I’m looking for a good book on the Viking invasion of England. Specifically, the kingdom of Jorvik and the Danelaw. Does anybody have any recommendations?
Actually, I’m also looking for a book on prehistoric Britain, up until the Roman invasion. Any recommendations there?
Fiction or non-fiction?
For fiction, try Bernard Cornwell’s Lords Of the North books {four and counting in the series}: a first-class account of Alfred and the Danes as told by Uhtred, a Saxon raised by the Danes. Absolutely splendid for a realistic portrayal of what warfare, culture, religion and daily life was actually like in 9th Century England, with not a horned helmet in sight
Michael Wood’s In Search of the Dark Ages covers it well, or as well as one can cover a period whose name, if it is useful at all, refers to the relatively small amount of information that came out of it.
If you are also interested in a later period and wish to learn more about early Medieval property measurements than you would ever want to, try his Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England.
Another novel that touches on this, by Nobel Prize Winner Sigrid Undset, is the astonishingly, overwhelmingly absorbing* The Master of Hestviken*. More a Tetrology than a single novel, actually. It’s the laboriously and exhaustively researched life-story a man who lives in (IIRC) 13th Century Norway. At one point, he travels to England, and the period details are just as strong for this segment as those that take place in Norway. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Sorry, my mistake, I should have specified. I’m looking for a non-fiction book. Also, preferably one that is aimed at a more popular audience, if possible (i.e. no text books).
I would suggest FM Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England. The latest revised edition is from 1971, so it is quite dated and somewhat partisan. All the same, it is an excellent book and a very good jumping-off point if your interest takes in in any particular direction. After reading Stenton’s survey, it is easier to turn to more modern and specific resources.
Cool, thanks for the recommendation!
If you’re looking for books about Britain during the Dark Ages, I was going to suggest *On the Ruin of Britain *by St. Gildas. However, you said you wanted something aimed at a popular rather than scholarly audience and On the Ruin of Britain might be too much like something you’d read in upper-division/graduate-level Medieval European history course. Still, the English translation is fairly readable and quite short–less than 50 pages. It’s not straight history but rather Gildas’ sermon decrying the moral laxity, corruption, and general incompetence of secular and religious leadership in Britain during the sixth century as the land was steadily being taken over the pagan Angle, Saxon, and Jute hordes. Granted, the source might be biased but it does offer a first-hand account of somebody from that era who was there to describe how unstable and precarious life was in Britain during the 500s.
I haven’t read it, but Francis Prior’s Britain BC is the obvious recent book that’s exactly targeted at your requirements here.
Thanks, that looks exactly what I’m after.
To branch out slightly, we take school parties to the Jorvik Viking centre in York.
Well worth a visit.
I’ve read it and it is excellent. He also does Britain AD.
Yeah, been there a couple of times. It stinks! :eek:
Tom Holland’s Millenium covers the whole of Western Europe in “the Dark Ages” but does have an extensive chapter on Viking/Danish rule in the UK and also puts it into a wider context (e.g. Harald Hardrada’s connections to Russia and Constantinople, the political connections to Normandy etc.)
Although it focuses on a slightly later period than the Viking invasions, Richard Fletcher’s Bloodfeud covers much more than its immediate local case study, amounting to a social and political history of north-east England in the early eleventh century. Easily the best popular book on Anglo-Saxon history in at least a generation.