The Vikings: From Odin to Christ is a thorough study of the growth and eventual dominance of Christianity in Viking society. I loved the organization of the book - the authors provided the reader with a grounding in Pagan/pre-Christian Viking beliefs and then methodically moved through time and place. The focus on the sweep of Christianity through each Viking country was helpful in showing that Viking is an umbrella term for a disparate group of people and countries.
As I made my way through the book, I found myself returning multiple times to the timeline and list of important people - this information kept me on track, even if it was several days between reading sessions.
The tone of the book is like a textbook, which can make long reading sessions challenging. I found that I got the most out of the book by reading it in bursts of 15 or 20 minutes. The information in the book is valuable and I will refer back to it in the future.

A Peculiar Perspective of the Vikings!

The title 'The Vikings: From Odin to Christ' was what attracted me to pick up this book. Told from a rare point of view, the book offers surprising facts about the conversion of Viking communities to Christianity. Many thanks to the authors Martyn Whittock & Hannah Whittock for breaking the stereotype of the Vikings and showing their softer side.

While the title may cause one to jump to the conclusion that the book has a religious bent, the truth is not quite so restrictive. Though the authors do talk about the Vikings becoming Christians, this story is more of the backbone of the book rather than a driving focus.

What I found interesting about the book were the many “facts” I had come to accept as true that have no basis in actual history. Authors Martyn Whittock and Hannah Whittock (father and daughter) dispel many myths that have rooted and grown over the years, including the fact that no archaeological dig has ever unearthed those skullcaps with horns we always see in the movies.

This book is a fascinating account of Vikings throughout history as well as their travels around the world. Their exploits took them everywhere, including the Middle East (would you believe the decline of the Middle East brought about a reduction of silver, which provided a reason to why Vikings needed to venture out and find more, although in a more violent fashion than when they traded for it).

The impact of the Vikings upon the world (and the world upon them) provides a different viewpoint, one most of us have probably never experienced before. History buffs as well as those who only possess a mild curiosity about the past should both find this book a good read. Five stars.

I give The Vikings by Martyn and Hannah Whittock 5 stars. This was such a fun and informative read. I loved the way that it was set up, country to country, and how it covered so much without being dense or overdoing the details. I also appreciated that they they were respectful about they’re descriptions.

An interesting book that focuses on the conversion of "pagan" Viking society to Christian over the course of a few hundred years. Definitely more of a text book approach to the subject than written for the general history loving audience. I found the writing style annoyingly repetitive, with a tendency to summarize the statements the authors made almost immediately after making them. Not necessarily a book the general history lover will enjoy as a 'fun' read, there is still plenty to be gotten out of "The Vikings". I might recommend reading only one chapter at a time to reduce the repetition of information.

As a lover of things Scandinavian. I love reading and learning about Vikings as they are part of my bloodline. So this book was very comprehensive in detailing the paths of this culture as it adapted from Paganism to Christianity. I enjoyed this book very much! I voluntarily read this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I love History and greatly enjoy the chance to learn something new or expand on my learning. Well the extent of my Vikings knowledge is gained from TV; The Vikings and The Last KIngdom. This book really filled in gaps and taught me even more.
Now, the first few pages are dates and names. I'm hopeless at both these things, so they didn't stick, but were interesting to read. And thanks to the aforementioned TV shows I found I actually knew some of the people mentioned.
And then we're off. From the first raid all the way through the Northman's journeys through Europe and through religion. I was fascinating not only to learn, but to hear were preconceive notions have come from. No horned helmets, but a few winged ones.
Overall the book was fascinating and conversational. The author has a comfortable and relaxed tone that makes the information easier to digest
Grab this book for bedside read and finish each day by curling up with a new bit of info about how Northman.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lion Hudson Ltd. for the opportunity to read and review this title.

The fascination with the Vikings has interested people for ages. The fact that they were so quickly converted to the christian culture leaving a majority of theirs behind, The authors did a wonderful job of tracing the vikings through the ages and provide the information in a concise and informative way. The research was abundant and will done. The book was written in a way that anyone can follow the path of the vikings. They presented more than one side to a theory. This is a very good book and would be a good one for anyone that is researching the history of the Viking era.

