'The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings' by John Haywood

The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings is informative, well-written, and handsomely produced. All in all, it is an excellent introduction for the newcomer as well as a useful resource for any Viking history buff.

This slim volume offers a surprisingly rich hoard of information about Scandinavia and the Viking Age. Beginning with the causes of Viking activity and ending with Scandinavia after the Vikings, it examines Viking origins, culture, conquest, trade, exploration and political evolution. Each concise chapter is easy to follow and is accompanied by lush photos as well as beautifully-executed maps.

In addition, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings is chock full of useful extras, from a timeline comparing events in Scandinavia, Great Britain, Western Europe, the East and the rest of the world to illustrations of Viking villages, ships and weapons as they likely appeared during the Viking Age. To top it all off, quotations from period sources evoke an atmosphere of the times.

There are a few drawbacks. As a British publication, the work focuses more on events in Britain than anywhere else. Haywood does touch on Viking excursions to the North Atlantic, raids in the Mediterranean, and settlement in Russia, but the Varangian Guard of Byzantium receives barely a mention. And more scholarship has taken place since its release in 1995, making it less than “cutting edge” (though not seriously out of date).

Yet these are all minor considerations that can be easily forgiven when you remember that it’s an introductory work, and an unusually deep and lucid one, at that. With maps and other sources of information, it stands as a fine reference work, as well.