Volume 49, Number 6 · April 11, 2002
Why Did the Vikings Vanish?
By Jared Diamond
Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga
by William W. Fitzhugh and Elisabeth I. Ward
Smithsonian Institution Press, 432 pp., $60.00; $34.95 (paper)
When moviegoers of my generation hear the word 'Vikings,' we picture Chieftain Kirk Douglas leading his bearded barbarians on voyages of raiding, raping, robbing, and killing. There is much truth to that gory image: the Vikings did indeed terrorize medieval Europe for several centuries. In their own language, Old Norse, even the word víkingar meant 'men who go raiding in boats.'
Review, 4190 words
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