Viking Age Iceland

by Jesse L. Byock

Book Overview

The popular image of the Viking Age is of warlords and marauding bands pillaging their way along the shores of Northern Europe. In this fascinating history, Jesse Byock shows that Norse society in Iceland was actually an independent one-almost a republican Free State, without warlords or kings. Combining history with anthropology and archaeology, this remarkable study serves as a valuable companion to the Icelandic sagas, exploring all aspects of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140291156
• ISBN13: 9780140291155
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 447 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Important survey of Icelandic society

This study seems to have been written as a follow-up to Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power and covers much of the same territory. However, this is a somewhat different work as well. While "Medieval Iceland" focuses much more heavily on the legal sources, this book attempts to use the sagas to reconstruct social structures in the earlier centuries of republican Iceland. This book, along with the author's other works, should be in the library of anyone who seriously wants to learn more about the Viking-Age Norse cultures. This book covers a wide range of topics, from the effects of human settlement on Iceland ecologically to the legal mechanisms that allowed blood feuds to play a stabilizing role on society. Along the way, he covers questions of how Icelandic society was stratified, the role of the chieftains/godhar, and the economics of the island. In an appendix he discusses the construction of turf buildings. In terms of questions of the uses of the Sagas as sources for history, Byock discusses the problems of doing so and the changing debate among historians, covering a large number of viewpoints here. This section in particular is very helpful for those who may be trying to make up their minds as to whether the family sagas can be useful in the study of history. The book is very detailed in what it covers and provides a compelling picture of early Iceland. Highly recommended.

Political Correctness In The Age Of Vikings

With the publication of this great work & similar tomes by other scholars, the Norse people of the early Middle Ages are finally getting their due. Instead of the marauding, pillaging hordes that traditional history has depicted them as for centuries, we are shown a more sympathetic view of their society & culture. The term "Viking" itself is a misnomer for the majority of these Norse people. A Viking was the name originally given to those men, predominately Norse, who preyed on defenseless ships, villages, and monasteries. It's interesting to note that it was contemporary foreigners, particularly Anglo-Saxon sources, who first labeled these men "Vikings". By the time that the great Icelandic Sagas were written several hundred years after the fact, the Norse authors were freely using the term. In retrospect, these men were seen as mighty warriors & great adventurers. To be called a Viking had evolved into a badge of honor to a culture that had gradually been assimilated into Christian European. Unfortunately in the process, these remarkable people & the society they had created became little more than villians & despoilers to the "civilized" world in which they existed. Professor Byock seeks to renounce these false ideas & does a remarkable job of it. By using the Icelandic Sagas as his reference point, he ties in both the Norse contemporary stories with modern historical & anthropological research. These sagas, originally thought to be nothing more than a collection of Icelandic folktales, have now taken on a more scholarly role in understanding these people. While some of the characters, family connections, and incidents recorded might be questioned, the total picture of daily life, culture, values, and society are being proved accurate by modern analysis. Professor Byock provides this analysis within these pages. Yes, we are treated to tales of mighty warriors fighting against great odds, but we are also witness to the legal maneuverings of the Thing courts. We see political connections being forged & broken as these men sought influence & power from the fellow Icelanders. By placing the human participants depicted in the sagas into his discussion of Viking Age Iceland, Professor Byock has given the reader a face & life that he or she can easily identify with. I applaud his efforts & success. If there is indeed such a thing as "Populist History", this book is an excellent example. One needs only to thumb through the pages to appreciate the diverse amount of material covered. From "Resources & Subsistence" to "Aspects of Blood Feud", Professor Byock offers a well-researched & well-rounded view of Iceland and its people as a whole. The numerous maps included are of great help in understanding how geography affected & influenced life. The appendix depicting turf house construction was especially interesting & makes one appreciate how these people learned to live in harmony with the land & its sometimes harsh cli

