The Viking civilization is a unique phenomenon in history. Before them, there were no Europeans who had expanded the boundaries of their world so widely. Their conquests, searches for new lands and legendary courage attract our attention after many centuries. John Heywood's book is a fascinating history of the ancient Scandinavians, as well as a story about their mythology, according to which the path of the people of the North began in Asgard at the creation of the world. The author places this civilization in a broad historical context, from its pagan roots to its integration into Christian Europe. This approach helps to see that in different countries the Viking Age occurred in different periods. It was a special world, born in the first centuries of our era in Western Europe, and finally disappeared only in the 15th century. in Greenland.