Jay Elwes

Shock and awe — what should we make of our Viking ancestors?

They were the most extraordinary seamen and adventurers of all time, but their cruelty equally defies belief, according to Neil Price

Odin was a killer, a liar and a betrayer who would ‘sleep with your wife or, just possibly, your husband’. Alamy
  • Comments

  • The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

    Neil Price

    Allen Lane, pp. 624, £30

Already a subscriber? Log in

This article is for subscribers only

Subscribe today and get a £30 Amazon gift card if you correctly predict the next US president.

Offer ends in ${days} days ${hours} hrs ${minutes} mins ${seconds} secs
  • The weekly edition delivered, via the Spectator app
  • Unlimited access to spectator.co.uk
  • Spectator newsletters and exclusive events
  • The chance to win a case of Pol Roger Champagne

Read next

Trending

Rob Crossan

Below the belt: the indelicate truth about male grooming

From Spectator Life
Let’s get one thing perfectly clear. I’m British, divorced, ginger-haired and I once accidentally called the late Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale ‘mum’ during an interview. So there’s very little I can learn about embarrassment. Or so I thought. My perspective changed somewhere around the moment that a male groomer versed in the nascent trend

Because you read about cruelty

Also by Jay Elwes

Latest

Comments

Join the debate today

Guess the new US president when you subscribe, and get a £30 Amazon gift card.

Already a subscriber? Log in