The Vikings and the Victorians: Inventing the Old North in Nineteenth-Century Britain

The first book-length treatment of C19 fascination with Norse heroes.

This is the first book-length treatment of the Victorians' fascination with the old north. It explores the ways in which the terms 'Viking' and 'Viking Age', both unknown in 1800, were invented, explored and popularised during thenineteenth century. The material examined - published and unpublished - includes novels, poems, plays, lectures, reviews, secondary school textbooks, saga-stead travelogues, private correspondence...