The Bottom Line
- Visually appealing
- Easy to follow
- Portable
- Reasonably priced
- Somewhat anglocentric
Description
- More than 60 colorful, finely-rendered maps
- Dozens of vivid photos of Viking artifacts, period manuscripts and historic locations
- Historical background and aspects of Viking culture provided in concise, easily-digested chapters
- Color-coded timeline of events in Scandinavia and other parts of the world from A.D. 1 to 1500
- Tables of Viking rulers
- Concise list of Further Reading focuses on recent publications
- Quotations from period sources in nearly every chapter
- Published by Penguin Books (September 1, 1995)
- Paperback; 9.2 x 7.1 x 0.4 inches; 144 pages; high-quality paper; perfectbound
- ISBN 0140513280
Guide Review - The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings by John Haywood
In addition, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings is chock full of useful extras, from a timeline comparing events in Scandinavia, Great Britain, Western Europe, the East and the rest of the world to illustrations of Viking villages, ships and weapons as they likely appeared during the Viking Age. To top it all off, quotations from period sources evoke an atmosphere of the times.
There are a few drawbacks. As a British publication, the work focuses more on events in Britain than anywhere else. Haywood does touch on Viking excursions to the North Atlantic, raids in the Mediterranean, and settlement in Russia, but the Varangian Guard of Byzantium receives barely a mention. And more scholarship has taken place since its release in 1995, making it less than “cutting edge” (though not seriously out of date).
Yet these are all minor considerations that can be easily forgiven when you remember that it’s an introductory work, and an unusually deep and lucid one, at that. With maps and other sources of information, it stands as a fine reference work, as well.
