The Barbarians: Warriors and Wars of the Dark Ages

The Huns, Goths Vandals, Franks, Moors, Magyars, Vikings and Mongols—the barbarian warrior nations that swept through Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to High Middle Ages—struck fear into the soul of European civilization and live on as part-myth, part-reality in everyone's imagination.

The Barbarians provides a highly-readable yet authoritative picture of these peoples, described through the surviving literature and relics. The result is a true and contemporary recreation of them, but without any loss of the drama of their popular image. Indeed, much of the text is a full, gutsy reconstruction of particular campaigns ans sieges. This is an action-packed book as well as being full of new and established facts. Not only does it detail the weapons, wars and ways of these barbarian peoples, it also relates to their history the legends of Attila, Alaric and Charlemagne, so essential a part of the barbarian myth. It gives a hard-edged reality to Barbarian battles—the armageddon of Adrianople and Chalons—in which the primary source of military strength was sheer muscle-power, iron axes and swords heaved around a battlefield.

The sheer excitement and fascination of the figures ensures interest from all age groups in providing that exciting but accurate background to much of what is enjoyed by the followers of the 'Sword and Sorcery cult' and in films such as Conan the Barbarian.