Like its subject: more sophisticated than it appears, and shockingly effective

Some selections -

• The fact is that in the Vikings’ own language, Old Norse, víkingr just meant pirate, marauder. It wasn’t an ethnic label, it was a job description. And what this means for us is that if you come across headlines – as these days you very often do – which say something like ‘Vikings! Not just raiders and looters any more!’ then the headlines are wrong. If people weren’t raiding and looting (and land-grabbing, and collecting protection money), then they had stopped being Vikings. They were just Scandinavians...

• [W]hat links all these characters [of Viking legend] is that they are alone, surrounded by their enemies, without hope of rescue and to all appearance completely helpless. Now that is the time to show what you’re made of. When you’ve lost. When you’ve nothing left but yourself. Die laughing, and die laughing because in one way or another you’ve still managed to turn the tables...  Only in final defeat can you show that you will never give in. That’s why the gods have to die as well. If they did not die, how could they show true courage? If they were really immortal and invulnerable, who would respect them?

• Dying of dragon-bite, like Ragnar of snakebite, [Beowulf] says that fate has swept away all his kinfolk: ic him æfter sceal, ‘I must after them.’  Not a word wasted. Even the implied word ‘follow’ has been deleted. Meanwhile, the very last words of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings are, famously, ‘“Well, I’m back”, [Sam] said.’ One major author in the same field declared it ‘the most heartbreaking line in all of modern fantasy’.

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