Thomas Ray's Reviews > Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings, Neil Price (professor of archeology, Uppsala [means "the high halls," evidence of which can still be seen there. p. 98] University, Sweden: https://www.arkeologi.uu.se/staff/Pre... 46 miles = 74 km north of Stockholm), 2020, 599 pp., ISBN 9780465096989, Library-of-Congress DL65, Dewey 948.022

Maps
1. Eastern Roman Empire, 565 CE at death of Justinian: limited to Greece, Italy, Balkans south of the Danube, western Turkey; none of France, Germany, or England; only the southernmost part of Spain. p. ix
2. Kingdoms in what is now Norway and Sweden, 500–1350 CE. p. x
3. Sites of first-phase Viking raids, 750–833 CE: most are on Irish coast; English monasteries and ports; French coastal towns. p. xi
4. Sites of Viking raids 834–999 CE: throughout France, Ireland, southern England. p. xii
5. Mediterranean raid 859–862 CE: from Loire mouth, coasting France, Spain, France, Italy, and back: p. xiii
6. Viking diaspora to Russia and Asia: p. xiv
7. Empire of Knut, 1035 CE: Denmark, south Sweden, Norway, England: p. xv
8. Iceland, Greenland, Canada, 870–1000 CE: p. xvi

Pronunciation pp. xvii–xviii
Þ, þ (thorn) th as in thin
Ð, ð (eth) th as in then
Æ, æ sounds like eye
á pronounced ow
é pronounced ay as in yay
í pronounced ee as in thee
ó pronounced owe
ú as the u in sure "with a rolling Scots accent"
y sounds like ew meaning yuck
ý longer, eww
å like oar
ä/æ like air
ö/ø like err
Óðinn OWEthinn Odin
Þórr Thor

The gods make the first man, Askr, the ash tree, and woman, Embla, the elm, from stumps of driftwood. p. 2.
The Old Norse sagas were written in Iceland from the late 1100s through the 1500s. The Viking Age was from around 750 to 1050 CE. pp. 17, 66. The sagas are Icelandic family sagas, tracing family history back to their Scandinavian ancestors; and, legendary sagas, including real events back to the early 400s with Attila the Hun, along with the supernatural. There's an Ektors saga, which is the Iliad translated into Old Norse, focusing on Hector, the doomed prince of Troy. p. 19. Old Norse poetry is older than the prose sagas. The /Prose Edda/, by Snorri Sturluson, circa 1230 CE, is a handbook for poets, and includes lots of poetry. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... The /Poetic Edda/ is older poems collected in the 1200s. pp. 21, 513. The earliest poems date from the early 1000s, building on more ancient models. The /Poetic Edda/ is /the/ source of Norse mythology. Read Carolyne Larrington's English translation https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... Read the Poetic Edda!

Norse myths, p. 517, 519:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...

For a modern Icelander, reading the Old Norse of the sagas has about the same level of difficulty as Shakespearean prose for an English speaker. p. 479. "Please, read the sagas." p. 480.

All the surviving texts were written by Christians long after the Viking Age. p. 21. [Except: the eyewitness account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan of a Viking boat burial, in 922. It included the human sacrifice of a teenage slave girl, after she was used for sex by all the men. One-third of the dead chief's wealth went to supplying alcohol to keep the men drunk for the 10 days of funeral preparation; one-third for burial clothing; one-third to his heirs. Many Viking-era graves have been found containing a large male skeleton with an apparently teenage female skeleton. pp. 246–253, 260, 436. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... ] The Christians misunderstood the Viking story-world, and codified their misconceptions into the retrospective pagan orthodoxy they created. p. 208. [There's a Latin history of Norway older than Snorri's. p. 279. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles of the Wessex kings give contemporary accounts of Viking raids by surviving victims, late 700s– , pp. 275, 279–285, 515. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
The Royal Frankish Annals of Charlemagne's empire record Danish raids. pp. 289–290, 515. The 861-CE Annals of St. Bertin describe a Viking fleet as a coalition of independent bands. pp. 313, 515. Christian missionaries (unsuccessful to Sweden in 829) left contemporary records. p. 290. A Byzantine chronicle describes Viking berserkers. p. 325. One skaldic poem dates from around 900 CE. p. 325.]

