History Reading List

Traditional Histories and Historical Sagas

• Íslendingabók by Ari Þorgilsson
• Landnámabók (several authors)
• History of the Danes by Saxo Grammaticus (trans. by Peter Fisher, with commentary by Hilda Davidson) [Gesta Danorum]
• Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson (also listed under sagas)
• Orkneyinga Saga (trans. H. Pálsson & P. Edwards)
• Saga of the Jómsvíkings (trans. by Lee Hollander)
• Vinland Sagas (trans. Keneva Kunz)
• Kristni Saga (trans. Siân Grønlie)

Vikings

• A History of the Vikings by Gwyn Jones
• The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings
• The Vikings (rev. ed.) by Else Roesdahl
• The Vikings by Robert Ferguson
• The Vikings: A New History by Neil Oliver
• The Age of the Vikings by Anders Winroth
• The Norse Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland, and North America (2nd ed.) by Gwyn Jones
• Viking Age Iceland by Jesse L. Byock
• The Viking Road to Byzantium by Hilda Davidson
• Viking: The Norse Warrior’s [Unofficial] Manual by John Haywood
• Viking Age: Everyday Life During the Extraordinary Era of the Norsemen by Kirsten Wolf
• Viking Language I: Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas by Jesse L. Byock (with historical vignettes)
• A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic by Geir T. Zoëga

 Religion and Clash of Cultures

• Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation by Sverre Bagge
• Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation circa 800-1500 by Birgit and Peter Sawyer
• The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe by Anders Winroth
• Women of the Reformation: From Spain to Scandinavia by Roland H. Bainton
• The Scandinavian Reformation: From Evangelical Movement to Institutionalisation of Reform, ed. by Ole Peter Grell

 Modern Scandinavian History

• Essays on Scandinavian History by H. Arnold Barton (18th-20th centuries)
• A History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland by T.K. Derry (includes 20th-century war years)
• Scandinavia Since 1500 by Byron J. Nordstrom
• Scandinavia in World Politics (Europe Today) by Christine Ingebritsen