Scandinavia category: 802 books

Grigori Rasputin, the "Holy Devil" of Russian legend, was a well-meaning peasant with a psychiatrist's gift for healing and unusual opportunities for sexual conquest. The tsar, historian E. M. Halliday argues in this essay, might have done better to listen to him more, not less.

Als ich im Sommer des Jahres 1858 auf der Insel Fühnen, unweit des Schlosses Egeskov, in dem Dorfkirchlein zu Quærndrup die Gräber meiner dänischen Ahnen des Stammes Ulfeld besuchte, fasste ich den Entschluss, meiner frommen Ahnfrau Leonora Christinas Andenken — des Enkels Pflicht erfüllend...

A fascinating look at some of the early Viking kings, such as Óláfr Tryggvason (Olaf the First), and Knut den Mektige (Canute the Great). Written by famed historian Thomas Carlyle.

Written in the thirteenth century, Njal's Saga is a story that explores perennial human problems-from failed marriages to divided loyalties, from the law's inability to curb human passions to the terrible consequences when decent men and women are swept up in a tide of violence beyond their control....

An introduction to such a vast subject as Norse Mythology can be problematic as it could well fall between two stools; so packed with details as to put one off, or so vague, that one is none the wiser for having read it. This text manages a pleasing balance, succeeds in whetting the appetite and supplying...

This compelling Icelandic history describes the life of King Harald Hardradi, from his battles across Europe and Russia to his final assault on England in 1066, less than three weeks before the invasion of William the Conqueror. It was a battle that led to his death and marked the end of an era in...

Compiled by an unknown scribe in Iceland around 1270, and based on sources dating back centuries earlier, these mythological and heroic poems tell of gods and mortals from an ancient era: the giant-slaying Thor, the doomed Völsung family, the Hel-ride of Brynhild and the cruelty of Atli the Hun....

THE HEIMSKRINGLA (Old Norse, 'the Circle of the World') is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas, recounting the lives of famous Scandinavian kings.  First written about 1230 by Icelandic scholar and poet Snorri Sturluson (c. 1179-1241), the HEIMSKRINGLA contains the sagas of 16 Norse...

Happy Times in Norway is a moving and delicately humorous picture of Undset’s own blissful home life before her nation fell to the Nazi occupation. Captured here is the excitement of a Norwegian Christmas, the Seventeenth of May, and summer in the idyllic mountains, as well as the chaotic adventure...

This book, filled with amazing facts and photographs, describes what life was like for the Vikings. It gives an in-depth account of all aspects of life and people of the time - including sections about Food, Farming, Clothes, Viking Voyages, Invasions, Viking Ships, Viking Religion and Gods as well as...

The Power of Song shows how the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania confronted a military superpower and achieved independence in the Baltic �Singing Revolution.� When attacked by Soviet soldiers in public displays of violent force, singing Balts maintained faith in nonviolent political action....

The remarkable story of Gudrid, the female explorer who sailed from Iceland to the New World a millennium ago. Five hundred years before Columbus, a Viking woman named Gudrid sailed off the edge of the known world. She landed in the New World and lived there for three years, giving birth to...

In the eighth century, The Vikings, the water-borne warriors of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, conquered much of the British Isles. They pillaged the coast of France, pushed inland to sack Paris, and seized Normandy. Sweeping south down the great rivers of central Europe, they overwhelmed the Slavs...

Archaeologist Neil Oliver ventures beyond the myths about seafaring Norsemen to reveal the true lives of their chieftains, warlords, and explorers. The Vikings are infamous for taking no prisoners, relishing cruel retribution, and priding themselves on their bloodthirsty skills as warriors....