People Did What in the Viking Age?

Judging by the titles of the books and the series (“People Did What???”), readers know they are in for a fun and interesting reading experience. Wacky, weird and gross facts are presented as the books describe what life was like in ancient times. Topics include religion, myths, homes, food, clothing and hairstyles, customs, medicine, education, language, art, entertainment, sports, pets, government, crime and punishment, and death and the underworld. A double-page spread is devoted to each topic. The information is dispensed in a light, conversational writing style injected with plenty of humour. Occasionally, the poop, pee, fart and butt references become a bit stale and overdone, but young children tend to enjoy all things gross, and the fact remains that in ancient Roman times, for example, urine was part of a concoction used to launder clothing, and that ashes from burnt cow excrement, mixed with honey, were used to get rid of warts. Illustrations consist of drawings, photographs and a few maps. Humour appears again in the labelling of the illustrations or in the speech bubbles beside them. A table of contents, a glossary, an index and a list of books and websites for further study are provided.

People Did What in the Viking Age? provides some interesting facts that other books might not mention. For example, some Vikings kept brown bears, polar bears or peacocks as pets; flyting was a competition in which participants insulted one another with clever, poetic phrases; and a holmgang was a type of duel in which the first person to draw blood was the winner. Occasionally, a holmgang was a fight to the death. In this title, readers will also learn about “things”, community meetings that were held to discuss important issues. But one of the most interesting topics is berserkers, people who lived in the forest among bears and wolves and believed that they had a special spiritual connection to these animals.

Though much of the information in this series can be found in other books, its engaging writing style and selection of bizarre facts provide a refreshing alternative and make the series worthy of addition to a school or library collection.