The Viking Age: New Perspectives on History and Culture
Overview
Get to know the real Vikings—beyond their bloody raids—through their settlements, societies, spiritual beliefs, and global trade networks in this 12-lecture course.
Course No. 30700
Using archaeology, texts, and DNA analysis, Professor Jennifer Paxton dismantles Viking stereotypes, revealing their roles as traders, explorers, and even proto-democratic rulers.
Course Content
Viking Society & Warfare
- The Viking Age Begins (36 min)
- Did the 793 Lindisfarne raid truly mark their start?
- The Viking Homelands (36 min)
- Scandinavia’s geography, laws, and Roman influences
- The Vikings at War (32 min)
- Weapons, armor, and the truth behind their “bloodthirsty” reputation
- Viking Women: Fact and Fiction (29 min)
- Warriors, weavers, and political power brokers
Religion & Daily Life
- Religion and Myth among the Vikings (31 min)
- Norse gods, cosmology, and rituals like feasting
- The Viking Way of Death (33 min)
- Burial practices revealed through isotope analysis
Global Expansion
- The Vikings in Eastern Europe (33 min)
- Trade with Byzantium, the Rus, and even China
- The Vikings in Britain (32 min)
- From raids to settlements that reshaped England
- The Vikings in Ireland and France (35 min)
- Political alliances and the rise of Normandy
- Vikings in Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland (32 min)
- Why their North American settlements failed
Legacy & Transformation
- Viking Kings and Christian Conversion (35 min)
- How Christianity unified Scandinavia
- The Vikings in Popular Culture (38 min)
- From 1066’s end to modern myths in media

