Forgotten Vikings: New Approaches to the Viking Age

Forgotten Vikings provides a chronological overview of the Viking Age (793-1066) and quite a lot of history either side of these arbitrary dates. Arbitrary? This book aims to explore the phenomenon of ’the Vikings’ from new angles, forged out of recent academic breakthroughs largely unexplored in popular history books; the Viking Age viewed as a longer, discrete period from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries. Focusing on lesser-known aspects of the period, Alex Harvey taps into more obscure regions of the world these people visited, more obscure characters, and more obscure cultural elements. Examples include the evidence for viking activity on the Azores and Madeira, thirteenth-century Baltic raids, and the presence of viking armies in the Netherlands long before they became a threat to England. Offering unfamiliar perspectives, Forgotten Vikings will change the way you see these often misunderstood people, and unearth a forgotten history.

Alex Harvey is a postgraduate history student at the University of York with a focus on Scandinavian York. He has written for numerous journals and has presented research for York Archaeological Trust, Lancaster Historical Postgraduate Conference, and Leeds International Medieval Congress.