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RR 2000/317 Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age John Haywood Thames and Hudson London 2000 223 pp. ISBN 0 500 01982 7
L19.95
Keywords History, Norway, Denmark
"After an indecisive skirmish with the Scots at Largs" is all it says about what we locally call the Battle of Largs (1263), and that in an entry under "Scotland, Vikings in", not even its own: still, any excuse for a theme park, and the enthusiastic endorsement of Vikingaar at Largs by my two grandsons is evidence enough for me; not to mention the knowledge gained there: do you know how Odin came to have only one eye? The sevenyear-old does, and proudly told me. If you do not know how Odin came to lose an eye, it is one of the many things you can look up in this excellent and remarkably comprehensive reference book.
The Vikings are fascinating: we all know the stories about pillage and rape. The pillage was real enough, but the...