A New History of the Vikings From Scandinavia to the Silk Road

With witches, human sacrifice, Greek fire and funeral orgies, join us for an epic new history of the fierce, mythologised voyagers of the north and the medieval world as we know it.

Dr Cat Jarman is a bioarchaeologist, specialising in forensic techniques to research the paths of Vikings who came to rest in British soil. By examining teeth that are now over one thousand years old, she can determine childhood diet, and thereby where a person was likely born. With radiocarbon dating, she can ascertain a death date down to the range of a few years. And her research offers new visions of the likely roles of women and children in Viking culture.

In conversation with the award-winning author of The Anarchy, William Dalrymple, she will share new, epic stories of the Viking age that will make us rethink what we know about this exhilarating historical period.

In 2017, a carnelian bead came into her possession. She traced its path back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, discovering along the way that the Vikings’ route was far more varied than we might think, that with them came people from the Middle East, not just Scandinavia, and that the reason for this unexpected integration between the Eastern and Western worlds may well have been a slave trade running through the Silk Road, and all the way to Britain.

Praise for Cat Jarman:

‘Cat Jarman will transform the way you think about the Vikings’ – Dan Snow

‘Astonishing and compelling’ – Bernard Cornwell

‘A thrilling read … Illuminates Viking culture in an utterly intriguing new light’ – Charles Spencer

‘Extraordinarily imaginative … You’ll never see the Viking Age in the same way again’- Michael Wood