{"product_id":"9780008565602","title":"God’s Hammer : A History of the Viking Crusades","description":"\u003cp\u003e Author(s): Williams, Thomas \u003cbr\u003e Binding: Hardback, \u003cbr\u003e Date of Publication: 08\/10\/2026,\u003cbr\u003e Pagination: 352 pages,\u003cbr\u003e ISBN13\\EAN\\SKU: 9780008565602,\u003cbr\u003e Description: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the bestselling author of Viking Britain, a stunning new perspective on the medieval world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  ‘Surprising, original and compelling’ RORY STEWART\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  Forward! Forward! Men of Christ, men of the Cross, men of the King!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e When we think of the Crusades, the image is usually squarely medieval: an era of pageantry, knights, castles and cathedrals. An age of violence, certainly, but one glossed with faith, chivalry and Christian derring-do.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e When we think of the Vikings, we most often see barbarism and pagan menace: Norse warriors drenched in blood-sacrifice and presided over by grim, brooding gods.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Both images are false, of course, created by centuries of cultural baggage. This book sets that history right, showing how the Vikings and their descendants embraced Christianity and the mores of mainstream Western Christendom – and how that Western medieval world imbibed the values and attitudes of the Vikings’ northern home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Telling the story of how the Vikings took up arms and the cross, this is a book that leads to extraordinary places: from Jerusalem and Istanbul to Novgorod and Tallinn, via cold northern seas and ice-shrouded northern forests. It tells stories full of adventure, horror and madness, of pilgrimages and war-paths, bodyguards and princes, holy missions and rapacious greed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e That which transformed the bounds of Christendom forever was a hammer forged in the pagan fires of the Viking Age.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Griffin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57535220679029,"sku":"9780008565602","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0379\/1365\/7388\/files\/9780008565602.jpg?v=1788081857","url":"https:\/\/www.griffinbooksonline.co.uk\/products\/9780008565602","provider":"Griffin Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}