Viking Language 1: Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas (the first book in the Viking Language Series) is a new introduction to Old Norse and Icelandic. The beginner has everything in one book: Graded lessons, reading passages, vocabulary, grammar exercises, and pronunciation. A full complement of maps, runic inscriptions and culture sections explore the civilization, legends, and myths of the Vikings. The lessons follow an innovative word frequency strategy, a method that speeds learning. Because the grammar of Modern Icelandic has changed so little from Old Norse, the learner is well on the way to mastering Modern Icelandic.

Quoygrew - a settlement of farmers and fishers on the island of Westray in Orkney - was continuously occupied from the tenth century until 1937. Focusing on the archaeology of its first 700 years, this volume explores how 'small worlds' both reflected and impacted the fundamental pan-European watersheds of the Middle Ages: the growth of population, economic production and trade from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries and the subsequent economic and demographic retrenchment of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries. Concurrently, it addresses the nature of island societies, with distinctive identities shaped by the interplay of isolation and interconnectedness.

The catalogue focuses on the entire non-numismatic contents of the Cuerdale hoard (discovered in 1840), together with all the other hoards and single-finds of gold and silver artefacts (ornaments and ingots) of Viking character in the British Museum, found in Britain and Ireland, up to the end of the year 2000, with each piece individually catalogued and illustrated. There is also a full chapter discussing the coins from Cuerdale, together with summary descriptions. Written by the leading authority on the subject, James Graham-Campbell is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology, University College London and a Fellow of the British Academy. This catalogue complements both that by D. M. Wilson on the Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork, 700-1100, in the British Museum (London, 1964) and that by James Graham-Campbell on The Viking-Age Gold and Silver of Scotland (AD 850-1100) (Edinburgh, 1995).

The Viking Age was a period of great economic complexity and experimentation in Scandinavia. By the end of the period, an ancient 'display' economy, based on ornaments of precious metal, had been largely replaced by counted money and national coinages. But this development was neither simple nor linear: for much of the Viking Age, several silver economies co-existed and interacted. The role of silver in Viking-age society and economy has recently developed into an exciting interdisciplinary topic for research. New evidence raises debates on the nature of valuables, bullion, monetisation, commodity money, and early urban trade. This book brings together an international group of archaeologists, historians and numismatists to draw a balance sheet of current research. Based on a symposium held in Aarhus, Denmark in 2008, it provides a structured basis for comparison, combining regional overviews with case-studies of significant sites or hoards. The book is dedicated to Dr Mark Blackburn (1953-2011) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Viking-age numismatics and monetary history.

In this third volume deriving from the excavations of the Viking town of Kaupang of 2000-2003, a range of artefacts is presented along with a discussion of the town's inhabitants: their origins, activities and trading connexions. The main categories of artefact are metal jewellery and ornaments, gemstones, vessel glass, pottery, finds of soapstone, whetstones and textile-production equipment. The artefacts are described and dated, and their areas of origin discussed. The volume is lavishly illustrated. An exceptional wealth and diversity of artefacts distinguishes sites such as Kaupang from all other types of site in the Viking World. Above all, they reflect the fact that a large population of some 400-600 people lived closely together in the town, engaged in a comprehensive range of production and trade. The stratigraphically distinct layers from the first half of the 9th century allow us to put precise dates to the finds, and to the buildings and evidence of activities associated with them.

The inscription from Mesas do Castelinho, south Portugal, was discovered in September 2008. With 82 readable signs it is now the longest of the corpus of 95 Tartessian inscriptions. These texts survive from the Early Iron Age in the south-western Iberian Peninsula, the earliest writing from Atlantic Europe. By recombining word roots, prefixes and endings previously attested, the new inscription permits a major breakthrough with the language, confirming word divisions and contributing to the critical mass of evidence. It is now possible to take the case for Tartessian as an Indo-European and specifically Celtic language a step further, to ask what sort of Celtic language Tartessian was and how its syntax and sound system compares with those of Celtiberian, Gaulish, Old Irish and Welsh.

One of the largest excavations in the City of London at 1 Poultry recovered a remarkable archaeological sequence from the 1st to the 20th century AD. This volume presents the evidence for Late Saxon, medieval and post-medieval development of this part of the city. Poultry occupied a prominent position at the eastern end of Cheapside, the city's principal medieval market street; integrating documentary evidence with the archaeological record has provided an outstandingly detailed account of this area. Re-occupation of the site in the later 10th century began with the construction of scattered sunken-floored buildings; a more regular pattern of settlement, characterised by narrow-fronted timber buildings along the roadsides, developed by the early 11th century. Occupation became progressively denser up to the 13th century when large stone-built houses began to be built in previously open areas behind the street frontages. Metalworking evidence from the excavated buildings provides evidence of early economic activity, corresponding with later documentary evidence for smiths, ironmongers and other metalworkers in the area.

