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The Normans
- From Raiders to Kings
- Narrated by: James C. Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's summary
There is much more to the Norman story than the Battle of Hastings. These descendants of the Vikings who settled in France, England, and Italy - but were not strictly French, English, or Italian - played a large role in creating the modern world. They were the success story of the Middle Ages: a footloose band of individual adventurers who transformed the face of medieval Europe. During the course of two centuries, they launched a series of extraordinary conquests, carving out kingdoms from the North Sea to the North African coast.
In The Normans, Lars Brownworth follows their story, from the first shock of a Viking raid on an Irish monastery to the exile of the last Norman Prince of Antioch. In the process, he brings to vivid life the Norman tapestry's rich cast of characters: figures like Rollo the Walker, William Iron-Arm, Tancred the Monkey King, and Robert Guiscard. The Normans presents a fascinating glimpse of a time when a group of restless adventurers had the world at their fingertips.
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- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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In the late fall of 1095, Pope Urban II gave a speech in Clermont, France, and set all of Europe into motion. As many as 150,000 people eventually responded to the call, leaving everything they knew behind to undertake what appeared to be a fool's mission: marching several thousand miles into enemy territory to reconquer Jerusalem for Christendom.
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Pretty Good
- By Chris Russell on 05-15-19
By: Lars Brownworth
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The Vikings
- A New History
- By: Neil Oliver
- Narrated by: James A. Gillies
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on the latest discoveries that have only recently come to light, Scottish archaeologist Neil Oliver goes on the trail of the real Vikings. Where did they emerge from? How did they really live? And just what drove them to embark on such extraordinary voyages of discovery over 1,000 years ago? The Vikings: A New History explores many of those questions for the first time in an epic story of one of the world's great empires of conquest.
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Intriguing for a broad audience.
- By Grant on 08-07-18
By: Neil Oliver
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The Norman Conquest
- The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England
- By: Marc Morris
- Narrated by: Frazer Douglas
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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An upstart French duke who sets out to conquer the most powerful and unified kingdom in Christendom. An invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought.
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A Balanced, Entertaining, and Informative History
- By Jefferson on 06-01-14
By: Marc Morris
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The Black Prince
- England's Greatest Medieval Warrior
- By: Michael Jones
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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As a child, he was given his own suit of armor; at the age of 16, he helped defeat the French at Crecy. At Poitiers, in 1356, his victory over King John II of France forced the French into a humiliating surrender that marked the zenith of England's dominance in the Hundred Years War. As lord of Aquitaine, he ruled a vast swathe of territory across the west and southwest of France, holding a magnificent court at Bordeaux that mesmerized the brave but unruly Gascon nobility. He was Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of Edward III, and better known to posterity as "the Black Prince".
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Outstanding history
- By Scott on 02-17-19
By: Michael Jones
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A Great and Terrible King
- Edward I and the Forging of Britain
- By: Marc Morris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks", conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in Braveheart). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort, traveled to the Holy Land, and conquered Wales. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments. Notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom.
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Fascinating book
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 04-13-15
By: Marc Morris
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The Middle Ages
- By: Morris Bishop
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In this indispensable volume, one of America's ranking scholars combines a life's work of research and teaching with the art of lively narration. Both authoritative and beautifully told, The Middle Ages is the full story of the thousand years between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance - a time that saw the rise of kings and emperors, the flowering of knighthood, the development of Europe, the increasing power of the Catholic Church, and the advent of the middle class.
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"It's All left to the imagination."
- By Dave Miller on 09-22-17
By: Morris Bishop
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Scandinavia
- A History
- By: Ewan Butler
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, award-winning historian Ewan Butler writes, struggled through unions and separations with both outsiders and each other, developing their own personalities and languages yet retaining their ancient connections.
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Excellent History of Scandinavia after the Vikings
- By Arthur on 05-05-17
By: Ewan Butler
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The Scythians
- Nomad Warriors of the Steppe
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC. Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe.
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Well researched but narrator is terrible
- By John M. on 01-17-21
By: Barry Cunliffe
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The Anglo-Saxon World
- By: Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The Anglo-Saxon period, stretching from the fifth to the late eleventh century, begins with the Roman retreat from the Western world and ends with the Norman takeover of England. Between these epochal events, many of the contours and patterns of English life that would endure for the next millennium were shaped. In this authoritative work, N. J. Higham and M. J. Ryan reexamine Anglo-Saxon England in the light of new research in disciplines as wide ranging as historical genetics, paleobotany, archaeology, literary studies, art history, and numismatics.
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Reference, Not Narrative
- By Austin Howard on 01-03-24
By: Nicholas J. Higham, and others
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The Viking World
- By: Stefan Brink - Edited by, Neil Price - Edited by
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 29 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Bringing together today's leading scholars, both established seniors and younger, cutting-edge academics, Stefan Brink and Neil Price have constructed the first single work to gather innovative research from a spectrum of disciplines (including archaeology, history, philology, comparative religion, numismatics, and cultural geography) to create the most comprehensive Viking Age book of its kind ever attempted.
By: Stefan Brink - Edited by, and others
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Henry V
- The Warrior King of 1415
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 25 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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This insightful look at the life of Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt casts new light on a period in history often held up as legend. A great English hero, Henry V was lionized by Shakespeare and revered by his countrymen for his religious commitment, his sense of justice, and his military victories. Here, noted historian and biographer Ian Mortimer takes a look at the man behind the legend and offers a clear, historically accurate, and realistic representation of a ruler who was all too human.
