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Can anyone recommend a book (in English) that covers early Northern germanic/Scandinavian history up to the Migration period please?
I've looked myself but other than a couple of general western european historys and some prelim stuff I've got in works covering later Scandinavian history, I've drawn a bit of a blank. There's some interesting stuff in 'Spoils of Victory' but I want more.
Thanks
"Medicus" Matt Bunker
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It's not quite history as such, but it does deal with the Iron Age (and the Bronze Age a bit) in Scandinavia (and elsewhere) and, despite it's shortcomings, it's a pretty decent read:
"Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend" by John Grigsby
It covers the possible religious practices and beliefs associated with the "Cult of Nerthus" as mentioned by Tacitus. While I have to disagree with some of his theories, Grigsby has given us a pretty cool idea of what Iron Age Germanic religion was like.
Sorry I couldn't offer more history oriented things, but I'm pulling a blank here as well... I'll be watching this topic pretty close myself! :lol:
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Hey,
indirectly, including quite a few good illustrations of Vendel Era warriors, a fine little book by messer Speidel, 'Ancient Germanic Warriors' - a splendid voyage into the world and practices of ancient Northern and Eastern European warriors. I sort of did not want the book to end  . By the way some copious footnotes!
bachmat66 (Dariusz T. Wielec)
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Quote:Hey,
indirectly, including quite a few good illustrations of Vendel Era warriors, a fine little book by messer Speidel, 'Ancient Germanic Warriors' - a splendid voyage into the world and practices of ancient Northern and Eastern European warriors. I sort of did not want the book to end . By the way some copious footnotes!
Got it. Don't really rate it. Thanks anyway though.
"Medicus" Matt Bunker
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Quote:"Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend" by John Grigsby
The same John Grigsby that worked with Graham Hancock?  hock:
"Medicus" Matt Bunker
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You know, this is a topic that needs something in English. I have some excellent stuff by Matti Huurre, but it's all in Finnish. I imagine that there isn't much demand for this to be translated.
Quote:kingolaf99:isfx6bpw Wrote:"Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend" by John Grigsby
The same John Grigsby that worked with Graham Hancock? hock: Well, I didn't know, but I looked it up on trusty ol' wikipedia and it appears so. Remember the shortcomings I mentioned before? Add this to it... :lol:
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Quote:Well, I didn't know, but I looked it up on trusty ol' wikipedia and it appears so. Remember the shortcomings I mentioned before? Add this to it... :lol:
Excellent, I'll buy it just for a laugh then.
"Medicus" Matt Bunker
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Hi Matt,
Agree on the highly conjectural book by Spedial, and Grigsby's book also suffers from huge doses of speculation and endles repitition, but it's general theme of an agrarian Nerthus religion (Grendel's mother) been replaced by a martial cult, with Beowulf identified as a moniker for a Wotan/Odin figure is still an interesting pretext.
Do you have a copy of 'Military Aspects of the Aristocracy in Barbaricum in the Roman and Early Migration Periods' a collection of papers from an international research seminar at the Danish National Musum in 1999 and published in 2001. It contains some english language reports (it must be said the Jorgensen's paper is largely repeated in 'Spoils of Victory'), if you don't have it, pm me and we can make arrangements for me to post it on to you and you can scan what ever of its content you want perhaps.
cheers
Ingvar
Dave Huggins
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Ingvar Sigurdson
Dave Huggins
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Quote:Do you have a copy of 'Military Aspects of the Aristocracy in Barbaricum in the Roman and Early Migration Periods'
Yeah got that, cheers Dave (it was one of the 30kgs of books I bought back from my two week Sweden/Denmark excursion in 2005.
What I'm really interested in is something that looks at the existing archaeology (not just artifacts but settlement archaeology, genetic analysis etc) to see how that fits in with the various accounts ('legendary' as well as historical). For example, what is the link between Geats and Ostrogoths. Did they really go down into Southern Europe and did Geatish involvement in the Gothic wars against the Huns lead to weakened defences at home, leading to their subjugation by the Swedes...
I'm not naive enough to be looking for difinitive answers but it's a period (ie ,late Iron Age, pre-Vendel) that I'm becoming increasingly interested in. Vendel/Valsgarde stuff is just SO last year, don't you think? :wink:
"Medicus" Matt Bunker
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Medicus matt\\n[quote]Vendel/Valsgarde stuff is just SO last year, don't you think?
Ingvar Sigurdson\\n[quote]
LoL, cheeky :wink: We plan a visit to Sweden/Denmark next year, I'll keep my eyes peeled for any new titles in English..amongst other things!
Ingvar Sigurdson
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Quote:LoL, cheeky :wink: We plan a visit to Sweden/Denmark next year, I'll keep my eyes peeled for any new titles in English..amongst other things!
Is that a UE trip or a personal holiday style trip? If the former, keep me posted. We had two very busy weeks over there but spent most of it in Sweden. I need to go back to Denmark and get over to Illerup....
And Norway of course...
"Medicus" Matt Bunker
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Hi Matt
I guess it's a bit of both, well my wife looks upon it as my own personal holiday/pilgrimage!! I'll keep you informed.
cheers
Dave
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Quote:Can anyone recommend a book (in English) that covers early Northern germanic/Scandinavian history up to the Migration period please?
Matt,
I don’t know if you are familiar with the “granddad of bog archaeology”, Conrad Engelhardt’s work Denmark in the Early Iron Age: Illustrated by Recent Discoveries in the Peat Mosses of Slesvig (1866).
You can find an online version here.
Cheers,
Martijn
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Quote:Matt,
I don’t know if you are familiar with the “granddad of bog archaeology”, Conrad Engelhardt’s work Denmark in the Early Iron Age: Illustrated by Recent Discoveries in the Peat Mosses of Slesvig (1866).
You can find an online version here.
Cheers,
Martijn
Got the single volume english translation and all three volumes in the original german. Thanks anyway Martijn.
"Medicus" Matt Bunker
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