Tom Shippey is Professor Emeritus of Saint Louis University, Missouri, and concurrently Senior Research Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. His books include J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (2010), The Road to Middle Earth (4th revd edn, 2004), and Hard Reading: Learning from Science Fiction (2017).
`As tough and uncompromising as the Viking heroes whose lives and deaths it recounts, Tom Shippey’s book also shares their dark sense of humour . . . Shippey upsets entrenched positions, dissects legend from history, and reveals how the Vikings were able to dominate in the North for more than three centuries.’ – Carolyne Larrington, Professor of Medieval European Literature, University of Oxford.
"As a sprawling guide to Viking history, Laughing Shall I Die makes
compelling reading. Shippey's wide-ranging survey of the literature
is lucid and engaging, presenting his view in a way that's
revealing even for readers already familiar with the subject
material, and accessible for those who aren't . . . The author's
voice is memorable and idiosyncratic, making this an easy and
enjoyable read despite its scholarship. Laughing Shall I Die is an
informative and entertaining read for anyone interested in the
Viking age."-- "Fortean Times"
"It is a mark of our Age of Sensitivity that scholars have tried to
turn the murderous Vikings into hygge-loving Scandinavian traders
(with no trigger warning for those who don't care for revisionist
history). It is an approach that has no currency with Shippey. . .
. He gives us a remarkable account of the robbers and raiders that
bear more resemblance to a medieval biker gang than to maritime
merchants. And for those of us that still go in for a good bit of
that old-time masculinity, Shippey enthralls. . . . We shall not
see their kind again, nor are we likely have a book that helps us
see them so well."-- "Kirk Center Reviews"
"Shippey's irresistible new book Laughing Shall I Die is a
densely-detailed excavation of the lives, battles, and deaths of
the towering figures from the Norse sagas and poems. . . . Flinty,
argumentative, bristling with energy--Laughing Shall I Die is not
only entertaining and challenging . . . it's also the most Viking
Viking book we'll likely see all year."--Steve Donoghue "Open
Letters Review"
"Today, much of the popular discourse on the Vikings tends to be
directed towards the rehabilitation of medieval Europe's northerly
inhabitants as respectable people. In Laughing Shall I Die, Shippey
blows this longship out of the water with a thought-provoking and
entertaining exploration of the Viking mind-set, which he describes
variously as 'psychopathic' and a 'death cult'. . . . Throughout,
Shippey's distinctive voice comes across loud and clear:
conversational, intelligent, irreverent, darkly comic--not unlike
the Old Norse sagas and poems he explores. Psychopathic death cult
or otherwise, I suspect the Vikings themselves would have approved
of both the tone and the content."--Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough
"Literary Review"
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