Summary of Daniel McCoy's The Viking Spirit

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 The longship sways on the windy sea like a seer in a trance. After days of hard rowing, the crew is exhausted. They had set sail from the western coast of Scandinavia several days ago, bound for the eastern coast of England.

#2 The Vikings landed in a deserted town, and began to search it. They found a large ornate building in the center of the city, and entered it. The building was more lavish than anything Sverrir had ever seen, and the townspeople had apparently brought all of their valuables into it.

#3 The townspeople of Bebbanburg perform a strange gesture that involves touching one of their hands to four different parts of their torso and head as the Vikings begin to hew down anyone who stands in their way. The Vikings suffer heavy losses in the battle, and most distressingly for Sverrir, Hauk falls after having fought valiantly.

#4 The poem was so intricate and learned that the simple warriors could not understand parts of it. The king was said to be a descendent of Odin, and his generosity was unparalleled. The raid was presented as an unmitigated, glorious victory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669365358

IRB Media

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Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The longship sways on the windy sea like a seer in a trance. After days of hard rowing, the crew is exhausted. They had set sail from the western coast of Scandinavia several days ago, bound for the eastern coast of England.

#2

The Vikings landed in a deserted town, and began to search it. They found a large ornate building in the center of the city, and entered it. The building was more lavish than anything Sverrir had ever seen, and the townspeople had apparently brought all of their valuables into it.

#3

The townspeople of Bebbanburg perform a strange gesture that involves touching one of their hands to four different parts of their torso and head as the Vikings begin to hew down anyone who stands in their way. The Vikings suffer heavy losses in the battle, and most distressingly for Sverrir, Hauk falls after having fought valiantly.

#4

The poem was so intricate and learned that the simple warriors could not understand parts of it. The king was said to be a descendent of Odin, and his generosity was unparalleled. The raid was presented as an unmitigated, glorious victory.

#5

The world in which the Norse myths and religion flourished was a world of startling accomplishment. The Vikings raided throughout Europe, conquered large parts of it, and established settlements in Iceland and Greenland. But it was also a world of startling squalor and brutality.

#6

Before you can have a meaningful discussion about a topic, you first have to define the terms you’re using. The phrase Norse religion is made up of two words, both of which must be defined separately before being brought together again.

#7

The Norse religion was a set of symbolic ideas, personages, stories, and ritual actions appropriate to connecting the Vikings to the numinous. It was never systematized or codified, and there were no creeds or scriptures that defined what was acceptable and unacceptable to believe or do.

#8

The Old Norse language did not have a word for religion, and what we call religion was seamlessly integrated into the other aspects of life. The religious hierarchy was the same as the secular hierarchy. Kings, chieftains, and other rulers were seen as being divine in some capacity.

#9

The only written sources we have from pre-Christian times in northern Europe are runic inscriptions, which are brief and tell us very little. The Viking culture was an oral culture, and no traditional poems have survived that recount mythic and religious topics.

#10

The Edda is a collection of anonymous Old Norse poetry compiled in Iceland in the thirteenth century. It was written by Snorri Sturluson, a man of great learning and ambition, to provide a handbook on how to write traditional Norse poetry.

#11

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