In the eleventh century,the rulers of the lands surrounding the North Sea are all hungry for power. To get power they need soldiers,to get soldiers they need silver,and to get silver there is no better way than war and plunder. This vicious cycle draws all the lands of the north into a brutal struggle for supremacy and survival that will shatter kingdoms and forge an empire.The Wolf Age takes the reader on a thrilling journey through the bloody shared history of England and Scandinavia,and on across early medieval Europe,from the wild Norwegian fjords to the wealthy cities of Muslim Andalusia. Warfare,plotting,backstabbing and bribery abound as Tore Skeie weaves sagas and skaldic poetry with breathless dramatization to bring the world of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons to vivid life.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Pushkin PressISBN: 9781782278351Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
An impressive depiction of the Viking world in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Tore Skeie deploys his scholarship with a light touch,not so much evoking this bygone age as fully inhabiting itA vivid chronicle of events that shaped the early medieval North,taking a mature and humanising view of who the Vikings really were: major power players on a European stage. Tore Skeie's book has won awards in Norway,and it's easy to see why. This is exemplary popular historyThe first major book on the Vikings by a Scandinavian author to be published in English. Focusing on a period of about 30 years after the turn of the first millennium,Skeie constructs a pacy,dramatic account of an extraordinary period in European history... a properly absorbing page-turner... a truly excellent bookGripping and compelling. This is the story of Medieval Europe and its neighbours like it has never been told before where there's no hero nor villain,just men fighting for power and glory. Skeie masterfully tells their complex stories and brings these men back to lifeShows how intimately our nation's early history was bound up with that of ScandinaviaHugely readable...richly imagined,vividly describedAn illuminating history which is as vivid and engaging as the sagasThe Wolf Age is a fascinating tour across England and Scandinavia in the 10th and 11th centuries,bringing together epic tales of bloody battles,invasions and back-stabbing treachery. I loved it!I was delighted by the book. I am a history graduate and have read few books so riveting. Tore Skeie brings a distant time to life vividly,it's a joy to readTremendously well-written... Masterfully executedThis true story is like The Lord of the Rings,only better...What a wonderful tale this is!Remember this name if you've never heard it before: Tore Skeie. What guts,what talent for writing and storytelling this historian and author has! Just hold on tight: The Battle of the North is almost like reading in a wind tunnel. There is a force to this material that pulls the reader from the present day back through the centuriesTore Skeie lets the sources sprinkle poetic stardust on his down-to-earth prose...The portrayals of the caliphate in Al Andalus and of the Anglo-Saxon realm in themselves are worth the priceHis books are of immense literary quality; he has a grip on the material and a sense for drama that is the mark of a true writer...The reader is taken along on the voyage into the unknown,the writing delighting in a way that history books seldom canSkeie has a unique ability conjure images of the richest detail,everything from chaotic battles to the period's exhausting day-to-day lifeIf you're going to read one book that explains the Viking era,this is a great place to startThe turbulent age that straddles the first millennium is brought to life in a history worthy of a modern television epic'Here is a man with a gift for bringing to life the backstabbing,plotting,bribery and warfare of this period and for helping you think about the whole Viking era in a new way'Skeie's account of ruthless conflict,political intrigue,and diplomatic machinations reads like a real-life Game of Thrones-without the dragons. Medieval history buffs will be riveted
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