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 .p098 Icelandic [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skald | skald ]], Norway court poets
 .p098 More than 40 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga | sagas ]]
 .p099 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red | Erik Thorvaldsson ]] c. 950 – c. 1003, known as Erik the Red
 .p099 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sn%C3%A6fell_(M%C3%BAla%C3%BEing) | Snaefell ]] 1833m [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratovolcano | stratovolcano ]] in Iceland
 .p099 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red#Greenland | settlement of Greenland ]]
 .p100 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal#Tusk_and_dentition | narwhal tusk ]] sold as unicorn horn to the gullable.
 .p103 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age | Little Ice Age ]] 13th to 19th centuries, first Greenland settlements disappear, uncertain history

The Viking Heart

How Scandinavians conquered the world

2021 . Arthur Herman . 29 + 484 pages

948.022 HER . Murray Scholls Library


  • MAP: Viking voyages, originating in
    • southwest coastal Norway to Iceland, England, Ireland, France
    • Denmark to Germany, England, France, Spain, Italy
    • East coast Sweden to south Finland, Volga to Caspian Sea, Dnieper to Kiev, Black Sea, Constantinople
  • pxi Preface

  • pxv Norsemen genetic melting pot widespread in Europe
  • pxv Normans descendants of Norsemen, brought science and instruments to northern and western Europe

  • pxvii A Nation of Immigrants John F. Kennedy 1958 book @PSU

  • p001 Ch02 - The Wrath of the Norsemen

  • p003 Swedish raiders up the Volga, settlement at Novgorod

  • p005 Only 3% of Norway is arable land, 25% forest, 70% bare mountain ranges
  • p005 inland Sweden lakes and forests almost impassable before modern times
  • p006 southern Denmark/Jutland infertile barrier southwards
  • p007 Storegga Slide 6225-6170 BCE

    • Doggerland land area/bridge between Scandinavia, England, France before 5000 BCE, Rhine and Thames into the same estuary

  • p007 Move to farms inland around 4000 BCE, Vikings were mostly farmers
  • p007 Sami moved north, nomads herding reindeer, neolithic to present

  • p008 bronze in Scandinavia after 1700 BCE

  • p009 vik is Norse for bay or creek
  • p009 more than Gotland graves shaped like ship

  • p010 Cimbri moved south towards Roman lands

  • p011 Scandinavian Goths migrated south along Vistula River Germany

  • p012 Gauls

  • p012 vir (man) -> virtus (virtue)

  • p013 Tacitus: Germans revered women, advice
  • p013 Gothic War of 248–253

  • p014 Battle of Adrianople 378 AD August

  • p014 Constantinople survived but western Roman Empire was conquered by 480 AD
  • p014 Franks seize northern Gaul, Visigoths seize southern Gaul and Spain, Saxons and Angles seize Britain

  • p015 Charles Martel stopped the

Umayyad invasion of Aquitaine at the Battle of Tours 721 AD

  • p015 Charlemagne 771 AD

  • p016 The Song of Roland 11th-century chanson de geste

  • p017 Danevirke wall protecting Danes from Franks

  • p017 Hedeby Danish trading village 8th to 11th century

  • p018 Danish King Godfred 804-810? threatens Charlemagne, assassinated by son?

  • p020 Swedish longships up rivers to Kiev and Constantinople
  • p020 raiders (even Scots and English) became "Vikings"
  • p020 Viking siege of Paris 885-886

  • p021 unpredictable raids, retaliation too late
  • p021 Roman Lutetia predecessor of Paris

  • p022 Charles the Fat

  • p022 Viking Easter 845 Siege of Paris

  • p022 ransom 7000 pounds of silver danegeld

  • p026 Alfred the Great defended Wessex from Danish vikings

  • p027 York capital of Viking Northumbria

  • p029 Danelaw Denelagu English kings allowed loyal Danes their own laws

  • p030 Ch02 - Being Vikings

  • p033 Vikings genetically diverse, some Mediterranean and Middle East ancestry
  • p034 Vikings polygamous
  • p034 littoral

  • p034 Viking grave goods: bronze Buddha from Kashmir

  • p035 clinker-built boats, overlapping planks, nail points flattened tight with rove plate

  • p035 broad beam widest point of hull

  • p036 Vikings invented keel in 7th century

  • p036 18 inch draft fully loaded for inland waterways

  • p037 knarr cargo ship ("freighter") 3 foot draft Skuldelev 1 16 foot beam, 52 foot length, crew of 6 to 8

  • p037 turn from piracy to trade and settlement than piracy again
  • p037 five month winters
  • p037 bifringent polarized calcite for sun sighting obscured by clouds

  • p038 Vikings farmers and fishermen first, warriors second
  • p039 "uluk" for exile? Perhaps útlægð, transcribed poorly
  • p039 Ingolfr Arnarson Eric the Red

  • p040 Thing

  • p041 Iceland Althing est. 930, oldest legislature in the world

  • p041 rich or poor, one vote per household
  • p041 Eiriksgata tour of all households by prospective king

