The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

by Neil Price

Even veterans and civilian victims of modern wars would have difficulty contemplating the deaths of fully half the population, and the consequent collapse of social institutions. Today, even the worst disasters with the most appalling casualties nonetheless play out against a wider arena where these things are not happening. It is not hard to imagine how the Scandinavians of the sixth century felt that their whole world was falling into ruin, and slipping back into the primal emptiness from which it came. In a culture reliant on oral traditions for preserving and mediating history, it would not be surprising if, two hundred years later, the trauma was still clearly embedded in stories—a terrifying vision of endings and beginnings that were also part of a longer cycle. After all, the preordination of fate, the inevitability of the Ragnarök, and the gods’ knowledge of their coming doom form the constant pulse of Norse mythology.