Description: "Viking literature is dominated by famous last stands, famous last words, death songs and defiant gestures, all laced with grim humour. Much of this mindset is alien to modern sentiment, and academics have accordingly shunned it. And yet, it is the same worldvew that has always powered the popular public image of the Vikings - with their berserkers, valkeyries and cults of Valhalla and Ragnarok - and has also been corroborated by archaeological discoveries. Was it this mindset that powered the sudden eruption of the Vikings onto the European scene? Was it a belief in heroic death that made them so lastingly successful against so many bellicose opponents? Weighing the evidence of sagas and poetry against the accounts of the Vikings' victims, Tom Shippey considers these questions as he plumbs the complexities of Viking psychology and recounts many of the great bravura scenes of Old Norse literature, including the Fall of the House of Skjoldunds, the clash between two great longships Ironbeard and Long Serpent, and the death of Thormod the skald."--
Brief description: Tom Shippey has taught at six universities in the United Kingdom and the United States, including Oxford and Harvard. He is well-known for his writings on medieval literature and on the way that literature has been re-created in modern times--notably by Professor J. R. R. Tolkien, whom he followed as chair of English language and medieval literature at the University of Leeds. He is professor emeritus at Saint Louis University, Missouri, and the author of many books, including The Road to Middle-Earth, J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, and Hard Reading: Learning from Science Fiction, as well as the editor of The Critical Heritage: Beowulf and The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm's Mythology of the Monstrous.
Review Quotes: "As a sprawling guide to Viking history, Laughing Shall I Die makes compelling reading. Shippey's wide-ranging survey of the literature is lucid and engaging, presenting his view in a way that's revealing even for readers already familiar with the subject material, and accessible for those who aren't . . . The author's voice is memorable and idiosyncratic, making this an easy and enjoyable read despite its scholarship. Laughing Shall I Die is an informative and entertaining read for anyone interested in the Viking age."-- "Fortean Times"