Wow! This book is so fascinating ,and it is full of surprising facts. Who knew that they converted to Christianity, despite having a plethora of Gods to choose from in their own culture? I knew they attacked York and Lindisfarne ( Holy Island) and had many settlements in East Anglia, but they travelled to Spain, North Africa and Russia,that's just amazing!!
This book is a mine of information. It mentions key people of those times, plus the many complicated spellings involved, battle timelines, place names, family naming systems and evidence of habitation as seen in Anglo Saxon chronicles, engravings and relics of jewellery, sailing boats and household goods.
This is a well researched textbook, it may be dry and tedious at times, with many pages devoted to endless lists of names and dates. But, it does dispel many myths about this remarkable group of explorers and adventurers, who became known as Vikings.
My knowledge of Vikings has been courtesy of the Last Kingdom novels of Bernard Cornwell, and he is spot on with so many details as confirmed by this excellent book. A book to return to when travelling around the country on holiday, and further information is needed.

This was well written, and kept my interest, not easy for nonfiction to do. I learned a lot of "global history" , putting pieces together from different countries that I hadn't connected before, how things affected other areas of the world. I look forward to reading it again with my boys when they are old enough to study the Viking time period.

I was inspired by the impact of the faithful Christians in occupied territories.

📌 I received a copy of the book from @NetGalley and choose to review it here.

Martyn and Hannah Whittock have given history buffs a real gift in their book “The Vikings: From Odin to Christ”. Their book is a necessary corrective on the popular imagination regarding Vikings.

Vikings are stuck in the popular imagination as pagan raiders in horned helmets, sacking and looting, raping and drinking. One of the main thrusts of the Whittock’s book is to remind us that the perception of the first waves of Viking raiders by the rest of Europe applies to only a small period of their history and a small segment of their culture. Vikings were conquerors and nation builders. They were heirs of a vibrant cultural dynamic which deeply influenced nearly all European cultures, changing them irrevocably. Furthermore, even as they were changing the cultures they came into contact with, the Vikings were themselves being changed in profound ways. Perhaps the most important change was in their religious mythos, from Norse paganism to Christianity.

This history is first rate. Their case is well made from the start. Today, the average person knows almost nothing about the people we call Vikings. What’s more, most of what we do know is very unhelpful and misleading.

The writing is accessible for most lay readers with a rudimentary grasp of European history. Simultaneously, it provides in-depth charts, indexes, and reading suggestions for those who want to dive deeper into this story.

I’m convinced most readers will be blown away by this amazing saga of the Norse culture and the incredible transformation it underwent from the eighth century on. I could not put this book down.

First off you have to understand that Martyn has written 47 history books, MANY of them on the Norse, Viking and Anglo-Saxons, so he KNOWS what he is talking about. he has literally spent a LIFE time researching this topic and it shows on EVERY page! This sincerely is one of the best history books I've read! There is SO much in each chapter to learn, even those of us who THINK we know this story!

Did you know that not only was the first settlement in North America a Viking one,so was the birth of the first CHRISTIAN child! Didn't realize that the Vikings, aka the Norse, were Christian? Yup! Christianity was a way for the Viking chiefs to unit the different tribes, and to make compacts and bindings with their Anglo enemies. And it wasn't just in Norway and North America, but in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Denmark, Sweden, Normandy, and even into Russia (Kiev region). Suddenly the raging Vikings look more like an empire to rival Britain and Spain, don't they? And in fact, without the Viking/Norse influence, Northern Europe and Western Russia might not look the way they do today (and also went a LONG way to explain some of my DNA genealogy findings).

I wish this was a book that I had read back in high school BEFORE European history, as it would have made so much more make SENSE. Not to mention give a proper perspective of actual history! Now all the Anglo Saxon warfare and royalty changes are understandable, as they rotated from Anglo to Norse to Anglo, and lines of succession intermarried and shifted! It also goes a long way into helping to explain why the Celts have such a deep seated hatred of the Anglos that came and took over from the Norse invaders. They just swapped one invader for another, who also sought to take away their culture and religion! In Ireland and Scotland, there was a typical settle and take over, but how the different tribes merged and combined, keeping parts of each original culture was intriguing. And then they were bound together in Christianity-showing how the MESSAGE resounded with all.

Much more than just a simple Viking history book, this book is an amazing look at the history of Christianity and how the Norse spread it among their empire. It should be required reading for all history students, and I HIGHLY recommend it for homeschool high schoolers!

Very good review of the Vikings and their history. It was interesting reading about the conversion from pagan to Christian country by country. This book will be a great reference for other authors writing about this time period.

