note: similar EmbersOfTheHands is also http://gate.kl-ic.com/EmbersOfTheHands
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
Hardanger Plateau World war 2 drama ... heavy water?
- 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
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"
- 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
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
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
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
beyond belief that the land was not subject to some king, as were all others in the world
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
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
p106 Oleg added wheels to ships, assaulting Constantinople over land
p107 Viking soldiers Varangian Guard
p107 Rurik Novgorod
- p108 Germans and Vikings similar pagan pantheon, Odin == Wotan "the furious one", patron god of Berserkers
p109 Poetic Edda no Germanic equivalent
p111 Ragnarok destruction of the gods
- p112 Norse religion: destruction the source of renewal
p113 Eddas -> Wagner'sRing of the Nibelungen Tolkien'sLord of the Rings
- p113 Tolkien founded Viking Club at University of Leeds
p114 hundreds of captives sacrificed routinely at the Upsalla temple complex
- p114 primal Viking heart rejected compassion, sympathy, moral responsibility
- p114 Islamic silver ceased arriving around 965
p115 Prince Vladimir chooses state religion
- Orthodox Christianity, Latin Christianity, Rabbinical Judaism, or Islam
- p115 Drinking is the joy of the Rus, Muslim emisssaries went home, similar for Jewish Khazars. Christian monkish abstinence rejected.
- p115 Viking mercenaries aiding Constantinople impressed by majestic Orthodox festival. Vladimir destroyed pagan statues, baptized 988 February, and marries emperor's daughter
- p116 prosperity and politics converted most of Scandinavia to Christianity
p116 ended expensive wasteful customs of sacrifice and grave goods and wergild
- p117 eventually vendetta, violence, and bloodfeud ended
p117 feudalism feudum = grant of land
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p131 Ch06 - Conquerors: The Norman Transformation
p140 ]] housecarls [[
p162 Ch07 - Vikings into Scandinavians: From Games of Thrones to Mighty Fortresses
p192 Ch08 - Viking Heart Empire: King Gustavus Adolphus and the Scandinavian Century
p217 Ch09 - Scandinavians into Americans
- p211 Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar
p240 Ch10 - "We Are Coming, Father Abraham": Scandinavians in the American Civil War
p263 Ch11 - "More Wonderful than Riches": American Fever and the Great Migration
p295 Ch12 - Land of Wonders: How Two Scandinavian Icons Transformed Jazz Age America
p321 Ch13 - Men at Work: The Viking Heart and American Democracy
p348 Ch14 - The Viking Heart Come Home
p373 Ch15 - The Viking Heart in War and Peace
p406 Conclusion - The Viking Heart and the Land Beyond