Vikings (54 page)

The Jelling rune stone raised by Harald Bluetooth to commemorate his parents and to boast about his conversion of the Danes to Christianity. The carving is believed to show Jesus Christ freeing himself from the tangles of a thorn bush – symbolising the emergence of the new faith from the confusions of the old pagan religion.

The baptism of Harald Bluetooth by the priest Poppo, as depicted on one of a set of gilt plaques on display in Tamdrup Church, in Jutland, Denmark.

Reconstructed Viking longhouse, at Trelleborg Fortress, Denmark.

The Cuerdale silver hoard – the largest Viking hoard ever found. Buried between
AD
905 and 910 beside the Ribble River in Lancashire, it amounts to around 8,500 coins, ingots and jewellery.

Cnut the Great, King of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden.

Die Reichskrone
– the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Emperor.

A Phoenix Paperbacks ebook

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Ebook first published in 2012 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

This ebook published in 2013 by Phoenix

© Neil Oliver 2012

The right of Neil Oliver to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

‘The Tollund Man’ taken from
Wintering Out
© Seamus Heaney and reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-0-2978-6788-3

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