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Sex and War Jokes about Vikings Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough. Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas. $39.95. 318pp, 6X9", images. ISBN: 978-019-870124-8. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
It is not likely that I could summarize a history book like this one better than the cover, so here it is: "In the dying days of the eighth century, the Vikings erupted onto the international stage with brutal raids and slaughter. The Medieval Norse may be best remembered as mon murderers and village pillagers, but this is far from the whole story. Throughout the Middle Ages, Norse longships transported these northern voyagers far and wide, where they not only raided but also traded, explored and settled new lands, encountered unfamiliar races, and embarked on pilgrimages and crusades. The Norse travelled to all corners of the medieval world and beyond; north to the wastelands of Arctic Scandinavia, south to the politically turbulent heartlands of medieval Christendom, west across the wild seas to Greenland and the fringes of the North American continent, and east down the Russian waterways, trading silver, skins,...