Search results for ""Author John Haywood""

The fifth instalment in this popular and highly successful series, Viking follows on from Legionary, Gladiator, Knight and Samurai, your guide to the Norse world of the tenth century ad. Discover everything you will need to become a successful Viking warrior: how to join a war band; what to look for in a good leader; how to behave at a feast; what weapons and armour to choose; how to fight in a shield wall; where to go raiding; how to plunder a monastery and ransom a monk; how to navigate at sea; and what to expect if you die gloriously in battle. Modern reconstructions and ancient artefacts, including 16 pages of brilliant colour images, will immerse the reader visually in the Viking world. The humorous text peppered with quotes from sagas and chronicles will take you on an engrossing journey from joining a raiding party to how to die gloriously.

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'Haywood's lucid explanations of the cultures of the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians are vital to understanding the motivations for their movements' KIRKUS REVIEWS. The violent and predatory society of Dark Age Scandinavia left a unique impact on the history of medieval Europe. From their chill northern fastness, Norse warriors, explorers and merchants raided, traded, and settled across wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic from the late 8th to the mid-11th century. Northmen narrates their story focusing on places where key events were played out, from the sack of Lindisfarne in 793 to the murder in Iceland in 1241 of the saga-writer Snorri Sturluson. Such episodes are fascinating in themselves, but also shed crucial light on the nature of Viking activity – its causes, effects, and the reasons for its decline. In 800 the Scandinavians were barbarians in longships bent on plunder and rapine; by 1200, their homelands were an integral part of Latin Christendom. John Haywood tells, in authoritative but compellingly readable fashion, the extraordinary story of the Viking Age.

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Viking marauders in their longships burst through the defences of ninth-century Europe, striking terror into the hearts of peasants and rulers alike for two centuries. But the Vikings were more than just marine warriors and this atlas shows their development as traders and craftsmen, explorers, settlers and mercenaries. With over sixty full colour maps, it follows the tracks of the Viking merchants who travelled deep into Russia, of Viking mercenaries who served in the emperor’s bodyguard at Constantinople, and Viking mariners who sailed beyond the edge of the known world to North America.

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Sumeria, c.3500 BC, witnessed the birth of the world's very first city by the rich and fertile banks of the Uruk. Over the next four millennia, the social and cultural landscape would change beyond recognition as many of history's most important kingdoms and cities took root. Interweaving Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman history, this book follows these burgeoning empires over 4,000 years, examining the delicate balance of power as they vied for territory, conquest and glory. From Alexander the Great's 22,000-mile march on Persia to Attila the Hun's plunder of the Roman empire, John Haywood brings the most crucial battles and decisive campaigns to vivid life, and examines the extraordinary cultural achievements of these civilizations - the first written words, the spectacular works of architecture, the growth of democracy and the spread of religions - that changed our world for ever.

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In a series of 54 stunning full-colour maps covering 3,000 years and spanning the whole of Europe, this book, newly available in paperback, comprehensively charts the dramatic history of the Celts from their origins in the Bronze Age to their present-day diaspora. Taking into account the latest research and academic controversies over the historical identity of the Celts, the Atlas deals separately with the Continental Celts (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Anatolia), the Atlantic Celts (Britain and Ireland) and the modern Celts and the current state of Celtic culture.

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This new historical atlas - richly illustrated with photographs, artwork recreations and full-colour maps - explores the Middle Ages from the coming of the barbarian invasions in the fourth century to the first voyages to the New World in the sixteenth. Coverage of major events - the Hundred Years' War, the Christian Reconquest of Spain - is supplemented by discussion of such key topics as the medieval economy, the growth of towns and the spread of printing, resulting in a rich and multi-faceted introduction to Europe and its neighbours in the Middle Ages.

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