I am so far behind on this, I can't even remember much about most of the books from the last six weeks.

28 Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages by Stephen A MitchellAfter a really unpromising introduction that led me to order a bunch of other non-fiction titles from the library, eventually I came back to this book to give it a chance ( Read more... )

I had thoughts about all of these at the time; but I've it off too long to have anything meaningful to say.

41. The Wylde Hunt by Gunnar Roxen
Bought this from the author at BristolCon last year. It's a far-future hardboiled detective/scifi adventure. The London in it is so far-future and alternative that I think it would have been better ( Read more... )

14.The Anglo-Saxon World by Nicholas Higham and Martin RyanA great big colourful, map- and illustration-filled intro to the Anglo-Saxons ( Read more... )

9. Swords of Good Men by Snorri KristjanssonI became aware of Snorri because he was on a panel about magic at the last BristolCon, and I was given his book for Christmas. I had the opportunity to meet him again last week when I was about two thirds of the way through the book ( Read more... )

33. The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie BrownThe woman in the title is Gudrid, who appears in the Greenland and Vinland sagas, who travelled from Iceland to Greenland and Vinland, and later in life made a pilgrimage to Rome ( Read more... )

24. The Conversion of Scandinavia by Anders Winroth

I got this for my birthday last year, but as it looked quite specialist I read The Hammer and the Cross and The Norsemen in the Viking Age first. It turns out I needn't have bothered because there's a good general introduction which actually takes up about half the book ( Read more... )

61. The Norsemen in the Viking Age by Eric ChristiansenOr, everything you thought you knew about the subject - there's no contemporary evidence, it's all extrapolated from the later medieval Icelandic sagas, or by inferring parallels with other, better documented, Germanic groups. I was vaguely aware of this, but not to the degree or in such great ( Read more... )

54. The Hammer and the Cross: A New History of the Vikings by Robert FergusonI recently put a specialist academic textbook about the conversion of Scandinavia on my wish list, and someone bought it for me. At that point I realised I've probably forgotten most of what I knew about the basics, so I grabbed this from the library ( Read more... )