Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781324089230)

In the time-stopping soils, waters, and ice of the North, a lost world is preserved. Remnants of wooden gaming boards scored into grids and counters made from colored glass, amber, and bone. Elegant antler combs that speak of a Viking love of grooming and hair care. Doodles by imaginative children and bored teenagers. Scraps of wood carved with runes that reveal hidden loves, furious curses, and drunken spouses summoned home from the pub.

Drawing on such traces, Eleanor Barraclough illuminates life in the medieval Nordic world--not just for the rampaging warriors we remember as Vikings, but people with recognizable concerns in a globally networked world. "Embers of the hands" is a poetic kenning from the Viking Age that referred to gold. But no less precious are the embers that Barraclough blows back to life in this book--those of ordinary lives long past.