Do you know of any books (illustrated or not) that describe the Iron Age cultures of Scandinavia before the Vikings ?

by JimmyNeon

Checked the recommended book list of the sub, but from what I saw it focuses on the Viking Age so I was wondering if anyone knows about those other books.

y_sengaku

Prior to Viking Age, any available book on the Iron Age Scandinavia, regardless of its language, tend unfortunately to be highly academic one.

  • Carver, Martin (ed.). The Age of Sutton Hoo. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1992: is a relatively easy-read (I assume so.....) academic essay collections on Sutton Hoo and the North Sea World in the 7th century, and includes two or three essays on the Iron Age Scandinavian burials. Though a bit dated, it has been re-issued as a paperback and relatively affordable.
  • (Added): Glob, P. V. The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved. (1st ed. 1969): is certainly dated, but should be categorized as a seminal work on the most famous aspect of the Iron Age Scandinavia. Probably the most easy-read in this book list. Together with the updated book on this topic, Miranda Aldhouse Green's, Bog Bodies Uncovered: Solving Europe's Ancient Mystery (2001), this book has been re-issued several times.
  • Hedeager, Lotte. Iron Age Myth and Materiality: An Archaeology of Scandinavia AD 400-1000. London: Routledge, 2011: concentrates (probably too much) on the myths - religious as a general overview. Her previous book, Iron-Age Societies: From Tribe to State in Northern Europe, 500 BC to AD 700 (1992), is a bit dated, but might be more suitable as a general work.
  • Price, T. Douglas. Ancient Scandinavia: An Archaeological History from the First Humans to the Vikings. Oxford: OUP, 2015: is probably the closest one you're looking for, though I afraid it is not so affordable.
  • Randsborg, Klaus. Roman Reflections: Iron Age to Viking Age in Northern Europe. London: Bloomsbury, 2015: is a collection of readable essays on the five topics in Iron Age Scandinavia, so strictly speaking, it is not overview works, though it is rather intended for general readers than specialists in a narrow sense.