Audiobook: Normans in Europe

This short history of the Normans in Europe opens with the invasions of the Vikings, who came from Scandinavian villages among rugged rocks and deep fiords. Johnson recounts how their myths of strife and woe, of the frost giants and of the crafty Loki, expressed their twin ideals of resourcefulness and war. These restless bands ravaged England, Germany, and France, penetrating the continents in their shallow-draft, half-decked ships. He writes that wherever they went they showed "themselves great warriors, founders, organizers, and administrators." Here are Rollo the Ganger, Harald Bluetooth, Sven Forkbeard and their descendants: William the Conqueror, and his sons, the dissolute William Rufus, the feckless crusader Robert, doomed to die a captive, and competent, ruthless King Henry. - Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.