Viking pirates and Christian princes

"In popular imagination, the Vikings are remembered as fierce warrior seamen who campaigned through Western Europe, terrorizing British, Frankish, and Irish societies. Yet is it possible that the great Viking armies left more in their wake than carnage and destruction? The stories of two families - the Olafssons, who transformed a pirate camp in Ireland into the Kingdom of Dublin, and the Haraldssons, whose rule encompassed the Hebrides, Galloway, and the Isle of Man - suggest that the Vikings did indeed leave behind a much greater legacy." "Challenging traditional views of the Vikings' culture, Benjamin Hudson shows the role that these two great dynasties played in the Second Viking Age. The rise and transformation of the Olafssons and Haraldssons from the tenth to the twelfth centuries highlights a period and people important for understanding the political, religious, and cultural development of Europe in the High Middle Ages."--BOOK JACKET.