Northern World

The Renaissance made us forget our Northern ancestors, yet the contribution of Germanic-speaking peoples to our civilization between 400-1100 AD is in many ways as vital as that of the Latin speakers. Who were the Goths and Franks, Saxons and Celts, Slavs and Vikings to whom we owe so much? Together with the editor, David M. Wilson, a team of historians and archaeologists from England, German, Denmark and Sweden have condensed the discoveries of modern research into a concise and readable form illustrated by photographs and diagrams. Separate chapters are devoted to the Germanic tribes, the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians in their homeland, the Vikings overseas, the Celts (Picts, Scots, Irish and Welsh) and the Northern Slavs. In addition, there are two chapters bringing the story up to modern times - one on Germanic mythology, the other on Romanticism and Revival. These sections of the book reveal the power that the Nordic spirit had, and has, over the imagination. It has inspired writers and artists as diverse as William Morris and Richard Wagner, Henry Fuseli and J.R.R. Tolkein.
And in the emerging nationalism of the late 19th century, Nordic myths and legends were used to create new ideologies and to mould the character of new states.