On September 8th, at the Belém Book Festival 2024, Lisbon, the book “In the time of the Vikings”, written by IEM researcher Hélio Pires, was launched. The launch featured a presentation by IEM researcher Paulo Catarino Lopes and is an edition of Saída de Emergência.
There was a time when the sea brought disaster or valuable goods. When trade routes went from America to Africa and Southeast Asia to the Far East, the Portuguese still did not consider taking Ceuta. A time when bodies hung from sacred trees and toasts echoed around bonfires. In which it was not known whether a crow was just a crow or a god in animal form. In which poetry was divine and generosity a virtue, along with courage in combat – including that of women, who also wielded weapons. Europe changed and never became the same again, from Iceland to the steppes of Ukraine.
This period is called the Viking Age. But because not all Norse people went into Viking, which was an activity and not an ethnicity, this book is also about those who stayed in Scandinavia or settled outside of it, such as traders, farmers, warriors, magnates, kings, princes, and servants. It’s the time of the Vikings, summarized in sixteen fundamental questions and answers. A journey to a remote past that manages to be another world, sometimes in unexpected ways, and a dive into the science that is fascinating but constantly updating.