Contents
From the inner dust jacket
"From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord!" This was the fervent prayer that went up from every settlement along the coasts of England, Ireland, and Western Europe for almost three long centuries during the Middle Ages. For beginning about 787 AD, these mighty sea-warriors, pagans in winged helmets who rodde their slender dragon ships as other men rodde newly broken horses, swept out of the mists of northern seas to raid and ravage, to terrorize all Christendom.
Heathens they were, still practicing a violent religion based on superstition and dark magic. Barbarians, too, whose cruelty and ruthlessness reflected an equally unyielding personal code of ethics. Yet these tall giants from the rugged, cold northern peninsulas of Europe also possessed noble qualities. Driven by fierce energy and a love of personal freedom, they roamed northern seas, establishing outposts in Greenland, Iceland, and--for a short time, at least--America. And at home, isolated in a hard land, they developed an independent and fundamental democracy--an innate belief that one man is as good as another--that has made modern Norway, Sweden, andd Denmark among the most advanced cultures of our times.
Mr. Chubb's perceptive introduction to the ancestors of men like Hans Christian Andersen, Henrik Ibsen, Niels Bohr, and Dag Hammarskjold is handsomely illustrated by Richard M. Powers.
"From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord!" This was the fervent prayer that went up from every settlement along the coasts of England, Ireland, and Western Europe for almost three long centuries during the Middle Ages. For beginning about 787 AD, these mighty sea-warriors, pagans in winged helmets who rodde their slender dragon ships as other men rodde newly broken horses, swept out of the mists of northern seas to raid and ravage, to terrorize all Christendom.
Heathens they were, still practicing a violent religion based on superstition and dark magic. Barbarians, too, whose cruelty and ruthlessness reflected an equally unyielding personal code of ethics. Yet these tall giants from the rugged, cold northern peninsulas of Europe also possessed noble qualities. Driven by fierce energy and a love of personal freedom, they roamed northern seas, establishing outposts in Greenland, Iceland, and--for a short time, at least--America. And at home, isolated in a hard land, they developed an independent and fundamental democracy--an innate belief that one man is as good as another--that has made modern Norway, Sweden, andd Denmark among the most advanced cultures of our times.
Mr. Chubb's perceptive introduction to the ancestors of men like Hans Christian Andersen, Henrik Ibsen, Niels Bohr, and Dag Hammarskjold is handsomely illustrated by Richard M. Powers.
Pages
125