“There is no better burden for a person than a big and sound mind, and there is no worse burden than an excess of drunk."
Elder Edda. Speeches of the High
It turns out that interest in the Vikings, their campaigns and culture appeared relatively recently, namely in 1803, when the book by F. Archengolts "The History of the Sea Robbers" appeared. Moreover, this was the most real historical research, which differed in the most serious way from the heroic-romantic memoirs of the former “gentlemen of fortune,” which were popular at the end of the 17th and 18th centuries, although among them there were really talented writers such as W. Dampier and M. Benevsky. And so he, in fact, for the first time spoke not only about the filibusters of the southern seas, but also about their early medieval "colleagues" from Scandinavia.
The Vikings is a 2008 book by Osprey. Among the authors are all familiar faces: Magnus Magnusson, Mark Harrison, Keith Darkham, Ian Heath and Rene Chartrand.
Another 30 years passed, and in 1834 in Stockholm the first book was published on the theme of the military expansion of the Vikings by A. Stringholm, "The History of the Swedish People from the Most Ancient to the Present." And, it is clear that it was impossible to do without descriptions of the Viking campaigns in it.
But a kind of boom or fashion about the Vikings began and spread in Europe in the years 1850-1920 after the burials with their ships were found in Gokstad and Oseberg. In 1930, T. Kendrick's monograph "History of the Vikings", published in Oxford, appeared, and since then the stream of literature "about the Vikings" has not dried up. Moreover, it is clear that in this case we are talking only about scientific and popular science literature, since it is simply impossible to count artistic fabrications on this topic.
Unfortunately, unlike the West, where the Scandinavian warriors-sailors were interested in, well, let's say, in the same way as the builders of Stonehenge and Indian sepoys (well, they were, and thank God!) In Russia he was interested in this topic. acquired a distinct political character. And it turned out that the problem of the role of the Normans in the creation of statehood among the Eastern Slavs ("Where did the Russian land come from?") During the 18th-19th centuries became the subject of extremely sharp controversy. German scientists G. F. Miller and A. L. Schletser, who worked in Russia, as well as Russian historians, such as N. M. Karamzin and M. P. Pogodin insisted on the recognition of the official, chronicle version, according to which the founders of the Kiev state were precisely the Scandinavian Vikings. M. V. Lomonosov, and after him S. M. Soloviev and D. I. Ilovaisky denied this. Well, in Soviet times, ridiculous labels were even invented "Normanist" and "Anti-Normanist", and being a Normanist in the USSR was very dangerous. At best, this only threatened you with the collapse of your scientific career, but at worst, you could well be thundering into the camps for correction. Here are two typical excerpts from a public lecture by V. V. Mavrodin, which he read in 1949, and which very clearly demonstrates the level of Soviet historiography of the Stalinist period:
“Naturally, the“scientists”servants of the world capital are striving at all costs to discredit, denigrate the historical past of the Russian people, to belittle the significance of Russian culture at all stages of its development. They also "deny" the Russian people the initiative to create their own state. […]
These examples are quite enough to come to the conclusion that a thousand-year-old legend about the "calling of the Varangians" of Rurik, Sineus and Truvor "from across the sea" -the scholar, the worldwide flood, Noah and his sons, is being revived by foreign bourgeois historians in order to serve as an instrument in the struggle of reactionary circles with our worldview, our ideology. […]
Soviet historical science, following the instructions of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, based on the comments of comrades Stalin, Kirov and Zhdanov on the "Synopsis of the textbook on the History of the USSR" at this time, and applied this theory to specific materials of the history of the Russian state. Thus, even in the theoretical constructions of the founders of Marxism-Leninism, there is and cannot be a place for the Normans, as the creators of the state among the "wild" East Slavic tribes."
Where he got all this from and why he needed it is unclear. That is, it is just clear why and why, but it is not known where and on the basis of what. Another thing is surprising: "Something is heard dear, in the long songs of the driver!" How much time has passed, and his rhetoric is still alive, although the works of all the above-named comrades have already been handed over mainly to waste paper, and if they are stored anywhere, it is perhaps due to a misunderstanding and due to deep personal predilections. And, by the way, it is not at all surprising that in our fiction of those years (see, for example, VD Ivanov. "Tale of Ancient Years") the image of a Viking who is a pathological killer, completely devoid of all normal human qualities, penetrated into our fiction. Well, helmets with horns, where can we go without them … he himself wrote about them at one time.
The beginning of positive changes in Soviet historical science, associated with the recognition of the historian's right to have his own point of view without regard to the opinion of members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, was marked by the appearance in 1985 of the monograph by G. S. Lebedev "The Age of Vikings in Northern Europe". Well, since the 90s, there have also been translations of foreign, primarily English-language, literature on this topic. It should be noted and published in 1996 the historical novel by M. Semenova "Swan Road", written with a good knowledge of factual material and a feeling of that time, as well as her own collection of historical stories and essays "Vikings" (Moscow, 2000), and "Saga about King Rorik and his descendants " Mikhailovich (D. M. Volodikhina; M., 1995), is a shocking work for professional historians, but certainly interesting for the general reader.
