Summary of Daniel McCoy's The Viking Spirit

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The longship sways on the windy sea like a seer in a trance. After days of hard rowing, the crew is exhausted. They had set sail from the western coast of Scandinavia several days ago, bound for the eastern coast of England.
#2 The Vikings landed in a deserted town, and began to search it. They found a large ornate building in the center of the city, and entered it. The building was more lavish than anything Sverrir had ever seen, and the townspeople had apparently brought all of their valuables into it.
#3 The townspeople of Bebbanburg perform a strange gesture that involves touching one of their hands to four different parts of their torso and head as the Vikings begin to hew down anyone who stands in their way. The Vikings suffer heavy losses in the battle, and most distressingly for Sverrir, Hauk falls after having fought valiantly.
#4 The poem was so intricate and learned that the simple warriors could not understand parts of it. The king was said to be a descendent of Odin, and his generosity was unparalleled. The raid was presented as an unmitigated, glorious victory.

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 26 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669365358
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Daniel McCoy's The Viking Spirit
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15 Insights from Chapter 16 Insights from Chapter 17 Insights from Chapter 18 Insights from Chapter 19 Insights from Chapter 20 Insights from Chapter 21 Insights from Chapter 22 Insights from Chapter 23 Insights from Chapter 24 Insights from Chapter 25 Insights from Chapter 26 Insights from Chapter 27 Insights from Chapter 28 Insights from Chapter 29 Insights from Chapter 30 Insights from Chapter 31 Insights from Chapter 32 Insights from Chapter 33 Insights from Chapter 34 Insights from Chapter 35 Insights from Chapter 36 Insights from Chapter 37 Insights from Chapter 38 Insights from Chapter 39 Insights from Chapter 40 Insights from Chapter 41 Insights from Chapter 42 Insights from Chapter 43 Insights from Chapter 44 Insights from Chapter 45 Insights from Chapter 46 Insights from Chapter 47 Insights from Chapter 48
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The longship sways on the windy sea like a seer in a trance. After days of hard rowing, the crew is exhausted. They had set sail from the western coast of Scandinavia several days ago, bound for the eastern coast of England.

#2

The Vikings landed in a deserted town, and began to search it. They found a large ornate building in the center of the city, and entered it. The building was more lavish than anything Sverrir had ever seen, and the townspeople had apparently brought all of their valuables into it.

#3

The townspeople of Bebbanburg perform a strange gesture that involves touching one of their hands to four different parts of their torso and head as the Vikings begin to hew down anyone who stands in their way. The Vikings suffer heavy losses in the battle, and most distressingly for Sverrir, Hauk falls after having fought valiantly.

#4

The poem was so intricate and learned that the simple warriors could not understand parts of it. The king was said to be a descendent of Odin, and his generosity was unparalleled. The raid was presented as an unmitigated, glorious victory.

#5

The world in which the Norse myths and religion flourished was a world of startling accomplishment. The Vikings raided throughout Europe, conquered large parts of it, and established settlements in Iceland and Greenland. But it was also a world of startling squalor and brutality.

#6

Before you can have a meaningful discussion about a topic, you first have to define the terms you’re using. The phrase Norse religion is made up of two words, both of which must be defined separately before being brought together again.

#7

The Norse religion was a set of symbolic ideas, personages, stories, and ritual actions appropriate to connecting the Vikings to the numinous. It was never systematized or codified, and there were no creeds or scriptures that defined what was acceptable and unacceptable to believe or do.

#8

The Old Norse language did not have a word for religion, and what we call religion was seamlessly integrated into the other aspects of life. The religious hierarchy was the same as the secular hierarchy. Kings, chieftains, and other rulers were seen as being divine in some capacity.

#9

The only written sources we have from pre-Christian times in northern Europe are runic inscriptions, which are brief and tell us very little. The Viking culture was an oral culture, and no traditional poems have survived that recount mythic and religious topics.

#10

The Edda is a collection of anonymous Old Norse poetry compiled in Iceland in the thirteenth century. It was written by Snorri Sturluson, a man of great learning and ambition, to provide a handbook on how to write traditional Norse poetry.

#11

The next major category of literary sources to consider is the Icelandic sagas. The earliest of the sagas date from the end of the twelfth century, while the latest date from the fourteenth century. Their subject matter concerns events that would have happened centuries earlier.

#12

The most important sources of information about Norse religion and mythology are literary, but there are also archaeological sources, such as graves and picture-stones. archaeology is a difficult source to interpret, and yet it is the only source that gives us information about the Vikings themselves.

#13

There are no sources that we can take at face value. All of our sources carry potential problems and pitfalls, and the most significant sources are also often the most hazardous. By critically analyzing all of these disparate sources, we can arrive at a reliable and substantial picture of what Norse mythology and religion looked like.