The Vikings: From Odin to Christ, written by a scholarly father and daughter team, Martyn & Hannah Whittock, was an interesting, unique, and well researched history of the Vikings. Here is the publisher’s description of the book:

“The popular image of the Vikings is of tall red-headed men, raping and pillaging their way around the coast of Europe, stopping only to ransack monasteries and burn longships. But the violent Vikings of the 8th century became the pious Christians of the 11th century, who gave gold crosses to Christian churches and in whose areas of rule pagan idols were destroyed and churches were built. So how did this radical transformation happen, and why? What difference did it make to the Vikings, and to those around them, and what is their legacy today? This book takes a "global" look at this key period in Viking history, exploring all the major areas of Viking settlement. Written to be an accessible and engaging overview for the general reader.”

I read a LOT of history and taught a LOT of history and developed library collections of diverse history books most of which I read and I learned a lot from this book. I have to be honest—some sections were more interesting than others to me because of my unique interests—and this book covers an extensive part of the world in great detail. So it isn’t just Scandinavian history. The Vikings sailed to the Americas long before Christopher Columbus and the book covers that, they settled so many parts of the North Atlantic, they settled in places like Russia and France and England and Ireland and intermarried with those peoples and absorbed their cultures. Did you know the Normans were descended from the Vikings? As in William the Conquerer of 1066 fame? Did you know they fairly rapidly embraced and spread Christianity? If you were a Norse woman during the pagan era, Valhalla was only for men, and infanticide was practiced which made life pretty bleak. Christianity changed all that. The Whittock’s did an amazing job of extensively documenting the book with everything from archaeological evidence to the Norse sagas of the era, and the book will change your stereotypical view of the Vikings.

So if you are interested in the real story of the Vikings—this is the history book for you!

Except from the book:
“Modern historians tend to use the term the “Viking Age” to describe a period which ran from the late eighth century until about 1100. During this period people from Scandinavia first of all raided and then later settled across a wide geographical area, from Russia in the east, to Greenland and the coast of North America in the west. They raided on both sides of the English Channel and then later settled in Normandy, in eastern and northern England, across the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland, and also established a Viking kingdom in Dublin. Vikings colonized Iceland, the Faroe Islands and parts of Greenland. These North Atlantic colonists used both Norway and Ireland as springboards for these particular settlements and modern DNA testing shows that a large proportion of the female genetic heritage in modernday Iceland is Irish-derived (clearly brought there as wives, slaves or both combined). Some Vikings took part in raids which reached Spain and North Africa, while Swedish Vikings explored the eastern Baltic and followed the river systems down into the eastern Mediterranean. This is a staggeringly diverse area and remarkable in its geographical range. In this book we will, at times, extend the final end date of the Viking Age beyond 1100, in order to see how Christianity influenced some Scandinavian Viking societies.”

Thank you publisher Lion Hudson Ltd and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book and for allowing me to review it.

Informative, well researched and an ideal read for those studying Christianity and wish to have a wider scope on the historical aspects of faith than academics sometimes allow for. It's well written and easy to read so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to some of my students.

For many of us, the story of the Vikings is quite fascinating. Most often, they are portrayed as pagans who travelled the waterways raiding villages with savage brutality.
While this was often the truth, there is a bit more to them than that and this book dispels some of the myths surrounding the Vikings.

With a focus on the Vikings path to Christianity, readers follow the Vikings from the earliest records and evidence, both from archeological sites and written records. While the book does read more like a text book and is tedious at times, it was interesting to learn how the Vikings began to evolve from pagans to Christians. Contrary to popular belief, Vikings turned to Christianity much earlier than we are led to belief from myths, stories and popular television.

I found the book to be very informative, but there were many names and details to remember. I recommend this to history lovers and Viking enthusiasts who don’t mind textbook style reading.

My thanks to NetGalley and Lion Hudson Limited for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

This is an informative book about Vikings. Its more of a text book form but great! awesome book to have on hand if you have questions!

Giving it a 5/5 stars because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

Fascinating treatise on Viking history that will make you re-think what you’ve been taught in school and what what pop culture tries to propagate. As I am someone who has always been interested in Viking culture and history - and that of the lands in which they conquered - this was right in my wheelhouse. Many thanks for this ARC copy to review!

This is very good history of the Vikings with a particular focus on their conversion to Christianity
The book is wide in its scope covering everything from settlements in North America to Rus.
Never too academic, this book offers an interesting story to a general history audience

This informative text book contains the history of the Norse from pagan times to early Christianity.

It was a very interesting read, but, since it's a text book, it's not a book you read for leasure/pleasure. Hence it took me some time to get through it.