River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads (Pegasus), by Cat Jarman

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River Kings by Cat Jarman

What’s new in Viking history? It’s anything that can be shown by archeology aided by DNA and other new methods of testing old bones. Cat Jarman is in the emerging field of bioarcheology whose methods have become increasingly refined even as new digs turn up new artifacts—and more bones.

Recent discoveries in the field and in the lab show that the old outline of Viking history was correct. They did travel in those remarkable long boats between islands in the north from Britain all the way to Nova Scotia, down into the Mediterranean Sea and through networks of rivers into Russia and the Black Sea. However, the new research indicates that the Viking gene pool was not as homogenous as once thought and immigration into, not just out of, Scandinavia had occurred.

Much remains unknown. The immigrants could have been wives stolen during Viking raids or expeditions, slaves or foreign merchants operating from trading centers in the northern lands. The digs show evidence of river queens as well as kings. Those Valkyries might have been more than myths.

Jarman is careful not to draw certainties in her conclusions. If in 2,000 years most written records of our civilization were lost, some archeologists digging through our debris might conclude that the location of IKEA stores says something about the distribution of Scandinavian immigrants, she writes. The mixed results of DNA findings on Viking graves goes to show that people belong more to the culture with which they identify than with their family tree.