Can anyone point me toward some Norse elated books?

by boxwood

Edit: title should read "related" sorry.

I'm interested in expanding my knowledge about all things Norse. Currently I know very little but the concept of Vikings has always been fascinating to me. I'm hoping to find books relating to Norse culture, mythology, history, or warfare during the times when Vikings were most prevalent.

I don't know what books to look toward so some guidance here would be appreciated. I'm not looking for anything that's incredibly deep though because I am new to this subject and I want to taste several aspects of it in my leisure reading time.

Thanks for the help I do appreciate people taking their time to reply.

EyeStache

Well, your best bet for a worm's eye view of Scandinavian society in the early middle ages (or, at least, a 13th century interpretation thereof) are the sagas.

I would recommend highly the Folio Society's The Icelandic Sagas, as well as essentially anything published by Penguin. As far as the sagas themselves go, I've always been partial to Egils saga, Brennu-Njáls saga/The saga of burnt-Njál/Njáls saga, and Laxdæla saga. They give you a pretty good idea of what life was like for wealthy farmers in Iceland during the 9th-11th centuries.

As far as the mythology goes, get yourself anything written by Terry Gunnell or John Lindow - Lindow's Norse Mythology: An encyclopedia is a good reference. Also, you'll want both the Prose and Poetic Eddas.

As far as culture, I cannot recommend Stefan Brink and Neil Prices' The Viking World high enough, nor William Ian Miller's Bloodtaking and Peacemaking.

I would strongly recommend keeping away from anything written by Jesse Byock about anything other than archaeology in Mosfellbær, as it's not really his strong suit and essentially everything he writes has been done before and far better by Miller or Anthony Faulks.