Aelfred's Britain: War and Peace in the Viking Age - Softcover

Max Adams

3.72

481 ratings by Goodreads

9781784080310: Aelfred's Britain: War and Peace in the Viking Age

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1784080314 ISBN 13: 9781784080310

Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2018

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

In 865, a great Viking army landed in East Anglia, precipitating a series of wars that would last until the middle of the following century. It was in this time of crisis that the modern kingdoms of Britain were born. In their responses to the Viking threat, these kingdoms forged their identities as hybrid cultures: vibrant and entrepreneurial peoples adapting to instability and opportunity.

Traditionally, �lfred the Great is cast as the central player in the story of Viking Age Britain. But Max Adams, while stressing the genius of �lfred as war leader, law-giver, and forger of the English nation, has a more nuanced and variegated narrative to relate. The Britain encountered by the Scandinavians of the ninth and tenth centuries was one of regional diversity and self-conscious cultural identities: of Picts, D�l Riatans and Strathclyde Britons; of Bernicians and Deirans, East Anglians, Mercians and West Saxons.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

'This engrossing history of the British people between the first Viking raids in 865 and the expulsion of the Vikings from York in 954 is notable for being a more nuanced portrait of that era ... Lands other than Wessex come into fascinating new focus' The Bookseller.

'An evocative look at a period that continues to grab the popular imagination'. --History Revealed

'This is much more than a book about the Vikings versus King Alfred ... [Adams'] great achievement is to cover events throughout the whole of Britain with some excursions into Ireland and Europe as well'. --TLS

'A beautifully crafted and impeccably compiled book, and one that is certainly a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the events and figures that moulded Britain during the reign of the Vikings'. --All About History

Book Description:

A history of the peoples of Britain, in the century and a half between the first Viking raids and the expulsion of the Vikings from York in 954.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.