Viking Age Reference

Source Material for the Viking Age

The list is by no means a complete archive of source material for the Viking Age, but the rabbit holes one can go down by following the bibliographies and further reading provided in the sources below should set you well on your path.

Books, Papers, and Chronicles

Primary Sources

  • Fornaldarsögur – ‘Legendary sagas’, ‘Sagas of ancient time’ or ‘Mythical-heroic sagas’
  • Riddarasögur – ‘Sagas of knights’
  • Konungasögur – ‘Kings’ sagas’
  • Íslendingasögur – ‘Sagas of Icelanders’ or ‘Family sagas’
  • Chronicon Roskildense
  • Gesta Danorum 
  • Codex Regius (containing The Poetic Edda)
  • The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson
  • The Royal Frankish Annals
  • The Irish Annals
  • The Anglo Saxon Chronicle
  • Beowulf
  • Bald’s Leechbook
  • Ibn Yacoub Al Tartushi’s account of Hedeby
  • Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travelers in the Far North

Secondary Sources

  • The Viking Way by Neil Price
  • The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price
  • Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough
  • Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs, by John Lindow
  • The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown
  • The Vikings by Else Roesdahl
  • The Viking World by Auður G. Magnúsdóttir
  • Viking Age Iceland by Jesse Byock
  • The Role of Icelandic Women in the Sagas and the Production of Homespun Cloth by Nanna Damsholt
  • The Position of Iron Age Scandinavian Women by Anne-Sofie Gräslund
  • Skaldic Verse and Anglo-Saxon History: Some Aspects of the Period 1009-1016 by Russell Poole
  • The Earliest Norwegian Laws, Being the Gulathing Law and the Frostathing Law, Translated from the Old Norwegian by Laurence Larson
  • Women in the Viking Age by Judith Jesch
  • Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir

Websites, Videos, and Other Online Sources

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