HIS 478/479: The Vikings
(formerly HIS 401)

The Vikings still manage to evoke images of dread and violence after a thousand years, but is this really the sum total of who they were? In this course, we will meet the Vikings in all of their guises: as farmers, traders, explorers, colonists, mercenaries, and plunderers. We will follow their travels and exploits from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean to Russia to North America. We will investigate the ways in which they influenced and were influenced by other early medieval peoples. We will look at their art and architecture, read their literature, and read what others wrote about them. In essence, this course will show the Vikings to be more than just violent pagan warriors.