SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Book Reviews 20I
archaeological investigation. Professor Jones clearly delights in
an old love, the Icelandic Sagas, and obviously finds their better
anecdotes irresistible. He is, of course, fully aware of the danger
of using them as sources and constantly reminds his reader of the
untrustworthiness of their historicity; they remain, however, the
very warp and weft of much of his narrative with the result that
we are often left with pleasant reading-matter rather than solid
history. The dilemma seems unavoidable. I do not, however,
wish to suggest that Professor Jones's account is not accurate,
but rather that his own pleasure in the less reliable sources adds
to his outline of historical facts a delightful, but sometimes less
than scholarly, aura.
The great virtue of the work is that it is a palatable digest of
a great deal of the scholarly work done on Viking history during
the last decades, and such a synthesis is both welcome and worth
while. The composite picture given can be filled out by reference
to the excellent selective bibliography, which acts as a guide
through a maze of scholarly papers in many languages. There is,
however, one book I should like to see listed there, the late Sigfus
Blondal's Vceringja saga (Reykjavik 1954), which makes available
the results of much Russian research on Arabic and Greek
sources. Another fine tool provided is the full summarising
index, which extends over more than fifty pages. In so long a
work misprints are refreshingly few; only half a dozen or so have
been noticed and none of them is likely to mislead more than
momentarily.
In sum, therefore, one is bound to say that this is a good and
useful book. One would have liked more on the Vikings in Scotland
and the Isles and a little more on the Norman offshoot, both
in France and the Mediterranean, but many aspects of Viking life
are well and adequately dealt with. Professor Jones is to be
congratulated on his industry and achievement.
A. R. TAYLOR
THE PLACE-NAMES OF CHESHIRE. Parts One and Two. By
J. McN. DODGSON. English Place-Name Society Volumes XLIV­
XL V. Cambridge University Press, 1970. xlvi + 338 pp.;
x + 329 pp. £4'50 each.
These are the first parts of a five-volume edition of the placenames
of Cheshire. Part One contains the bibliography, the
forest-, territorial, river- and road-names for the whole county,