Book review - The North Atlantic Frontier of Medieval Europe: Vikings and Celts. The Expansion of Latin Europe, 1000-1500, edited by James Muldoon. Ashgate: Variorum, 2012

• Main Author: Sanmark, Alexandra
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Greenland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/329ae54b-bfa5-4988-aa75-7c41a47dfc4d; https://pureadmin.uhi.ac.uk/ws/files/15298566/Sanmark_2013_Vol_45_pp_151_153.pdf; https://www.ssns.org.uk/journal/northern-studies-45-2013/

The volume entitled The North Atlantic Frontier of Medieval Europe, Vikings and Celts (2009) is a collection of articles originally published between 1893 and 2004. This book constitutes the third volume in the series The Expansion of Latin Europe, 1000-1500, edited by James Muldoon and Felipe FernándezArmesto. This series, which will eventually contain fourteen volumes, covers large and important areas of the medieval history of Europe, from the spread of Latin Christendom to Islamic expansionism and the effects of the Mongol Empire. An overall theme is frontiers, and this volume concerns the western frontier of Europe, that of the North Atlantic, mainly focussing on Britain and Ireland. The book contains a comprehensive introduction by volume editor James Muldoon, followed by nineteen chapters that have been organised into six thematic parts, providing the book with a clear chronological framework, starting in the 9th century and stretching to the late 15th century. In Part One, the settlement and rule of the Vikings in Ireland, England and Greenland is discussed; in Part Two, the emphasis is instead placed on the extension of English power into the Celtic areas of Britain and the justifications presented for this enterprise, issues which are considered in more depth in Part Three. In Parts Four and Five, the attention is shifted slightly as these sections deal with the English domination of Ireland. In Part Four, the actual expansion into Ireland is treated while, in Part Five, the next phase, that of governing medieval Ireland, is considered. The sixth and final part contains just one article, investigating the possibility that the English ‘discovered’ America in the late 15th century. The articles are co