During the last quarter of 2019, the Desperta Ferro publishing house opted for a series of titles whose quality was very high; Below we review one of the most prominent: vikings at wara work that will delight anyone who is interested in the Vikings, the war or, simply, history.
Data sheet
- Title: Vikings at war.
- Authors: Kim Hjardar and Vegard Vike.
- Gender: Medieval History, focused on the so-called Viking Age; the predominant theme is military, although other themes are also touched upon.
- Number of Pages: 392 in color (including over 380 illustrations, photographs, and maps.
- ISBN: 978-84-949540-4-7
- Year: 2019.
- Buy it on the official website of Desperta Ferro
What we think in Archives of History
We began the review by referring to the fact that practically any history lover should get hold of a volume like this, the reasons for this are very varied and will be detailed throughout the review.
Its authors are Kim Hjardar and Vegard Vike. Kim Hjardar has a doctorate in Nordic, Viking and medieval culture from the University of Oslo; he teaches at St. Hallvard College; His studies have dealt with these issues and, in addition, he chairs an important association dedicated to historical recreation (also referring to the Viking Age). As for Vegard Vike, he works as an archaeological curator at the Oslo Museum of Cultural History. His research is carried out in areas such as Viking craft techniques, putting that knowledge into practice in a project to manufacture weapons according to traditional armory techniques.
Turning to the content of the work, the index is made up of six parts, the last one being the longest. Throughout them, a comprehensive vision of practically all the topics that have to do with Viking military activity is given. A very positive element is that not only the incursions, battles, skirmishes, etc., carried out by the Northmen are developed, but also, previously, it is explained in detail how the Vikings fought, what type of fortifications they erected, in what ships they sailed and what weapons they wielded. That is to say, it is a global vision, much broader than if only the incursions into England, Byzantium, France had been dealt with… all of this, by the way, is dealt with in the last of the chapters, the sixth.
But by reviewing the content a little more carefully, a different division can be made than the one proposed by the authors and that will make the way in which the book is organized even clearer to our readers. This division revolves around three thematic blocks: the first dedicated to the Vikings as a people and society, the second aimed at explaining their way of waging war, and the third and last, the one dedicated to describing and explaining how and where they acted. the Vikings.
Beginning with that first thematic block, it covers Part I of the book, whose title is vikings. This part acts as an introduction to the subject because it is structured around who the Vikings were, what that society was like and what the cults and rites they practiced were. From this first block, the reader who enters the subject for the first time will receive the necessary information to situate himself in the context and get to know these famous warriors. In the case of being a more experienced reader, this part will also be of interest due to its expository rigor and clarity, features that, on the other hand, are present in the monograph as a whole.
The second of the blocks is the one intended to expose the way the Vikings had to wage war. This block brings together several parts, II, III, IV and V. II is the one for The Art of War and is dedicated to exposing what the Viking troops were like and what their military techniques were. The III is intended for viking fortifications, a very necessary section, since it is usually given much less importance than it is and that Vike and Hjardar have not wanted to leave aside, which is a great success. Part IV is dedicated to one of the quintessential topics: viking ships. As for the last one, the V, is dedicated to the viking weapons properly speaking, to the panoply of the Viking warrior; It is a tremendously interesting section since it talks about all the types of weapons they used, moving away from the topic of axes and showing the reader how the Viking panoply evolved and what characteristics those weapons they carried had.
Finally, the third block is the one that includes the VI part of the book: viking invasions. Once the reader has understood who they were and how they fought, the authors take a tour of all those places that these feared warriors visited. Without forgetting the world in which the Vikings lived, mention is made of all their destinations: Ireland, England, France, the Iberian Peninsula, the East, Byzantium and America. All this constitutes a great climax to the two previous blocks.
But, beyond the content, which is tremendously complete, it is necessary to point out the way in which it is exposed. The large book (30 x 21 cm) is printed in full color and there is no page without a photo, map or illustration, all of high quality.
So do we recommend it?
Well, obviously, yes. We highly recommend it. vikings at war It is a magnificent synthesis of an exciting topic that will delight all kinds of audiences, from the specialist (who may be interested in maps and illustrations), to students or history buffs.
The work has many strong points; It is a book that can help break the myths that remain about the Vikings, in addition, its content is full of anecdotes and curious aspects that give an enormous freshness to the work and make it extremely enjoyable to read. On the other hand, the rigor is impeccable throughout the entire work: the text, the maps, photos or illustrations, all of which have the seal of quality of their authors, two great specialists in the field. In addition to all this, it has already been seen that the index prepared is complete, well structured and responds to a logic.
Finally, we want to emphasize the edition of the work. It is very unusual to find works of these characteristics on the market and that makes vikings at war an even more special work. This is due to a sublime graphic section and a care in the edition that is noticeable from the first moment. That is why from here we recommend this work that will not disappoint anyone who gets it.