“The Vikings were not only slavers, but the kidnapping, sale and forced exploitation of human beings was always a central pillar of their culture.” So says Professor Neil Price in his thought-provoking new book The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings.
The place of slavery in Viking culture isn’t something that always gets referenced in popular history, so I asked Professor Price why that was when I interviewed him for the HistoryExtra podcast.
“Slavery studies in the Viking Age have been attracting more and more attention over the past 15 years or so. It’s one of those things I think that we’ve always known about. Every description of raids that comes from that time talks about people being taken away into captivity. It’s not like we didn’t know. And even if you look at the later sources, like the famous Icelandic sagas, there are lots of enslaved people in those stories.
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