The Sea Wolves

Review #1

The Sea Wolves audiobook free

After discovering my true DNA and ancestry was in fact not Irish and German as I had always been told, I realized I was Scottish and Scandinavian (Swedish, Danish, and a little Norwegian). This prompted me to forgo all preconceived notions about myself and family heritage. I dove head first into the journey of expanding my knowledge of the Scots and the Vikings. My eyes were opened wide after reading this book to the vastness the Vikings reached across the world. I knew Vikings raided the British Isles and Ireland, but never would I have imagined a Viking walking side by side with a Roman Emperor in Constaninople or Vikings developing modern regions such as Dublin, York, Normandy and even further east such as Ukraine and Russia. This was a fantastic read!

Review #2

The Sea Wolves audiobook

A comprehensive and fun read about the rise and fall of the Vikings from about 700-1100. I learned a lot, and thoroughly enjoyed the non-academic reading style. A good introduction to the Vikings and Middle Ages Europe generally.

Review #3

Audiobook The Sea Wolves by Lars Brownworth

I’ve read extensively on the subject of Vikings. Sea Wolves the book not only brings you up to speed on the Vikings outstanding sea worthiness it also delves into the people as a whole. From farmers to fishermen , from warriors to the mindset of the Viking individual. This book is very in depth, you have to know that there is more to the Viking people other than what the TV series shows us. Obviously there were other note worthy Viking kings, earls, shield maidens and adventurers. This book goes far beyond Ragnar Lothbrook, his sons,
Largetha and Flokie. Read the book and open yourself up to a whole new understanding of the Viking people. I highly recommend this book.

Review #4

Audio The Sea Wolves narrated by Joe Barrett

An extremely informative, very readable, and wide-ranging work. While the author does provide a short bibliography, it is unfortunate that he chose not to include an index for a cast of, seemingly, hundreds. The enjoyment in reading this work, however, is sometimes interrupted by mistakes in grammar and semantics, which could have been easily detected by careful proofreading: “…the sobriquet by which his [he’s] most well known….” “The Anglican king Aella of Northumbria, who’s [whose] lands had been a favorite target….” “Captured enemies were routinely blinded, maimed, tortured, or hung [sic].” The author should know that unlike pictures that are hung, persons are hanged—a mistake he makes repeatedly.

Comprehension would have been aided by the use of hyphens, e.g. five year reign, coin based, gold encrusted. Errors in apostrophes are bothersome, e.g. “The Saxon’s… now moved in….” “The Viking’s mobility had been the key to their success….” “The closest the Byzantine’s got to explaining it was….” Grammar mistakes are numerous: “If neither of those two options were [sic] available….” “…weapons which he forbid [sic] any Norseman to sell….” “… six women who [sic] the men refused to kill….” “… a nephew who [sic] he had expelled for treason.” The author is inconsistent in his use of who and whom, on at least one occasion (though not here) correctly choosing whom.

The above are examples of carelessness or ignorance (hung vs. hanged). A more serious mistake is that of the dangling participle, which here makes one wonder just who was doing what to whom: “On the return trip to Kiev, while attempting to negotiate one of the dangerous rapids along the Dnieper, a group of barbarians ambushed Sviatoslav.” The barbarians must have had their hands full, negotiating rapids and ambushing Sviatoslav at the same time. Or is this indeed what the author meant to convey? Context says “no”, while form indicates “yes”.

The author’s mistakes momentarily distract one’s attention, and they do detract somewhat from the overall impression of this otherwise scholarly work. Consequently and regrettably it deserves a rating of no higher than a 4.

Review #5

Free audio The Sea Wolves – in the audio player below

As a history nut I find reading a concise book about a subject great as a jumping off point for deeper reading. This is the perfect book for that. A short, sharp, pacy volume that reads like fiction. The stereotype of Vikings as crazy, violent raiders clearly has some basis in truth but their story is much more than that. From America to Baghdad, from Iceland to North Africa, they battled, looted, traded and settled ferociously for 200 or so years. The basis of so much of modern Europe has roots with the Vikings. The chapters are nice and short which as ever with me meant I sat down to read one and ended up binging about 5. Why bother reading historical fiction when the real stuff is such a page turner! I’ll certainly be delving deeper into the Vikings after this. Also some of the names in here are incredible – Charles the Fat, Ivar the Boneless, Thorgils the Devil, Erik Bloodaxe, I could go on. If you’re looking for a compact history of the vikings this is THE BOOK.

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