"There is no fully comprehensible geography of the Norse cosmos." p. 32. [But see Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase books—he does a pretty good job!] At the center was Yggdrasill, /the/ tree, a great ash. In the beginning there had been nothing but the void of Ginnungagap, an infinite emptiness—yet not quite empty, for deep within it lay a sleeping potential, a power and presence inside the absence, waiting to be awakened. [Modern physics knows that empty space is far from empty: virtual processes are going on everywhere at all times: particles and their antiparticles spontaneously popping into and out of existence, moving forward and backward in time.] The first being in creation was the frost giant, Ymir. The first god was Búri, ancestor of the Aesir. Odin and his brothers began to shape the worlds. They kill Ymir, and make Midgard, the Middle Earth that is our world, from his corpse. pp. 33–39.

The goddess Freyja was the sort of sexually-independent woman that terrified the Church. pp. 41–42.

Days of the week: p. 46.
Sunday
Moonday
Týrsday
Wodensday
Thorsday
Freyrsday
Lördag—from the Old Norse for a hot thermal spring: bath night.

The Roman Empire sold weapons to Danes, hoping to keep the Germans in check. p. 70.

In the years 536 and 539/540, were two or more immense volcanic eruptions. p. 75 The second was Lake Ilopango, El Salvador. There may have been a third in 547. Dust veil curtailed plant growth. Endless winter. Famine, riots, civil unrest. p. 76. Worse in Scandinavia. Mean temperature fell 3.5ºC (6.3ºF). No crops in Norway & Sweden. Worst effects lasted 3 years. Impact lasted 80 years. p. 77. Survivors fought each other for what was left. Justinian plague 541 CE might have reached Scandinavia. Scandinavian population loss 50%. Many settlements abandoned.

Snorri's Edda describes Ragnarök: "First a winter will come. Great frosts, keen winds. The sun will do no good. There will be three of these winters together and no summer in between." p. 78. The sun blackens, the moon dims, the stars fall into the sea, steam covers the sky. "An axe age, a sword age—shields are riven—a wind age, a wolf age." p. 80.

Militarized elites arose in Scandinavia. p. 82.

Land in the north was several meters lower 1000 years ago: the land is still springing back from the disappearance of the immense weight of the ice-age icepack. Rivers, lakes, and harbors were deeper in the Viking Age than they are today. p. 83.

The largest mead-hall known was 80 meters (260 feet) long, at Borg in the Lofoten Islands of arctic Norway. p. 99.

Gems, ivory, and lizard skins from Sri Lanka, India, and Bengal, were imported to Scandinavia, 550–750 CE. p. 102. Scandinavia was the end of the Silk Road. Silk from China has been found in Scandinavian graves. p. 442. A sixth-century bronze Buddha from Afghanistan was brought to Sweden. p. 446.

The Viking world rested on slavery. pp. 140, 392. Viking raids were largely to gain slaves, most to sell. p. 141. A poem praising Harald Finehair (c. 850–932), greatest of the pirate sea-kings of Norway, says he gave his warriors gold and slave girls. pp. 145, 301–302, 316–317.

Up to 7% of men and up to 37% of women had been malnourished as children, in central Sweden in the Viking Age. p. 159. Unwanted children were thrown into the sea. p. 316.

Round trip, Denmark to England, 14 days by Viking longship, weather permitting. A 24-meter (79-foot)-long, 5-meter (16-foot)-wide 32-oar funeral longship, circa 890, in Harald Finehair's reign, was found in 1880. A 30-meter (98-foot)-long warship for an 80-man crew, with a draft of just 1 meter, from the 11th century, was found in Denmark. The largest Viking warship yet found is from the early 11th century, 32 meters (105 feet) long, for a single-watch crew of 80, that could've been doubled for war. Warships with sails from as early as 750 CE have been found. pp. 197–201. In winter, people and their animals used iron crampons on shoes or hooves.

The new elites who rose to power in the 5th and 6th centuries claimed descent from Odin, Freyr, and the other gods. pp. 208–210. Remains of a temple at Uppåkra, Sweden, date from the 3rd through 11th centuries CE. pp. 211–213.

Circa 550–750 CE, endemic warfare among petty Scandinavian kingdoms. p. 274. Polygyny, concubinage, and perhaps female infanticide left an underclass of young men without inheritance or marriage prospects. pp. 316–317.

Circa 750 CE, (pp. 275–) Swedes raid Estonia.

Late 700s–800s, Britain, Scotland, Ireland, France, Netherlands swarm with Vikings. Locals build bridges as river blockades. pp. 284, 335–. Beginning in 834, Vikings regularly raided in fleets of hundreds of ships. p. 338.

The first raiders of Britain were from southwestern Norway. p. 284.

