u/Invariable_Outcome

A comprehensive overview of the Viking Age, specifically focused on overseas colonisation. Forte, Oram and Pedersen take a broad view and start their account with the battle of Teutoburg Forest. A bold choice, but they convincingly argue that the contact with the Roman military sphere started a process of professionalisation among Germanic warriors that extended into Scandinavia and down to the middle ages.

The Scandinavian settlement in Ireland, England, the surrounding islands, the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland is recounted in detail, including the eventual assimilation into the Scottish and English kingdoms and identity.

Towards the end, the narrative briefly covers the Northern crusades of the 13th century that saw the consolidation of the Danish kingdom and the further integration into the European Catholic sphere. On the process of the consolidation of the Scandinavian kingdoms past the Viking Age, I can recommend Cross and Scepter, which delves into the complex power dynamics between kings, aristocracy and the church.

Personally, I don't know. To me it feels a bit like rehashing the COVID pandemic, but maybe it could be cool, the writing team could be doing a creative spin on it.

I can recommend this volume on the Staufer emperor. Abulafia recounts Frederick's life and argues that the popular image of the emperor as a crypto-atheist or Muslim is the result of papal propaganda and that of him as a renaissance man prefiguring modernity is largely exaggerated. In his view, Frederick was a man of his time, a conventional emperor and also an orthodox Catholic and a sincere crusader.