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

1. The Viking Age Begins (36 min)
   • Did the 793 Lindisfarne raid truly mark their start?

2. The Viking Homelands (36 min)
   • Scandinavia’s geography, laws, and Roman influences

3. The Vikings at War (32 min)
   • Weapons, armor, and the truth behind their “bloodthirsty” reputation

4. Viking Women: Fact and Fiction (29 min)
   • Warriors, weavers, and political power brokers

Religion & Daily Life

5. Religion and Myth among the Vikings (31 min)
   • Norse gods, cosmology, and rituals like feasting

6. The Viking Way of Death (33 min)
   • Burial practices revealed through isotope analysis

Global Expansion

7. 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

9. The Vikings in Ireland and France (35 min)
   • Political alliances and the rise of Normandy

10. Vikings in Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland (32 min)
    • Why their North American settlements failed

Legacy & Transformation

11. Viking Kings and Christian Conversion (35 min)
    • How Christianity unified Scandinavia

12. The Vikings in Popular Culture (38 min)
    • From 1066’s end to modern myths in media