Review (Non-Fiction Book): The Northmen's Fury by Philip Parker

Historian Philip Parker, author of The Empire Stops Here: A Journey Around the Frontiers of the Roman World, brings us a gripping historical recitation of one of the most famous (arguably infamous) cultures in European history.

Possessing a highly spiritualist and widely misunderstood culture, the term Viking has become synonymous with violence and bloodshed. This, in truth, as those whom have read this book would already know, is only one small sliver of the Viking way of life. The Vikings were a highly religious people, with an entire plethora of myths and legends. Philip Parker's book The Northmen's Fury: A History of The Viking World, details the rise and fall of the Viking's empire, from the Danish expansion to the British Isles, Iceland and Greenland, their short-lived escapade into North America to the slow and steady erasure of Viking culture in Kiev and the social evolution that lead to the Battle of Hastings, at which time the traditional Viking as we remember them was nothing but a fading sub-culture in a vast Scandinavian socio-political network.

This book, in my humble opinion, is one of the best academic sources regarding the topic of the Vikings. It depth, its style and it vast scope gives The Northmen's Fury a certain consequentiality, making it the ideal compendium of Viking history.

The first chapter introduces the reader to the early days of Viking aggression against other European powers; the raids against England in the early 8th century, and the conflict between migrating Danes and the Franks during the 9th century. We are also introduced to many of the largely ignored elements of Viking culture; namely, the various Viking mythologies, some of which bear an unsurprising similarity to many modern day folk-tales and Christian traditions.

Later chapters detail the slow transition from Paganism to Christianity in Scandanavia, and how Viking monarchs used Christian values to justify their rule, forcing many of the smaller Viking clans to leave. The subsequent mass migration to various other parts of Europe is also detailed in-depth, including the Viking colonisation of Iceland and Greenland, as well as the mysterious demise of the Greenland colony.

Philip Parker weaves each chapter together effortlessly, with a great academic prose.

For anyone wanting an in-depth account of Viking history, this is a brilliant place to start.

5/5