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The Clan Donald Book Shop at Amazon
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Title |
Viking Pirates and Christian Princes
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Author |
Benjamin Hudson |
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Details |
Oxford University Press, Hardback, 296
pages |
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ISBN |
0195162374 |
Comment: If, like me, you have difficulty getting your head
round the Haraldsson and Olafsson dynasties of kings of Dublin and
the Isles in the 10th and 11th Centuries, this is the book for you.
It is a tour de force which ranges far beyond the Irish Sea in
explaining the politics of the North Atlantic region in those
centuries.
Book
Description: In popular imagination, the Vikings are remembered
as fierce warrior seamen who campaigned through Western Europe,
terrorizing British, Frankish, and Irish societies. Yet is it
possible that the great Viking armies left more in their wake than
carnage and destruction? The stories of two families; the Olafssons,
who transformed a pirate camp in Ireland into the kingdom of Dublin,
and the Haraldssons, whose rule encompassed Hebrides, Galloway, and
the Isle of Man, suggest that the Vikings did indeed leave behind a
much greater legacy.
Between
the tenth and twelfth centuries, these two Viking families,
descendants of men whom earlier chroniclers dismissed as pagan
pirates, established themselves as Christian rulers whose domain
straddled the Scandinavian and Celtic worlds. The Olafssons and
Haraldssons carved out empires that inspired fear and made their
families fabulously wealthy. From their ranks came the settlers who
gave name to the Danelaw in Britain, Fingal in Ireland, and Normandy
in Francia. Celebrated in Icelandic sagas and poems, Irish tales,
and French history, the Olafssons and Haraldssons took part in the
last successful Scandinavian invasion of Britain and the overthrow
of the last Old English kingdom, even as they allied with, fought
against, and married their Irish neighbours.
Though
the families had come to these lands as conquerors, they soon
learned the importance of cooperating with those they had
vanquished. Even as they worshipped pagan gods, the Olafssons and
Haraldssons both became important benefactors to the Christian
church. They also played a crucial role in the economic revival of
northern Europe as trading ships from their ports sailed throughout
the Atlantic and the goods they produced traveled as far west as
Canada. Under their rule, the seas became a connector for a shared
culture, commercially, artistically, and socially.
Challenging traditional views of the Vikings' culture, Benjamin
Hudson shows the role that these two great dynasties played in the
Second Viking age. The rise and transformation of the Olafssons and
Haraldsssons from the tenth to the twelfth centuries highlights a
period and people important for understanding the political,
religious, and cultural development of Europe in the High Middle
Ages.
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