An essential companion to the Icelandic sagas

This is an excellent book about Viking society in Iceland, and Jesse Byock is a great authority on the topic. Byock describes an Icelandic society that valued "order more than justice," and we see numerous examples of what he means by this as he examines how Icelanders kept feuds from getting completely out of hand. Still, the book already is worth getting simply for the explanations of where all the action takes place in the Sagas, complete with useful maps, the descriptions of what Icelandic houses looked like, complete with archaeological house plans, and the depiction of Icleandic society as almost completely rural, with virtually nothing in the way of a town. As well as an important explanation of the Althing and its structure. Plenty of us read one or more Icelandic sagas. But these sagas were written for people who knew quite well where Iceland was and where the various parts of it were located. They knew what an Icelandic house looked like, and they knew something of the terrain and the weather in the land. They knew how Icelanders obtained food and what resources the country had. And they knew all about the Althing (basically, their parliament). To understand these sagas, we need to know some of this as well. And Byock is wonderful at giving us this very valuable information. There is a good description of how justice worked in Iceland. Blood vengeance was an option, but not a necessity. Compromise was preferred. Those who got too far out of line, say, with multiple murders, were outlawed. That left enforcement of penalties up to others. The system worked fairly well. Two things about Icelandic society made the strongest impression on me. First, for many reasons, Icelandic society had enormous respect for truth. Their writings have plenty of facts. But more important (maybe because they were not numerous and lived on an island), there were very few secret felonies! Most people confessed to murders at once, to try to avoid blood vengeance. As Byock says, "rarely was there true secrecy" about who the guilty parties were. In any case, I think Byock has confirmed that in Icelandic society, perjury was a worse crime than murder. That is very different from modern nations, where people on trial generally are expected to tell plenty of lies under oath and get away with it, and where government officials are expected to lie as well. I got the feeling that Viking society happened to value truth very much indeed. Second, in spite of the value on truth, Icelanders valued pragmatism even more. I think Byock makes the point about Icelandic pragmatism in his description of the Icelandic conversion to Christianity. I see this event a little differently than Byock, but I have no problems at all with what he says about it. I think that what Byock says is consistent with my feeling that the Icelanders knew that Christianity was at best a perverse fraud and an untruth but accepted it anyway for pragmatic reasons. However,

The Uniqueness of Early Icelandic Society

At a recent academic symposium about Viking culture, one member of the audience asked, "Why didn't the Icelanders protect their settlements in Greenland with police or the military?" From his point of view, it was a reasonable question -- except that he had missed the point completely about why Iceland, especially during its golden age from AD 870 through 1260, was a truly unique society.Professor Byock in his excellent VIKING AGE ICELAND zeroes in on this period and answers the question why this society was like no other. Where mainland European societies were all ruled either by large or petty despots or by the Church, Iceland was governed more or less by the consent of the governed. There was some slavery, and people on the edges of society fared no better (or worse) than anywhere else -- but your average Icelandic freeman and even women had some protection from the rich and powerful.Until its submission to Norway in 1260, Iceland was a country without an executive, without an army, without a navy. Instead, grievances were addressed by seeking powerful allies whose self-interest in the issue could result in some gain for them. If a neighbor or even a chieftain encroached on your property, you could bribe another chieftain to become involved on your side. You may lose some property, but keep the most part intact for your heirs. (On the continent, your life AND property would both be forfeit.) Chieftains had no clearly defined territory, but only adherents -- and adherents could at any time align with competing chieftains at any time. Any disputes that showed signs of getting out of hand were ultimately resolved at the althing, an annual meeting of the chieftains and their adherents at Thingvellir in the southwest of Iceland.Byock takes the sagas as his principal source and carefully shows how conflicts were resolved in such a way that life and property were protected. That is not to say that bloody, long-lasting feuds did not erupt -- but the damage was limited by the intercession of chieftains so that the feud would not divide society at large. As Njal Thorgeirsson says in NJALS SAGA: "With laws must our land be built, or with lawlessness laid waste."Some of the features of Icelandic society are difficult for us hieratic Europeans and Americans to comprehend. Byock provides detailed and lavishly illustrated examples to make his points clearly and convincingly. Indeed, in few historical works that I have ever seen has there been such superb illustrative maps and charts. Additional support is provided by comprehensive notes, bibliography, appendices, and index. This is at the same time a scholarly and an eminently readable work -- and by far the best study of Icelandic society to date.

Interesting Reading! Byock Makes the Vikings Come Alive!

This book contains scholarly information, but, it is written in such a way that the common fan of history can enjoy it, too. The author definately knows his stuff! The book contains interesting illustrations whicb are very useful and interesting. The book is well-researched! I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in reading about the vikings and the viking age!