  • p042 weregeld compensatory damage for injury or killing

  • p042 1094 Iceland: 4,560 free men out of 80,000 population
  • p043 Viking marriage a business contract with obligations on both parties
  • p043 Danish daughters inherited half of brother shares, Varend Sweden daughters equal shares

  • p044 wife controlled assets when husband absent, parts with husband when she no longer desires him
  • p044 older women accumulated status, took over missing or dead husband's role
  • p045 Shield maidens probably fictional

  • p048 Vikings "world leaders" in human trafficking
  • p049 Verdun, Magdeburg, Prague slave markets supplied with Viking captives, usually non-Christian Slavs
  • p049 Vikings supplied slaves for golden age of Islam
  • p050 Viking commerce was mostly slave commerce
  • p051 Vikings preferred intimidation to slaughter
  • p051 berserker irrationally violent

  • p052 Viking helmets conical, NOT adorned with animal horns
  • p053 most warriors clung to their shields, heroes were a foolhardy minority that caused most of the casualties
  • p054 berserker's life relatively short
  • p054 leaders, followers, and slaves shared the same shipboard space
  • p055 kings were chieftains approved by assembly of other chieftains and warriors
  • p055 no dynasties, succession disputes common
  • p056 Erik Bloodaxe killed five brothers to win throne of Norway, overthrown and exiled by sixth brother

  • p056 Harald Fairhair first real Norwegian king in 872

  • p057 Most early kings mythical
  • p058 most kings murdered, only four lived to a natural death
  • p060 Ch03 - The World the Vikings Made, Part One: From Russia to the British Isles

  • p068 Rurik 862 Varangian chieftain of the Rus

  • p070 capture of Armagh

  • p071 battle of Clontarf in 1014

  • p076 Isle of Man Godred Crovan

  • p079 "-by": farm or village . . . "-thorp" or "-thwaite": a clearing . . Scandinavian place names
  • p080 more than 600 Viking loan words in modern English
  • p081 cowrie sea snail shells from Gulf of Aden

  • p081 Domesday Book Scandinavian peasantry descendants 60% of Lincolnshire, 40% of East Anglia

  • p082 Sokemen between free and bond tenants

  • p083 Danelaw -> English Petition of Right -> US Bill of Rights

  • p085 Ch04 - The World the Vikings Made, Part Two: Normandy, the Atlantic, and North America

  • p085 The Saga of King Hakon Hakonarson

beyond belief that the land was not subject to some king, as were all others in the world

  • p085 Rollo, Rolf son of Rognvald

  • p087 Rollo's son William Longsword

  • p086 grandson duke Richard I of Normandy 932-996

  • p088 map

  • p089 Ragnar Lodbrok a Viking hero, Swedish and Danish king before 865? 850 to 900?

  • p090 Harald Finehair 850? – 932? Norwegian King

  • p091 accounts of Norway's unification written more than 200 years later, mostly by Icelanders
  • p091 Erik the Victorious c.945 – c.995, first to be cited by independent sources

  • p092 Harald Bluetooth of Denmark

  • p092 Jelling runestones, Christianity

  • p094 Snowland ( Iceland ) 850? 860?
  • p095 Ingolfr Arnarson first Norse settler of Iceland

  • p095 Reykjavik "smoky bay"

  • p096 "Landamabok" Landnámabók (Book of Settlements)

  • p096 Thingvellir site of Althing oldest democracy in the world, 930 to present

  • p097 thingman icelandic freeman

  • p097 Njal's Saga

  • p098 Icelandic skald, Norway court poets

  • p098 More than 40 sagas

  • p099 Erik Thorvaldsson c. 950 – c. 1003, known as Erik the Red

  • p099 Snaefell 1833m stratovolcano in Iceland

  • p099 settlement of Greenland

  • p100 narwhal tusk sold as unicorn horn to the gullable.

  • p103 Little Ice Age 13th to 19th centuries, first Greenland settlements disappear, uncertain history

  • p105 Ch05 - Twilight of the Gods: Vikings, Kings, and Christianity

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  • p131 Ch06 - Conquerors: The Norman Transformation

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  • p162 Ch07 - Vikings into Scandinavians: From Games of Thrones to Mighty Fortresses

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  • p192 Ch08 - Viking Heart Empire: King Gustavus Adolphus and the Scandinavian Century

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  • p211 Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar

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  • p217 Ch09 - Scandinavians into Americans

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  • p234 John Gutzon de la Mothe Borgum

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  • p240 Ch10 - "We Are Coming, Father Abraham": Scandinavians in the American Civil War

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  • p263 Ch11 - "More Wonderful than Riches": American Fever and the Great Migration

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  • p295 Ch12 - Land of Wonders: How Two Scandinavian Icons Transformed Jazz Age America

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  • p321 Ch13 - Men at Work: The Viking Heart and American Democracy

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  • p348 Ch14 - The Viking Heart Come Home

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  • p373 Ch15 - The Viking Heart in War and Peace

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  • p406 Conclusion - The Viking Heart and the Land Beyond

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VikingHeart (last edited 2026-04-16 07:40:11 by KeithLofstrom)