Eleanor Barraclough

In imagining a Viking, a certain image springs to mind: a barbaric warrior, leaping ashore from a longboat, and ready to terrorize the hapless local population of a northern European town. Yet while such characters define our imagination of the Viking Age today, they were in the minority. Instead, in the time-stopping soils, water, and ice of the North, Eleanor Barraclough excavates a preserved lost world, one that reimagines a misunderstood society. By examining artifacts of the past--remnants of wooden gaming boards, elegant antler combs, doodles by imaginative children and bored teenagers, and runes that reveal hidden loves, furious curses, and drunken spouses summoned home from the pub--Barraclough illuminates life in the medieval Nordic world as not just a world of rampaging warriors, but as full of globally networked people with recognizable concerns. This is the history of all the people--children, enslaved people, seers, artisans, travelers, writers--who inhabited the medieval Nordic world. Encompassing not just Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, but also Iceland, Greenland, the British Isles, Continental Europe, and Russia, this is a history of a Viking Age filled with real people of different ages, genders, and ethnicities, as told through the traces that they left behind." Embers of the hands" is a poetic kenning from the Viking Age that referred to gold. But no less precious are the embers that Barraclough blows back to life in this book--those of ordinary lives long past.

In imagining a Viking, a certain image springs to mind: a barbaric warrior, leaping ashore from a longboat, and ready to terrorize the hapless local population of a northern European town. Yet while such characters define our imagination of the Viking Age today, they were in the minority. Instead, in the time-stopping soils, water, and ice of the North, Eleanor Barraclough excavates a preserved lost world, one that reimagines a misunderstood society. By examining artifacts of the past--remnants of wooden gaming boards, elegant antler combs, doodles by imaginative children and bored teenagers, and runes that reveal hidden loves, furious curses, and drunken spouses summoned home from the pub--Barraclough illuminates life in the medieval Nordic world as not just a world of rampaging warriors, but as full of globally networked people with recognizable concerns. This is the history of all the people--children, enslaved people, seers, artisans, travelers, writers--who inhabited the medieval Nordic world. Encompassing not just Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, but also Iceland, Greenland, the British Isles, Continental Europe, and Russia, this is a history of a Viking Age filled with real people of different ages, genders, and ethnicities, as told through the traces that they left behind." Embers of the hands" is a poetic kenning from the Viking Age that referred to gold. But no less precious are the embers that Barraclough blows back to life in this book--those of ordinary lives long past.

A new and original history of the Viking Age, told through the objects that defined the lives of its people - from powerful leaders to naughty teenagers

Fortellingen om vikingtiden handler gjerne om store menn og store slag. Sverd, erobringer og langskip. Men vikingkrigerne utgjør bare en liten del av historien. Historiens glør er fortellingen om alle de andre menneskene – fortalt gjennom tingene de etterlot seg. Arkeologiske funn forteller en mer sammensatt historie enn de skrevne kildene gjør alene. Her har også kvinner og barn, slaver og bønder sin plass. Redskaper, håndverk, klær og leker forteller om hvordan de organiserte livene sine, hva de brukte tid på, og de antyder hva vikingene tenkte og følte: som forelskelse, maktbegjær eller smålighet. For norske lesere er det forfriskende med et blikk utenfra når vi skal forstå vår egen fortid. Den britiske historikeren Eleanor Barraclough har skrevet en bredt anlagt fortelling om vikingtiden – lekent og med glimt i øyet. Hun viser både hvor fjernt og hvor nært disse menneskene står oss i dag.