A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads”

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Cat Jarman’s River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads is one of those books that’s been on my reading list ever since I first saw it hanging out on the new release section of my local library. I’m a sucker for books on history, as we know and, while I’m not one of those people who is absolutely obsessed with the Vikings, I do nevertheless find them fascinating, both in themselves and for what they represent as cultural figures. I thus particularly appreciate those books that push back against the way that they’ve been appropriated by various noxious political movements and ideologies, most of which know almost nothing about them and instead think that 19th century paintings of them are some sort of direct representation of how they really were.

Jarman’s book, however, aims to correct some of these, adding new richness and depth to our understanding of the Vikings and their world. Her tale begins in the English village of Repton, in particular the grave of the Great Heathen Army and a remarkable carnelian bead found therein. This carnelian bead, while seemingly inconsequential, actually becomes Jarman’s entry point into the complicated and sprawling story of the Vikings, those notorious conquerors who came out of places like Norway, Sweden, and Denmark to bring fire and terror to both Europe and Asia. As it turns out, however, they were so much more than that. In fact, they were traders as much as they were conquerors and, due to the wide number of places to which they traveled, they became trailblazers of globalization, a force that, in itself, often came with unforeseen consequences.

Jarman is one of those historians who has the knack of combining rigor with accessibility. There’s a lot to digest here, from bioarchaeology to primary sources, but she never makes us feel as if we’re wading through a hefty treatise. Instead, it’s like we’re being asked to accompany her on her own voyage of discovery as she learns more and more about the Vikings and their various journeys, their ways of life (including the probable presence of women warriors), and the large world of which they were a part. Each chapter is prefaced by a brief vignette about a particular object, which gives them a specificity that helps to ground what follows.

Indeed, River Kings is a book that does a deep dive into the material record. Thus, there’s a lot of discussion about graves and those who were found in them, about what their bones and teeth and possessions can (and can’t) tell us about them. Jarman’s passion for archaeology is evident in these sections, and in less capable hands they could be boring. Jarman, however, keeps things interesting and shows us how what people eat could impact their DNA (more on that in a moment). At the same time, however, she also pays attention to the sources. Obviously, they’re a bit thin on the ground for the Viking Age itself, but we have a great deal of commentary from afterward, and pretty much everyone, from the English to the Arabs, had something to say about Vikings. Jarman is always careful to offer qualifications and cautions when they’re warranted. She’s well aware of what the evidence can tell us and what can’t, and I applaud her for not trying to make it say something it doesn’t simply to suit an agenda. Like any responsible historian, she wants to let the evidence speak for itself where possible.

One of the major contributions this book makes is to our understanding of just how far the Vikings traveled and how, contrary to the way most Euro-centric histories are written, they were just as active to the east–in places like Kyiv, Constantinople, and even Baghdad–as they were in the west. Indeed, one of the most fascinating chapters reveals the extent to which the fates of the Rus were bound up with those of Byzantium. Whether serving as members of the Varangian Guard, establishing outposts and kingdoms with which the Byzantines had to contend, or carving runes into places in the Hagia Sophia, the Vikings etched their identity and their lives and their warlike ways on the Byzantine state in ways large and small.

Jarman astutely remarks that politics have played a disproportionate role in how both historians and the general public have understood the Vikings and their role in history, and this has been as true for those in the East as in the West. During the Soviet period, for example, it was essentially heresy to propose that the Rus, the very people who had helped to found the nation that would become Russia, could have been from Scandinavia. And yet, as discoveries continue to demonstrate, this was probably the case.

Just as importantly, Jarman also points out how much DNA analysis has radically changed our approach to understanding the medieval world and those who inhabited it. Thanks to many of the advances in technology over the past several decades, we can now learn a great deal more from bones than we ever had before. We can learn, for example, about what kind of foods people ate and thus where they came from and even, in some cases, when. This has repercussions for almost all areas of study regarding the Vikings, from figuring out where they originated to what period of time they were located in. In case you needed more evidence for the fact that history as a discipline is always alive and changing, this book will provide it.

River Kings, in other words, is a true triumph of historical storytelling. I devoured it in just a couple of days, swept along by Jarman’s remarkable storytelling prowess and by the fact that, when it comes down to it, the Vikings are just so damn fascinating. These people manage to serve as a sort of bridge between East and West and, as such they became key forces of globalization. As Jarman points out, this had major consequences when it came to, among other things, the spread of disease.

In that sense, the story of the Vikings is one that continues to be relevant to our present, in both expected and unexpected ways. This is the kind of book that will quite literally change your way of thinking about the Vikings, and it’s an absolute must-read.