- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: The History Press LTD; illustrated edition edition (15 July 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752428470
- ISBN-13: 978-0752428475
- Product Dimensions: 24.6 x 16.8 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 761,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The author has twenty years' experience of Viking re-enactment in Britain, which informs his views on equipment manufacture and use, battle tactics, and the experience of being a Viking warrior in the British sense of the term. The last is important: there is little or no analysis of the cultural, social, and geographic conditions of the Scandinavian region from which these Norse and Danish migrants originated.
The book is divided into chapters on iron (extraction and use), spears, shields, armour, swords, scabbards, helmets, money (including a table of comparative values of livestock, arms and armour, fines, weregilds, and consumables such as corn and fleece), ships, and the sea (including techniques of navigation). There are plenty of first-hand accounts of the manufacture of weapons and other equipment (for re-enactment purposes), and their use in simulated battle conditions.
There are ample illustrations, ranging from simple line drawings to colour photographs, which really help bring the subject to life, especially (for me) the photographs of re-enactors in full costume. It's easy to think of the past in terms of fragmentary archaeological remains; seeing pictures of real men in real gear brought home to me just how frightening these people would have been.
The book probably contains too much technical detail for the general reader, but for someone with a particular interest in the period (such as myself), it is invaluable.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not a bad effort. Some aspects are quite good but there are flaws (most notably in the section on bows). These I noticed due to an interest so I therefore dubious of the quality of other information provided by the primary author.
Still it gives a general view although strongly biased towards DA re-enactment in the UK, which is to be expected. It fails to address more recent advances in re-enactment historical combat and instead gives a general view of standard combat with no real genuine insights into the use. This is unfortunately particularly notable in the use of the shield where the reconstruction section give patently false information where the first part of the chapter was superlative. If this book has stuck to such at the first part of the shield chapter, it would have been a great work, but instead it is flawed.
All in all it is certainly better than buying an Osprey book, but be wary of inaccuracies that need to be cross-referenced which is not a bad habit for a re-enactor to get into anway.
Still it gives a general view although strongly biased towards DA re-enactment in the UK, which is to be expected. It fails to address more recent advances in re-enactment historical combat and instead gives a general view of standard combat with no real genuine insights into the use. This is unfortunately particularly notable in the use of the shield where the reconstruction section give patently false information where the first part of the chapter was superlative. If this book has stuck to such at the first part of the shield chapter, it would have been a great work, but instead it is flawed.
All in all it is certainly better than buying an Osprey book, but be wary of inaccuracies that need to be cross-referenced which is not a bad habit for a re-enactor to get into anway.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an idiosyncratic view of viking warfare from a re-enactor who started when there was much less information around but has tried to provide an updated version of these mythical warriors. It tries to have a jovial folksy style but that extends to odd anachronistic suggestions such as boat crew should wear old shoes because they get wet often ?!Constant odd asides appear. It encompasses a wide range of material but none in referenced detail. The line drawings are variable in quality and the pictures are of reenactors rather than original items. This book is a subjective account of how one re-enactment society interprets history and archaeology rather than an account of evidence for viking weapons and warfare.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
viking nuts this is for you
got this for my bro bithday he is into viking reinactment and go's all over the uk. he is training to be a black smith and when he has time he makes bits and bobs using this book... Read more
Published 7 months ago by wan'o
Deeply flawed
This book was very disappointing. It seems to be largely paraphrased from old history volumes from Stenton or Strutt but with little insight, and no reference to modern thinking. Read more
Published 14 months ago by A. Ball
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