Ebook: The Vikings: The British Museum, London. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Catalog of an Exhibition held at the British Museum, London, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Vikings have had a bad press. Their activities are equated with rape and pillage and their reputation for brutality is second only to that of the Huns and the Goths. Curiously, they have also been invested with a strange glamour which contradicts in many ways their fearsome image. The wanton, healthy, cheerful, blond Viking has been a firmly established literary figure since the early nineteenth century. The British Museum by means of this book and the exhibition which it illustrates is trying in some ways to redress the balance. In a brutal age the Vikings were brutal, but their brutality was no worse than that of their contemporaries. It is not without significance that the English word 'law' has a Scandinavian root, nor that some of the administrative divisions of England in use until the middle of this century were established by Scandinavian settlers. The Vikings were administrators as well as pirates, merchants as well as robbers.

The Scandinavians of the Viking Age had a strong and vital culture of their own, although they were always ready to take up outside influences and ideas. The culture of these people is indicated in this book, as is their daring and adventurous spirit. The discovery of America, the acceptance of Christianity, the creation of nation-states and the government of colonies are all part of this story, as are a distinctive art and considerable technical skill. It is to show all these facets of the Viking character that we have mounted this exhibition and written this book.