"Splendid... In lively prose Barraclough ranges from Greenland to Baghdad, showing us bar-rooms and bedrooms, daydreaming children at their lessons, gossiping neighbours, the scars of war, and much more besides. An intimate portrait of the Viking Age that is thoughtful, vivid and warm, while ignoring none of its hardships - highly recommended." -Neil Price, author of The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of Vikings

"Brilliantly written, brilliantly conceived, a history of the Vikings that deploys their material legacy – from combs to slave collars, from skulls to sundials – to evoke the wonder of an entire civilisation." -Tom Holland, author of Pax and co-host of The Rest is History

"Barraclough has a gift for taking us beyond the familiar into a real, visceral, far more satisfying Viking world." -Dan Snow, author of On This Day in History

"A wondrous, gorgeously-written book, breathing the Vikings into intimate, incandescent life: from glittering treasure to lost ephemera, racy runes to hidden tombs, Barraclough reveals people both endearingly familiar, yet sometimes also bafflingly, even unnervingly, strange." -Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art

"A fascinating journey through all facets of the Viking world—especially what ordinary people experienced—beautifully collated from tiny bits of real evidence from archaeology (well illustrated) and linguistics (using texts in Old Norse, Old English, and runes; and even word-histories). We feel firsthand the hardships of sailing and farming so far north, of the captives, and of women cooking and endlessly making cloth, clothing, and huge woolen sails for the boats—evidence that used to be ignored. Plus a delightful chapter on Play and the many board-games with which Viking families relaxed!" -Elizabeth Wayland Barber, author of Women's Work and The Dancing Goddesses