Circa 753, Swedes set up a "Wild East" trading post at Staraya Ladoga, by the mouth of the Volkhov river at Lake Ladoga, 100 miles (160 km) upstream (east) of where 1000 years later would be St. Petersburg.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/59%...
pp. 296–299 and glossy photo. The currencies were furs, silver, and slaves. p. 298.

From here, one could go upriver through Lake Ilmen, up the Lovat River, then portage to the Dniepr, down to the Black Sea and Constantinople. pp. 366, 425, 428. But that's a long portage, from around what's now Velikiye Luki to Smolensk, 238 km (148 miles).
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Velik...
By the 8th century, Constantinople had over 500,000 population. p. 367. In the 9th century, Baghdad had up to 900,000 people. p. 439. A runestone in Sweden commemorates a son who died in Uzbekistan. p. 440.

Swedes who traded via the river routes were known in Constantinople as Rus, by 839 CE. p. 368. The name may have come from Roslagen, Sweden. p. 369.

Rus also plied the Don and Volga rivers toward the Islamic, Khazar, Magyar, and Bulgar worlds. pp. 424–425, 438.

By the 10th century, the Russian state begins to form, centered on Kiev and Novgorod. p. 431, 437

Pirate "sea-kings" with their armies arise in southwest Norway in the 8th century. pp. 299–. Some of the agricultural-elite Norwegians settled Iceland, beginning around 870 CE, to escape pirate rule. Harald Finehair (circa 850–932) ruled Norway circa 872–930. pp. 303, 378.

The first generation of Iceland settlers cut down the forests that had covered the island. It's been barren and treeless since. p. 476. Iceland was wracked by blood-feuds. Norway reasserted control in the 13th century. p. 478.

The act of acquiring silver was as important as the silver. p. 309. Reputation.

The main export of Viking-age Scandinavia was violence. p. 314.

Every year from 834 through 838, Danes sacked and burned the wealthy Dorestad emporium, on the Rhine in Holland, killing, taking shiploads of slaves. https://www.google.com/maps/place/51%...
pp. 340–. Also Utrecht and Antwerp repeatedly, and the Thames. They scourged Ireland, mid-830s to 850. Monasteries, markets, settlements.

840–860, Viking attacks increased, penetrating deep into France, thanks to civil war among Charlemagne's grandsons. 843, Vikings set up a year-round base at the Loire mouth. 845, 120 ships attack Paris. Parisians pay Ragnar lothbrok's followers 7,000 pounds of silver and gold to leave. The first of many payments. Attacks of 100 to 260+ ships in France, Frisia and Brittany in the 850s and 860s. 851, year-round in England. p. 343. Also at mouths of the Seine and Somme. Vikings sack, slaughter, burn towns throughout France.

862, Charles the Bald, Charlemagne's grandson, has fortified bridges erected. This cramps the Vikings' style. p. 345. By 865, only 40 and 50 ships on the Loire and Seine, not hundreds.

865–880, the "great heathen army" goes en masse to England. Starting on the Thames and East Anglia. p. 346. 866, Vikings take York: their stronghold for the next century. p. 347. 871, Vikings attack Wessex. By 874, only Wessex is in English hands.

In 876 the Vikings began to settle down in Northumbria: farming.

878, English cede north and east of England to the Vikings. p. 349.

877–886, Vikings again attack France, which was again in civil war over succession to the throne. They're eventually bought off. By 890, France is again politically stable and effectively defending against Vikings. p. 351.

In the 800s, Vikings extorted 30,000 pounds of silver from France: one-seventh of the entire coinage of the century. Plus grain, livestock, produce, horses, wine, cider, … for doing nothing. Between 830 and 890, 120 named settlements in France were destroyed.

Danish king Harald Bluetooth was baptized circa 965. p. 452. After his overthrow, the Odin cult revived. p. 457. Christianity spread in Norway in the 990s. Christianization of Sweden took until the 1220s. p. 458. Rus kings in Kiev were baptized in the mid-900s. Scandinavians were pilgrimaging to Jerusalem in the 11th century. p. 463.

Iceland officially converted to Christianity around 1000 CE. p. 481. Greenland was colonized in the 980s. p. 482. Twenty-five ships left Iceland bound for Greenland: 14 arrived. Greenlanders eventually starved to death after overexploiting the soil, and several bad years. pp. 485–486. The Norse toehold in Newfoundland was repelled by natives. p. 490.

Very short quiz:
https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work...