{"product_id":"the-hammer-and-the-cross-9780141017754","title":"The Hammer and the Cross","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor those living outside Scandinavia, the Viking Age effectively began in 793 with an attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne, a characteristically violent harbinger of what was in store for Britain and much of Europe from the Vikings for the next 300 years, until the final destruction of the heathen temple to the Norse gods at Uppsala around 1090. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRobert Ferguson is a sure guide across what he calls ''the treacherous marches which divide legend from fact in Viking Age history''. His long familiarity with the literary culture of Scandinavia - the eddas, the poetry of the skalds and the sagas - is combined with the latest archaeological discoveries and the evidence of picture-stones, runes, ships and objects scattered all over northern Europe, to make the most convincing modern portrait of the Viking Age in any language. \u003ci\u003eThe Hammer and the Cross\u003c\/i\u003e ranges from Scandinavia itself to Kievan Rus and Byzantium in the east, to Iceland, Greenland and the north American settlemen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFerguson adds another layer to our perception of our origins in this compelling and often poignant account of a pagan warrior society faced with Christianity on the march * Independent *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732390490455,"sku":"9780141017754","price":12.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780141017754.jpg?v=1719996674","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-hammer-and-the-cross-9780141017754","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}