{"product_id":"viking-pirates-and-christian-princes-dynasty-religion-and-empire-in-the-north-atlantic","title":"Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty  Religion  and Empire in the North Atlantic","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn popular imagination  the Vikings are remembered as fierce warrior seamen who campaigned through Western Europe  terrorizing British  Frankish  and Irish societies. Yet is it possible that the great Viking armies left more in their wake than carnage and destruction? The stories of two families-the Olafssons  who transformed a pirate camp in Ireland into the kingdom of Dublin  and the Haraldssons  whose rule encompassed Hebrides  Galloway  and the Isle of Man-suggest that the Vikings did indeed leave behind a much greater legacy. Between the tenth and twelfth centuries  these two Viking families  descendants of men whom earlier chroniclers dismissed as pagan pirates  established themselves as Christian rulers whose domain straddled the Scandinavian and Celtic worlds. The Olafssons and Haraldssons carved out empires that inspired fear and made their families fabulously wealthy. From their ranks came the settlers who gave name to the Danelaw in Britain  Fingal in Ireland  and Normandy in Francia. Celebrated in Icelandic sagas and poems  Irish tales  and French history  the Olafssons and Haraldssons took part in the last successful Scandinavian invasion of Britain and the overthrow of the last Old English kingdom  even as they allied with  fought against  and married their Irish neighbors. Though the families had come to these lands as conquerors  they soon learned the importance of cooperating with those they had vanquished. Even as they worshipped pagan gods  the Olafssons and Haraldssons both became important benefactors to the Christian church. They also played a crucial role in the economic revival of northern Europe as trading ships from their ports sailed throughout the Atlantic and the goods they produced traveled as far west as Canada. Under their rule  the seas became a connector for a shared culture  commercially  artistically  and socially. Challenging traditional views of the Vikings culture  Benjamin Hudson shows the role that these two great dynasties played in the Second Viking age. The rise and transformation of the Olafssons and Haraldsssons from the tenth to the twelfth centuries highlights a period and people important for understanding the political  religious  and cultural development of Europe in the High Middle Ages.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44954829160501,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195162374","price":92.67,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195162370.jpg?v=1770285799","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/viking-pirates-and-christian-princes-dynasty-religion-and-empire-in-the-north-atlantic","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}