The image of the pillaging Viking raider is a mainstay of popular culture, but behind that image lies a much more complex reality. From its base in Scandinavia, the Viking world stretched from the Arab caliphates in the east across the whole of Europe and out to North America in the west; it was diverse, culturally complicated and politically influential. 

This course will explore aspects of the Viking world by examining both the myths that they told themselves, and the myths told about them. We will examine elements of the reality of their society in their art, technology, social structures and in their vibrant literature. Topics studied will usually include: gender roles; power and magic; questions of literacy; the technology of ships and weapons; religion and conversion; and the consequences of conquest. 

Students will interrogate and engage with a wide variety of primary source material (both documentary and archaeological) produced by the Vikings and by their opponents – as well as with the vibrant secondary literature.  In addition, through the creation of our own virtual exhibition, we will look at how their cultural interaction with a wide variety of other peoples (from the Sámi in the Arctic Circle and the Mi'kmaq in North America, through Christian Europe to the Slavic countries, the Byzantine empire and beyond to the Muslim world) is reflected in the surviving evidence.  

Related study trip

A visit to the British Museum to see its magnificent Viking-period artefacts.

ASE reserves the right to change the content of course-specific study trips where necessary.