{"id":20506,"date":"2025-02-24T19:43:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T00:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=20506"},"modified":"2025-02-24T19:52:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T00:52:36","slug":"embers-of-the-hands-by-eleanor-barraclough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=20506","title":{"rendered":"‘Embers of the Hands,’ by Eleanor Barraclough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I like to think I keep relatively up to date<\/strong> on Viking studies, both for my writing and for my second life as a Viking reenactor. But as Dunning and Kruger have taught us, the more you know, the more you know you don\u2019t know \u2013 and I think I’ve learned to settle for being better informed than most people, to keep up with the state of the art as stuff gets published for popular consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I bought Embers of the Hands<\/a><\/em> by Eleanor Barraclough, which was recommended to me by a couple friends. And I have to say it\u2019s an impressive book within the limits of its intended purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embers of the Hands<\/em> pairs well with Kat Jarman\u2019s River Kings<\/a><\/em>, which I reviewed a while back. Like that book, it considers the Viking world through examination and analysis of archaeological artifacts. But Jarman\u2019s book centered on one artifact (a bead), while Barraclough uses a number of artifacts to elucidate various aspects of the Viking world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emphasis here is on ordinary life \u2013 the way the people who weren\u2019t famous lived. The clues given us by the things they used and left behind , that enable us \u2013 to some extent \u2013 to look at their world through their eyes. Author Barraclough possesses a happy gift for description and empathetic thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that gift is needed, because I feel I must admit that I found the book rather dull in stretches. Most of us were lured into Viking studies by way of romantic dreams, of adventure and heroism. Embers of the Hands<\/em> is pretty relentlessly unromantic. This approach is an excellent corrective for people like me \u2013 writers and reenactors. I think it will have more trouble holding the casual reader, who may be looking for bigger and more colorful stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, it\u2019s a well-researched and well-written book, and ought to be read and pondered by its intended audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I might mention that the author seems not much interested in the contentious issue of shield maidens, and I was very grateful to her for that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like to think I keep relatively up to date on Viking studies, both for my writing and for my second life as a Viking reenactor. But as Dunning and Kruger have taught us, the more you know, the more you know you don\u2019t know \u2013 and I think I’ve learned to settle for being … Continue reading ‘Embers of the Hands,’ by Eleanor Barraclough<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,15],"tags":[5471,5472,3272],"class_list":["post-20506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonfiction","category-reviews","tag-eleanor-barraclough","tag-embers-of-the-hands","tag-vikings"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20507,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506\/revisions\/20507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}