The Viking age is conventionally thought to have existed between 793 and 1066 but in this thought-provoking talk Neil Price, author of The Children of Ash and Elm, argues that Viking expansion and society goes back a few centuries more. Taking in the wide-ranging Viking diaspora from Vinland on the eastern American seaboard to Constantinople and Uzbekistan, with contacts as far away as China.

By exploring the Norse mind and spirit- world Neil reveals a startlingly different Vikings to the barbarian marauders of stereotype. He cuts through centuries of received wisdom to try to see the Vikings as they saw themselves – descendants of the first human couple, the Children of Ash and Elm. Be prepared to unlearn everything you thought you knew about who the Vikings were and who importantly they thought they were.

About The Academic

Neil Price Headshot

Neil Price

Neil Price is Distinguished Professor of Archaeology at Uppsala University, Sweden. A leading expert on the Viking Age, his fieldwork, teaching, and research have taken him to more than 40 countries, and his publications have appeared in 19 languages.

Neil Price holds the Chair of Archaeology at Uppsala University, Sweden, where he has also been appointed Distinguished Professor by the Swedish Research Council. He has previously taught at the universities of Oslo, Stockholm, and Aberdeen. A leading expert on the Viking Age, his fieldwork, teaching, and research have taken him to more than 40 countries. Neil is a Fellow of numerous learned academies in Britain and Scandinavia, including Sweden’s oldest, the Royal Society of Sciences; in 2017 they awarded him the Thuréus prize for his lifetime achievements in Viking studies. His publications have appeared in 19 languages, and he is a frequent consultant and contributor to television and film.