CONTENTS
Deliver us, O Lord, from the Fury of the Norsemen.
—Ninth-century Catholic prayer
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Epigraph
Introduction
Author’s Note
1. The Viking Warrior
One of the most feared fighters in the history of the world, a typical Viking is two hundred pounds of muscle packed into a suit of chain mail armor and set loose with a battle-axe. No bigs.
2. Norse Mythology
From Thor’s hammer to an epic war between gods and monsters, the religion of the Vikings isn’t the sort of thing you’d expect to learn at Sunday school.
3. Turgeis the Devil
The fact that this ferocious sea-raider founded Dublin doesn’t save him from being the most hated Norseman in the history of Ireland
4. The Voyage of Hasting
After crossing swords with Moorish warriors in North Africa, a wide-ranging Viking duo heads across the Mediterranean and lays waste to Italy.
5. Kievan Rus
The amazing true tale of how the Vikings inadvertently found modern-day Russia.
6. The Vikings at Home
When most Northmen aren’t raiding, marauding, and killing, they enjoy eating salted fish, drowning one another in lakes, and watching horses fight to the death.
7. The Great Heathen Army
Seeking to avenge his murdered father, the awesomely named Viking lord Ivar the Boneless leads the largest armada of warships England has ever seen across the North Sea in a full-scale invasion.
8. Britain Fights Back
Smashed on the battlefield and forced to flee into the dark marshes of Britain, a young English prince named Alfred swears to retake his homeland from the invading hordes.
9. Harald Fairhair
After a girl makes fun of his puny little kingdom, Harald Fairhair decides he’s not going to cut his hair until he’s conquered all of Norway. And that’s what he does.
10. Gunnhild, Mother of Kings
A devoted wife, fierce mother, and vengeance-hungry warrior, the bloodthirsty “Mother of Kings” is one of the most hated, capable, and influential women in Norwegian history.
11. The Siege of Paris
When the heathens come knocking on the gates of the City of Love, a defiant Frankish count responds by dumping a vat of boiling-hot oil on their heads.
12. Hrolf the Walker
One plunder-seeking warrior’s journey from frothing-at-the-mouth Viking to iron-fisted European nobleman.
13. Egil Skallagrimsson
Vikings are so tough that even their world-renowned poets have a startling tendency to cleave their enemies in two with an axe.
14. Saint Olga of Kiev
Taking over the throne of Russia after the untimely demise of her husband, this fearsome warrior-queen avenges him with extreme, fiery violence. Then she becomes a saint.
15. Erik the Red
A semipsychotic convicted murderer discovers Greenland, realizes it’s basically uninhabitable, then inexplicably persuades a couple hundred people to follow him there and let him rule as their king.
16. The Varangian Guard
Known alternately as “axe-bearing foreigners” and “the emperor’s wine-bags,” this ferocious unit of Viking mercenaries defends the Eastern Roman Empire for centuries.
17. Christianity Comes to Heathendom
The most revered of all the sword-swinging Viking rulers, the legendary Olaf Crowbone baptizes his people in the most Viking way possible—by angrily threatening them with extreme bodily harm.
18. The Vikings Discover America
Leif the Lucky undertakes a daring sea voyage and amazingly discovers the New World five centuries before Christopher Columbus.
19. The Decline and Fall of Ethelred the Unready
When King Ethelred of England orders the slaughter of all Vikings in England, he foolishly fails to anticipate the lengths to which Vikings will go for vengeance—which is why we now know him as Ethelred the Unready.
20. The Norman Conquest
The Viking Age comes to an end with an epoch-changing three-way showdown for ultimate control of the English crown, and Europe will never be the same again.
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
About the Author
A Sneak Peek of
Guts & Glory: World War II
Bibliography
Copyright
Navigation
Begin Reading
Table of Contents