Accordingly, there are many British publications (due to their knowledge of the English language, they are most understandable to our readers). Let's start with the untranslated ones, and then move on to those that have already been translated into Russian.
Daily Life of the Vikings by Kirsten Wolf (2004): Karsten Worlf's Daily Life of the Vikings talks in great detail about the social structure of the Vikings' society, their daily work and concerns, in a word, introduces them in great detail "from the inside".
"Vikings: Descendants of Odin and Thor" by Gwin Jones "Centerpolygraph" (2005).
“A History of the Vikings” by Gwyn Jones (2001): “The History of the Vikings” by Gwyn Jones is available to us today in the Russian translation of the Centerpoligraph Publishing House (2005). This is a very detailed 445-page edition, unfortunately, typical for such books in its design: paper - I don’t know what kind of recyclable materials, graphic “pictures” and maps are barely readable, so this book is not for everybody. And the translation is complicated, it's hard to read it, the best thing - if you are not an expert and a fan - to do it at night, then you will definitely fall asleep. And one more truly unfortunate thing: the cover depicts a Viking wearing a helmet with cow horns. Well, gentlemen, publishers, from Tsentrpoligraf, you don’t even know such elementary things ?!
The Viking World by Stefan Brink (2011): The Viking World by Stefan Brink. This is an academic publication for those who already know something about the Vikings. The author uses information from history, data from archeology, theology, philosophy, anthropology - in a word, considers the "world of the Vikings" comprehensively. This book has not yet been translated into Russian …
The Vikings is a 2008 book by Osprey. Among the authors are all familiar faces: Magnus Magnusson, Mark Harrison, Keith Darkham, Ian Heath and Rene Chartrand. Magnusson is the author of a number of books about the Scandinavian knights, Harrison is the curator of the Royal Arsenal in the Tower, Ian Heath is the author of many books, including those translated into Russian. Darkham has long been involved with the Vikings and their ships, and Rene Chartrand lives in Quebec and has been overseeing the Canadian National Historical Site for thirty years, right from its founding. So the publication, which has 208 pages, should have turned out to be interesting. And by the way - it worked! But it hasn't been translated into Russian either.
"Long Ships of the Vikings" by Keith Darham, "Osprey".
Keith Darham also wrote a book for Osprey (New Vanguard series # 47) Long Ships of the Vikings, and Ian Heath wrote the book Vikings (Elite Troops series) translated into Russian by AST / Astrel.
An interesting edition is the book by Gareth Williams, curator of the British Museum, since 1996 specialized in the history of the Vikings, in the same publishing house (series "Combat" No. 27) "Vikings against the Anglo-Saxon warriors" (England 865-1066). In addition to interesting factual material, it contains many interesting reconstructions by the artist Peter Dennis, an illustrator for more than a hundred different publications.
The book "Vikings: Raids from the North"
The book "Vikings: Raids from the North" (Translated from English by L. Florent'eva, - M.: TERRA, 1996) - on the contrary - is excellently published, but its content and manner of presenting the text are purely British. Be sure (a whole chapter) about the footprints of the Vikings on the British Isles, and then "gallop through Europe." And very little has been said about the archaeological finds, photographs of which are given. Moreover, the photos are often given without indicating in which museum the artifact itself is located, and this is completely unacceptable. In addition, people with a fine nervous organization, who still believe that a poet in Russia is more than a poet, and a writer is clearly more than a writer, will be jarred by this phrase: “And again:“The Slavic tribes, mired in civil strife, persuaded the Viking leader Rurik to come to rule them … Starting from Rurik and up to Ivan the Terrible's son Fyodor, these Scandinavians ruled the largest medieval power in Europe - Russia,”this book tells us. But it is easier to relate to this. Well, her author thinks so, and with these words he wrote it. His opinion and the form of his expression are as follows. But on the whole … the book is very good for general development.
I haven’t read this book, but it’s probably interesting …
Among the Russian-speaking authors of books about the Vikings is Georgy Laskavy, the author of the book “Vikings. Hiking, Discovery, Culture”, published in Minsk in 2004. The book is interesting. Almost every chapter begins with a fictionalized introduction, which is always interesting. Drawings - black and white graphics on a blue background, alas, a typical "scoop", in 2004 books could have been published in better design. But there are no complaints about the content. Everything is very detailed. Excellent comments, a list of names (which I personally never had enough for), the chronology of the Viking campaigns from 500 to 1066, as well as the genealogy of the Scandinavian rulers and kings and East Slavic princes up to 1066 - all this only increases the already high information content of this publication! Well, let's just close our eyes to the pictures - we are not children!
A page from the book Vikings by Anne Pearson.
By the way, about children … Those who have them at the age when they can still be interested in something, there is also a Russian-language book by Anne Pearson "Vikings" (publishing house "Logos", 1994) It contains four panoramic scenes on a transparent film, and children usually really like this!
