Viking Age Iceland: A Proto-democratic Community?

This 49 of our ongoing series about Viking Age Iceland. For centuries, this island country, unique in Medieval Europe, operated with no king, no great lords, no foreign policy, and no defense forces but which developed legal and judicial systems to limit the violence of bloodfeud and protect the rights of freemen. Far out in the North Atlantic, Iceland was where the famousContinue reading “Viking Age Iceland: A Proto-democratic Community?”

The Vikings Were More Complicated Than You Might Think

To see more Viking articles, click here. By James Gorman One of the biggest surveys ever of ancient DNA offers new evidence of who the Vikings were and where they went raiding and trading. Public fascination with the Vikings runs high these days, with several current television series available for bloody binge-watching. But the Vikings haveContinue reading “The Vikings Were More Complicated Than You Might Think”

Viking Age Iceland: Privatization of Power in the Tenth Century

This 48 of our ongoing series about Viking Age Iceland. For centuries, this island country, unique in Medieval Europe, operated with no king, no great lords, no foreign policy, and no defense forces but which developed legal and judicial systems to limit the violence of bloodfeud and protect the rights of freemen. Far out in the North Atlantic, Iceland was where the famousContinue reading “Viking Age Iceland: Privatization of Power in the Tenth Century”