The Viking Art of War

The first thing I would like to say is that I disagree with a couple of the previous reviewers. I did not get the feeling that Mr Griffith "seems not to care about his subject", that he did not "thoroughly learn his subject", or that it was a "unprofessional rant on Scandinavian culture". In fact I thought the book a reasonably researched exploration of the knowledge (more precisely our lack of knowledge) on the era. The main problem with studying this topic is the lack of data. I thought Mr. Griffith did a fine job of presenting what little we do know and giving his interpretation of those 'facts', being careful to point out what were his conjectures vs. what was actually said in the historical record. Vikings were neither boogeymen nor supermen; they were men. I think Mr. Griffith has done an amirable job in iluminating their 'Art of War' through the murky lens of the available record.

In this volume, the author proclaims to examine the military capabilities of the early Medieval Scandinavians. Although this book appears to be a bit contemtuous of the Vikings, it does contain some interesting insights. In general, the only sources of information we have on Nordic warfare, are the Icelandic Sagas, and some mostly biased chronicles written from the view-point of cultures which were in conflict with the Scandinavians. The nature of the conflict varied from overt states of warfare, economic and political rivalry, to cultural supremecy, and this has to be taken into account. Beyond the ancient literature, we have only the findings of modern-day archeologists. The author has utilized the available information in his analysis, in conjunction with his academic skills as Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy, to give us his interpretation. Of course, the written word can tell you only so much, and surely there is a vast amount of information that has been lost to time, information one could only know by actually experiencing the time and place. In regard to British authors, we see many books of the highest academic standard, and we also see publications reflecting blatant bias. This book is really niether one entirely. An admirer of Nordic culture may find some aspects of the author's perspective mildly irritating, but there is a lot of interesting information within. The author has included much material that will inspire the reader to research other topics related to the theme.

Although this is definitely a five-star book, it actually fails horribly at its objective, which is to piece together Viking battle plans and fighting abilities. There are two reasons for this:1. The author himself openly admits that there's essentially nothing to work with (as opposed to, say, well-documented Roman battles), as these things were generally never recorded during the Viking Age2. The Vikings didn't have anything even remotely approaching a strategy, apart from sailing solid boats to likely hotspots for pillage. And once there, it was more trial & error than any kind of real plan. Even the "Great Army" was more of a hodgepodge of like-minded marauders than any kind of seriously coordinated forceBut then this book outdoes not only its own goal, but outshines every other Viking book I've ever read: it brings the Vikings to life. It brings these people right out of the exaggerated world of "Norse supermen" that so many people want them to have been, and leaves you instead with a powerful vision of real human beings living day-to-day life. People want to believe anything and everything about the Vikings, that they sailed all the way to Australia for no reason, or that they got all the way to the North American midwest, the kind of "theories" that anyone even jokingly educated knows to be ridiculous.The author chronicles and examines where the actual Vikings travelled and why, and the sometimes shocking rate of failure these people experienced, even as master sailors. For every successful pillage or new discovery, the Vikings lost several entire boatloads of people and supplies, and you begin to wonder just what kind of willpower could keep driving them to explore so much when they never really had to. By the end of the book you'll have a real feeling of awe for these people who did so much, because you'll see by what haphazard means they did such extraordinary things.I very highly recommend this "sleeper" of a book.

This book is full of facts and details of the vikings.It includes Viking tactics on both land and sea. Someinsight to their choice of weapons and armor. Infomantion on their ships. When and why the Vikings Raiding.