The audiobook contains the course lectures; the PDF is the course guide / summary.

As raiders and explorers, the Vikings played a decisive role in the formation of Latin Christendom, and particularly of western Europe.

Now, in a series of 36 vivid lectures by an honored teacher and classical scholar, you have the opportunity to understand this remarkable race as never before, studying the Vikings not only as warriors, but in all of the other roles in which they were equally extraordinary - merchants, artists, kings, raiders, seafarers, shipbuilders, and creators of a remarkable literature of myths and sagas. Professor Harl draws insights from an astonishing array of sources: The Russian Primary Chronicle (a Slavic text from medieval Kiev), 13th-century Icelandic poems and sagas, Byzantine accounts, Arab geographies, annals of Irish monks who faced Viking raids, Roman reports, and scores of other firsthand contemporary documents.

Among the topics you'll explore are the profound influence of the Norse gods and heroes on Viking culture and the Vikings' extraordinary accomplishments as explorers and settlers in Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. And with the help of archaeological findings, you'll learn to analyze Viking ship burials, rune stones and runic inscriptions, Viking wood carving, jewelry, sculpture, and metalwork. By the end of the series, you'll have a new understanding of what it meant to be a Viking and a richer appreciation of this remarkable race - a people who truly defined the history of Europe, and whose brave, adventurous, and creative spirit still survives today.

Contents:

1. The Vikings in Medieval History
2. Land and People of Medieval Scandinavia
3. Scandinavian Society in the Bronze Age
4. Scandinavia in the Celtic and Roman Ages.
5. The Age of Migrations
6. The Norse Gods
7. Runes, Poetry, and Visual Arts
8. Legendary Kings and Heroes
9. A Revolution in Shipbuilding
10. Warfare and Society in the Viking Age
11. Merchants and Commerce in the Viking Age
12. Christendom on the Eve of the Viking Age
13. Viking Raids on the Carolingian Empire
14. The Duchy of Normandy
15. Viking Assault on England
16. The Danelaw
17. Viking Assault on Ireland
18. Norse Kings of Dublin and Ireland
19. The Settlement of Iceland
20. Iceland—A Frontier Republic
21. Skaldic Poetry and Sagas
22. Western Voyages to Greenland and Vinland
23. Swedes in the Baltic Sea and Russia
24. The Road to Byzantium
25. From Varangians into Russians
26. Transformation of Scandinavian Society
27. St. Anskar and the First Christian Missions
28. Formation of the Kingdom of Denmark
29. Cnut the Great
30. Collapse of Cnut’s Empire
31. Jarls and Sea Kings of Norway
32. St. Olaf of Norway
33. Kings of the Swedes and Goths
34. Christianization and Economic Change
35. From Vikings to Crusaders
36. The Viking Legacy