Children of Ash and Elm

A History of the Vikings

By: Neil Price

Narrated by: Samuel Roukin

Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

The definitive history of the Vikings - from arts and culture to politics and cosmology - by a distinguished archaeologist with decades of expertise

The Viking Age - from 750 to 1050 saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples into the wider world. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they ranged from eastern North America to the Asian steppe. But for centuries, the Vikings have been seen through the eyes of others, distorted to suit the tastes of medieval clerics and Elizabethan playwrights, Victorian imperialists, Nazis, and more. None of these appropriations capture the real Vikings, or the richness and sophistication of their culture.

Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Children of Ash and Elm tells the story of the Vikings on their own terms: their politics, their cosmology and religion, their material world. Known today for a stereotype of maritime violence, the Vikings exported new ideas, technologies, beliefs, and practices to the lands they discovered and the peoples they encountered, and in the process were themselves changed. From Eirík Bloodaxe, who fought his way to a kingdom, to Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, the most traveled woman in the world, Children of Ash and Elm is the definitive history of the Vikings and their time.

©2020 Neil Price (P)2020 Recorded Books

Good Research, with Bias.

Price's prose are great. Research fairly sound. Given to eisegetical interpretations with gender issues. He reads in modern opinions of gender and sexuality claiming exceptions, simply because they are extant in the records, make for a rule or norm of the culture as a whole. I found this to be less than genuine scholarship. In my own studies this would have been rejected as too imposing upon what the data MAY reflect. However, overlooking that bit, I found the work as a whole to be quite good. It was engaging and informative.

If you Love History and Archeology, this is SPOT ON

So rich with facts as Neil Price walks us through the rise and dispersion of the Viking Culture.

Lucid, beautiful, scary and surprisingly funny.

This is one of the best books of History divulgation I have ever read and heard. On par with Barbara Tuchmann's "A Distant Mirror" this work brings Vikings back to life without the operatic helmets with horns. The prose is clear, the ideas complex and clever. Neil Price also has a wonderful sense of humor. Just wait for his description of the discovery of a perfectly preserved latrine that included the tufts of moss Vikings used as toilet paper.

Samuel Roukin performance is so wonderful I do not know if to start all over again or what.
This book is for people who would like to embark on a more serious study of Viking themes or for fans of series and movies (but be prepared for some very urgent debunking).
I could not have loved it more.

Read it but keep a salt shaker handy

Fascinating insights into a culture that has been grossly misrepresented in the popular understanding. It makes a great companion to the Audible Great Course on Vikings but it has a serious flaw that, for me, undermined the credibility of the book. The book is an exercise in teasing out conclusions about the Vikings based on very sparse archeological evidence. In an overlong and over done section on Viking sex, Mr. Price analyzes tissue thin and ambiguous evidence and then asks the reader to believe that 10th century Vikings had a remarkably 21st century view of gender identity and fluidity. Like the college professor who injected his political beliefs into his lectures it makes you wonder what other conclusions about things like Viking slavery and governance might have been distorted to fit his personal preconceptions. A very interesting audio book to be sure but it left me with the unsettled feeling that at least some of what I learned from Mr Price is his own worldview and not necessarily that of the Vikings.

great for insight

A bit more for the advanced reader but really paints a picture of how the Vikings lived in very vivid way.

So much I didn't know.

I thought this would be dry but informative, not so. The narrator was great. There is so much good information presented with as little cultural bias as possible. This book really challenged me to rethink my preconceptions of vikings, viking life and how archeologists form their ideas about artifacts and what they mean.

Fantastic in every way

This book is both fascinating and very well read. The narrator tells it all so well that it feels like it’s just one long story. Always interesting and never dull. Emphasis in the right places and very compelling. So happy I got this book.

A fantastic view into the world of the Vikings as they saw it

Using the ever expanding archaeological record and textual sources from the encounters with the Norse at the time, runestones, and later sagas - Price paints a vivid portrait of the viking world as they saw it. Price delves into the culture, history, and life of the Viking Age of the 8th through the 11th centuries as well as what lead up to the viking phenomenon during the tumultuous 6th snd 7th centuries.

Just what I needed

For anyone interested in our ancestors this is the book. Thank the Gods this knowledge has not been lost like so much in the world after the Abrahamic Religions and the Romans commenced their destruction of our native cultures.

Brilliant.

Probably the finest, most evenly researched and riveting deep dive into Viking culture out there. Absolutely tremendous.