed at home on the land and never did any harm to anyone. The time of the Vikings, he claimed, was really ‘the Golden Age of the pig farmer.’ He had a point, though he got the animal wrong: The Scandinavian landscape of the late Viking period was a world of sheep.’ (For making ship’s sails and warm clothing)Also, everything hideous that the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan described with regard to that gang of Russian Volga Vikings he met up with has been shown archeologically to be more or less true.Bottom line is, Tolkien’s stories are about Vikings and their religion the way they should have been, not the way they actually were.PS. The author (Neil Price) is an engaging and informative speaker, and has lectures on this subject readily available on You-tube.

Sin duda he aprendido mucho sobre los vikingos. Tanto cosas que quería saber, como otras que no tenía tanto interés en aprender. Es un relato bastante completo sobre los vikingos, que fueron una sociedad mucho más importante de lo que normalmente se cree, pero tengo algunos puntos que mencionar, que pueden ayudar a futuros lectores:1. Yo buscaba una historia de la presencia y expansión de los vikingos, que sabía habían llegado desde Norteamérica hasta Rusia y más al este. Cómo guerrearon con Francia y se quedaron con Normandía. Su dominio de las islas británicas. Su llegada al trono inglés y siciliano. Su llegada a dominar Rusia. Sus ataques por el Mediterráneo y hasta Constantinopla, etc. Pero estos temas solo aparecen pasado el 50% del libro y sin excesiva profundidad. Lo que el libro describe es lo que eran los vikingos. De qué sociedades anteriores provenían; sus costumbres sociales, sus conceptos de libertad, su organización política y religiosa, sus costumbres sexuales, etc. Es un libro interesante, bien investigado y escrito, pero en lo que yo buscaba, no ha sido tan completo como lo esperaba.2. Desarrolla relatos que no está claro de dónde proceden. No explica fuentes. No sé cómo llega a esas conclusiones. Muchas de sus aseveraciones están hechas sin respaldo en fuentes. Deja duda sobre cuánto es historia y cuanto es un relato posible pero sin probar.3. Desde el punto de vista de la redacción, no siempre resulta atrapante. Se hace largo, ya que hay largos pasajes con información que no parece justificar su extensión.

Excellent examination of myth, saga, history, archaeology and science to bring the world of the inhabitants of early medieval Scandinavia to life, and put their impact on their world into context.

Neil Price is an authority on the Vikings, a 'Distinguished Professor' of Archaeology at Uppsala University, Sweden.Lots of people write about the Vikings, but what Price is doing in his most recent (excellent) book is establishing the Viking mindset, their worldview. He is getting into the head under the helmet and looking out through the eyes of a Viking at the Viking universe.The title references a Viking creation myth, and quotes one of the phrases they used to describe themselves. Among the Vikings, the term 'Viking' was 'more of a job title', Price says, than a statement of ethnicity.His book is thought-provoking, thorough and extremely wide-ranging – Viking remains extend from Newfoundland to the Silk Road – with interesting colour photographs (in the paperback edition).

I absolutely loved reading "The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings" by Neil Price. This book provided a comprehensive and detailed account of Viking history that was both informative and engaging.What I appreciated most about this book was how it offered a nuanced look into Viking society and culture beyond their military conquests. Price did an excellent job of exploring different aspects of Viking life, including their religion, art, and social structures, which gave me a better understanding of who the Vikings were and how they lived.The writing style was accessible and easy to follow, even when the topics became more complex. Price's use of different sources, including archaeological finds and literature, added depth to the narrative and made it feel like I was getting a full picture of Viking history.Overall, "The Children of Ash and Elm" is an excellent read for anyone interested in Viking history. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about this fascinating period in history.

This is the most comprehensive history of the Vikings that I have ever read. It covers all the areas of known Viking activity and gives us many new insights into the lives of the people from Scandinavia and elsewhere during the time of the Vikings.Neil Price does not confine himself to the traditional starting and finishing dates of the Viking Age and demonstrates that there were no such dates in reality. He shows too, that the influence of the Vikings covered a huge geographical area from North America in the west to Byzantium, and points even further, in the east. By carefully considering each direction in which they moved and looking at the probable motivations behind their expeditions and their frequent build up overtime into settlement and conquest, Professor Price provides a detailed portrait of their histories. These are based not just on past scholarship but also on the many recent finds, new ways of interpreting them, and on the very many discussions within and outside of academia.Neil Price does not neglect the fact that much of the Viking economy depended oh the human trade; capturing, using and selling slaves from many different regions. This is often barely mentioned in many histories but is given its proper place in this book together with the violence, misery and distress that this would have caused. Without slave taking and forced labour there would have been no Viking Age. Many of the slaves and their descendants, wherever they came from, were eventually absorbed into their respective section of Viking society. Of course, there were many other contemporary societies, besides the Vikings, that also dealt in slaves.Throughout the book’s pages the worldview of the Vikings and their beliefs is always there in the background. Again, the author is able to tell us much about the way that they thought and how they saw many aspects of their lives by critically considering the poems and literature and by analysing imagery, artefacts and the thoughts of many scholars and others. The Vikings were active for around three to four hundred years and beliefs will have varied from region to region and over time and eventually were replaced in most areas by Christianity, sometimes forcibly by Scandinavian kings. Viking society was never static and always developing and innovating.With the skill of a storyteller, Professor Price brings his subjects to life and guides us through their vast and complex story. I highly recommend this book but appreciate that not everyone will like it, those who somehow think that the Vikings were some sort of pure ethnic group for example (they never were), or those who are only focussed on their macho image; they were much, much more than either of those portrayals. Neil Price’s work is important and needs to be read. Too many people want to misrepresent history for their own ends and sadly the Vikings can be used by those with their own agendas.