This volume will throw new light on the intellect of the earliest English - the way they thought, the way they viewed the world, and the way they viewed worlds other than this. Previous understanding of the topic, well rooted in the ideas of its time, regarded the English as adherents of two consecutive religions: Paganism governed the settlers of the 4th-6th century, but was superseded in the 7th-10th century by Christianity. Of the two, Christianity, a religion of the book, documented itself thoroughly, while in failing to do so Paganism laid itself open to centuries of abuse, conjecture or mindless admiration. In developing new objectives, the papers here demonstrate that beliefs varied from place to place and were expressed in material culture. Through archaeology therefore, these beliefs can be rediscovered. Aware of the fact that even the best archaeology provides no open access to the mind, the contributors record, and study, signals of belief rather than what was believed. The premise of this volume is therefore that paganism was not a religion with supraregional rules and institutions but a loose term for a variety of local intellectual world views. The same courtesy is extended to Christianity. Both religions are treated as sources on which people, local people - the true agents of Anglo-Saxon England - eclectically drew. A range of material culture and locations across Northern Europe are explored, looking at signals of belief from the landscape, water cults, burial rites, the hall and animals in life and art. Each author looks across the sea to Scandinavia, as well as to the woods and fields, mires and mounds of Old England, resulting in a new perspective on the intellectual preoccupations and anxieties of a crucial age.

This groundbreaking, authoritative and best-selling study of the Vikings establishes the facts behind their rise to prominence, and cuts away the myths about their military and seafaring skills, reputation, and exploits. The author applies modern military thinking to the Viking art of war and examines their tactics, seamanship, mobility, strategy, and how they exploited victories and dealt with defeats. Learn how the Vikings established colonies in hostile territory and defeated a diverse array of enemies, including the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks, the Volga Bulgars, and the wild tribes of Ireland, in three centuries of military adventure. About the AuthorPaddy Griffith was a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for 16 years. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the history of warfare, including Battle Tactics of the Western Front, 1916-18 and The Art of War of Revolutionary France, 1789-1802.

The aim of this volume is to explore Anglo-Saxon perceptions of form and order in their different manifestations, through two main strands texts of all kinds, and art, architecture and archaeology. Contributors come from many different specialisms, enabling wide-ranging discussion, as well contributions from other Insular cultures and a continental European perspective.

Wulfstan’s account covers a voyage from the root of Jutland to the Vistula Delta – connecting the trading centres of Hedeby and Truso – and provides a rare and vivid view of the south-eastern Baltic Sea region in the early Viking Age, including aspects of inland navigation and local culture. In this book, a panel of scholars presents the original source and debate its geographical, cultural, nautical and economic context in the light of recent investigations.

Early Celtic art' - typified by the iconic shields, swords, torcs and chariot gear we can see in places such as the British Museum - has been studied in isolation from the rest of the evidence from the Iron Age. This book reintegrates the art with the archaeology, placing the finds in the context of our latest ideas about Iron Age and Romano-British society. The contributions move beyond the traditional concerns with artistic styles and continental links, to consider the material nature of objects, their social effects and their role in practices such as exchange and burial. The aesthetic impact of decorated metalwork, metal composition and manufacturing, dating and regional differences within Britain all receive coverage. The book gives us a new understanding of some of the most ornate and complex objects ever found in Britain, artefacts that condense and embody many histories.

This second volume on the excavations of the Norwegian Viking town Kaupang 2000-2003 presents find types used in economic transactions - coins, hacksilver, ingots, weights and balances. Changes in type and volume of economic transactions at Kaupang and in Scandinavia are discussed, and the economic mentality of Viking crafts- and tradesmen is explored. In the early ninth century, silver and goods seem to have come to Kaupang mainly from the Carolinigian world. After the mid-ninth century this early system was altered. The increased availability of silver and the introduction in most of Scandinavia in the 860s-870s of standardized weights, paved the way for an increased use of silver as payment. The combined study of the find types and the sophisticated chronology of settlements' finds from sites like Kaupang give completely new insight into economy and exchange. The book demonstrates how sites like Kaupang led the way in economic development in Scandinavia and promoted an economic mentality that eventually led to the fundamental transformation of Scandinavian culture and society and culminated in the region's integration in High Middle Ages Christian Europe.

This Gazetteer aims to be a comprehensive guide to places, artefacts and material in Yorkshire of Anglo-Saxon and Viking interest - AD400-1100. A glossary of terms and advice about access to churches and museums is included.PART 1 provides background material with illustrations about the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, the Early Church, church building styles and architecture, plans and features of Anglo-Saxon churches, crossheads, cross-shafts, grave covers and grave markers. PART 2 identifies 282 sites with the aim of enabling the reader to know what they are looking for and where exactly to look. In alphabetical order and divided into East Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and York, each entry is star rated to indicate the quality of what there is to see and how easy it is to find, and precisely located and described, including measurements and descriptions of decoration where appropriate.The author has published guidebooks identifying historic sites from prehistory to 1945 in Orkney, Shetland, Northumberland & Tyne and Wear. This Gazetteer is the first in a series identifying Anglo-Saxon and Viking sites others will follow.

This volume examines South Uist, a small island in the soutern half of the Outer Hebrides. In the middle of the island lies the township of Bornais. This covers a particularly flat area of land which means that the three mounds can be seen all the more clearly. These mounds have been identified as being from the Viking period, with evidence of pre-Viking habitation at the site coming from Iron Age sherds. The excavation of the Bornais settlement is a long-term project, which has been going since 1994. This first volume of results of the excavation focuses on Mound 3, but includes a discussion of the topographic and geophysical survey of all the mounds. There is also considerable analysis of the environmental remains and radiocarbon dating.

This pioneering work shows how Celtic cultures understood the place of human beings in their natural environment in ways fundamentally different from our own. Benozzo explores the unique unfolding of landscapes in early Irish and Welsh texts, including Tain Bo Cuailgne, The Voyage of Bran, the Gododdin and the mythological Taliesin poem on the Battle of the Trees.