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The Viking Way (book)

The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia
The Viking Way.JPG
The first edition cover of the book, depicting a late 10th century runestone from Aarhus, Denmark, decorated with a Mammen style face-mask.
Author Neil Price
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject Archaeology
Religious studies
Pagan studies
Publisher Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala
Publication date
2002
Media type Print (Hardcover and paperback)
Pages 435
ISBN

The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia is an archaeological study of Norse paganism in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. It was written by the English archaeologist Neil Price, then a professor at the University of Aberdeen, and first published by the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University in 2002. A revised second edition is due to be published in 2017 by Oxbow Books.

Price had worked on the subject of Norse paganism for his doctoral thesis, undertaken between 1988 and 2002, first at the University of York, England and then at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Although primarily archaeological, Price took an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, drawing evidence from other disciplines such as history and anthropology.

Divided into seven chapters, Price opened the book with a discussion of his theoretical approach, before providing an overview of what is known of pre-Christian Norse religion and magic from both literary and archaeological studies. He then moves into providing a deeper study of Seiðr, or Norse magical practices, identifying shamanic elements within it.

The book would be widely acclaimed by archaeologists working in European archaeology, and praised as a model for both future interdisciplinary research and for understanding past religious beliefs from an archaeological perspective.

The origins of The Viking Way came from Price's doctoral research, which he undertook at the University of York's Department of Archaeology from October 1988 through to May 1992. Under the supervision of the archaeologists Steve Roskams and Richard Hall, Price had initially focused his research on the Anglo-Scandinavian tenements at 16–22 Coppergate in York, although eventually moved away from this to focus on archaeology within Scandinavia itself. Personal circumstances meant that Price was unable to finish his doctoral thesis at York, and in 1992 he emigrated to Sweden, where he spent the following five years working as a field archaeologist. Despite his full-time employment, he continued to be engaged in archaeological research in a private capacity, publishing a series of academic papers and presenting others at conferences. In 1996 joined the Department of Archaeology at the University of Uppsala as a research scholar, beginning full-time work there the following year. At Uppsala, he went on to complete his doctoral thesis and gain his PhD under the supervision of Anne-Sofie Gräslund.


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