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Accessible, grounded, enjoyable
- By Justa Guy on 04-10-18
By: Ian Mortimer
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Empire of the Black Sea
- The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World
- By: Duane W. Roller
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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What is commonly called the kingdom of Pontos flourished for over 200 years in the coastal regions of the Black Sea. At its peak in the early first century BC, it included much of the southern, eastern, and northern littoral, becoming one of the most important Hellenistic dynasties not founded by a successor of Alexander the Great. Previous histories of Pontos have focused almost exclusively on the career of its last ruler. Setting that famous reign in its wide historical context, Empire of the Black Sea is an engaging account of a powerful yet little-known ancient dynasty.
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More of an academic journal than a book.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-05-23
By: Duane W. Roller
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The Last Great War of Antiquity
- By: James Howard-Johnston
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 20 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The last and longest war of classical antiquity was fought in the early seventh century. It was ideologically charged and fought along the full length of the Persian-Roman frontier, drawing in all the available resources and great powers of the steppe world. The conflict raged on an unprecedented scale, and its end brought the classical phase of history to a close. Despite all this, it has left a conspicuous gap in the history of warfare. This book aims to finally fill that gap.
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Perfect book for getting in the weeds.
- By Miles Simpson on 09-24-23
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Two Houses, Two Kingdoms
- A History of France and England, 1100-1300
- By: Catherine Hanley
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried. In this lively history, Catherine Hanley traces the great clashes, and occasional friendships, of the two dynasties. Along the way, she emphasizes the fascinating and influential women of the houses—including Eleanor of Aquitaine—and shows how personalities and familial bonds shaped the fate of two countries.
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Great book with a bit of slant
- By Ky on 12-20-22
By: Catherine Hanley
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The Age of the Vikings
- By: Anders Winroth
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by medieval and modern myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and developed a vast trading network. They traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships, not only to raid, but also to explore. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets, and even the infamous berserkers were far from invincible.
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Interesting history. Narrator could be better
- By Castle51 on 07-09-15
By: Anders Winroth
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By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean
- The Birth of Eurasia
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 18 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering more than 10,000 years, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the 13th century AD.
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Remarkable research!
- By B. Dillon on 07-21-22
By: Barry Cunliffe
What listeners say about The Normans
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrew Jarvis
- 02-05-19
Great history, completely the wrong narrator.
A concise and fascinating history of the Normans from their days as Viking raiders to their ascendancy to the thrones of medieval Europe, the book itself is great.
The problem is the narrator. Mr. Lewis is woefully miscast here; he struggles with consistency in the pronunciation of names (Roger Borsa in particularly maligned; the duke of Apulia is Anglicised as Roger Borsa, then pronounced as Ro-jay Borsa, and Ro-jay Bor-say in fairly quick succession) and place names don’t fair much better. But it’s when he fails to pronounce words like “duchy” correctly that the book really begins to grate. A re-recording is the book with someone familiar with the terms and names would improve the experience greatly.
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- Michael Haffey
- 12-27-23
Great historical context
The historical data and information presented in this book is remarkable considering the time period and the record keeping that was available. Book is well read and well organized to make it easier to follow.
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- Good Listener
- 02-12-23
Good story telling and overview
Lots of good details, focusing on the driven leaders coming out of Normandy in the 10th century and beyond. Just know there are more in depth volumes.
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- Mark
- 07-23-15
Interesting Book
Before reading this book, my knowledge of the Normans was primarily centered on William the Conqueror's conquest of England and the pivotal change that brought about to the history of Europe and eventually how that impact was manifested in the development of the new world. This books does go into detail on that but the vast preponderance of the book focuses on the other side of the Norman World - southern Italy and Sicily.
I did not realize how entangled Norman history was in the development of the Mediterranean world - and for the most part how a somewhat obscure Norman Knight's many sons played such a role in Italy, Germany, the Byzantine Empire, North Africa and the Levant. This side of the Norman empire lasted far shorter but the effects may have been even more far reaching. The perpetual wars, from Crusades, wars with the Pope, the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantines probably did as much to weaken Byzantium as did the Ottomans.
The book was interesting, I found the narration to be average.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 08-19-19
Entertaining, if simplistic
I enjoyed the book, it was far less detailed then I would have liked, but it scratched an itch. The narrator was fine, he said certain things weird(Williamses) and spoke way too fast(first time I've ever had to listen at .95 speed) but overall, worth the 10 bucks
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1 person found this helpful
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- alan
- 05-23-15
Normans fucking rock!
Inspiring. I worship Oden and Thor now. I am officially becoming a pirate now. God bless my peeps.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jeffrey
- 09-23-22
Great Listen
I had always heard a lot about William the conqueror, but not much about the Normans in Sicily and their fight with the Byzantines, Germans and the pope. Very interesting.
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- P. G.
- 06-23-23
The Normans
A tale of the impact on history in Europe and beyond of early decendants of the Vikings. Well worth your listening pleasure. Will peak your interest with many unusual and possibly, unknown Norman leaders. you may not heard. of.
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- Dr Thomas
- 04-19-24
Great narrator and story
Great book for filling the gaps in my knowledge of the Normans which was pretty shallow at best.
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- Graham
- 02-13-15
An entertaining story
Hard to weave complexity into a story with serial characters who seem to endlessly conduct war campaigns. A few stories about civil and social triumphs were interesting.
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2 people found this helpful