These paper boats of mine are meant to dance on the ripples of hours, and not reach any destination... Rabindranath Tagore

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past...F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.
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On the way to the river are the old dormitories, used for something else now, with their fairy-tale turrets, painted white and gold and blue. When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.
--from Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.
- Joyce Carol Oates

Monday, December 18, 2017

Vikings

 
Vikings - A Concise History of the Vikings (2016) - Henry Freeman



long ship heroes
painted by history as blood-thirsty warriors

 but
could they really be

 long ship 
pioneers

 trail blazers


MY GOOD READS REVIEW
 Vikings: A Concise History of the VikingsVikings: A Concise History of the Vikings by Henry Freeman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A thirst to know more about those intrepid Vikings of legendary history led me to this book. Who were the Vikings beyond the brash invaders in long ships? Did they really hold people to ransom in the 8th to 11th centuries A.D.? The Viking altercations with the Frankish emperor Charlemagne are intriguing. That explains one reason for Viking assaults on monasteries. In early days Vikings traded in human beings... people were sold as merchandise...But what people and why? The book leaves the question hanging in space...The Vikings, at one stage, sacked and looted Paris...But then what? Often, this book makes amazing claims about the Vikings, but there is no evidence or source to substantiate the claims...So frustrating...Who would believe that Kiev Vikings became an elite military unit in the Byzantine Empire to protect the Emperor. So what active duty did they perform? Evidence? While this book only claims to be a concise history of the Vikings - intriguing as it may be - perhaps it is a little too concise for the history lover?

View all my reviews

 MY AMAZON REVIEW
Behind the Viking mask
A refreshing insight into the Viking impact on northern worlds. Beyond the axe-wielding, horned helmet raiders of popular, staged history, the book suggests that the Vikings are a group of people intent on active progress beyond home borders and maybe even valued sustainability. Unbelievable that the Viking groups from Norway, Denmark and Sweden had little solidarity with each other and were even prone to some in-fighting if the circumstance involved land or bounty. Further, most amazing must be the fact that Vikings became an elite army unit for the Byzantine Empire. This book traces Viking footprints well, but, as enlightening as many facts may be, there is still the one major question that seems to get little attention and exploration. When and why did the Vikings embark on a trail of invasion, plunder and settlement? What was the first spark?
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