Quite dry and factual enumeration of the Viking raids and expansion in various parts of Europe, from the end of the 8th century until (mostly) the middle of the 11th century . The perspective is mainly that of the areas that suffered from the raids and what they did or did not do about it. So the biggest shortcoming of this book is that we do not gain any insight into the causes of the Viking expansion, unless that it was all about “honor and bounty”. Of course it was, but as a historical explanation that seems hardly sufficient, especially since we are talking about a period of more than 2 centuries of almost unending 'terror'.
An interesting aspect though is the focus is on the ambiguous attitude of Western kings with regard to the Vikings: they often used them to get their own feudal lords into trouble, so that they would not affect their (royal) authority; in the end they only enforced the power of these local lords. The sketch of the gradual 'assimilation' of the Vikings, both in the areas they occupied, and in their home countries, is also quite remarkable. In short: a book that gives a limited number of answers about a very turbulent period in history. ( )