Historically correct Vikings?

Well, having seen an installment of the tv series, my inner bs detector went into red alarm while my inner librarian went 'oh, need books!'. Have read a couple of German books now, those were pretty much focused on the baltic sea and its shores.

So now I'm looking for 'historically correct' books from an English pov, Danelag and all...

Rec me please? *puppy eyes*

Do you want fiction or non-fiction?

Am happy to read both ;)

But I guess the German non-fiction I've read covers the general basics, so non-fic only if it shows something particularly English?

I've been looking for the same thing, turns out it's not so easy to find reasonably accurate Viking Age fiction.

I started putting together a list here:
http://www.librarything.com/list/9931/all/Recommended-Viking-historical-fiction
Unfortunately, not enough people have participated for it to be terribly useful for recommendations, but it gives an overview of what is out there. I can't really offer any recommendations myself as I don't have terribly good access to less recently published English-language fiction right now, so it's tricky tracking down titles.

One thing that I very consistently have heard good things about is Frans Bengtsson's The Long Ships

The Viking Answer Lady also has an annotated list of Viking-inspired fiction which might be interesting:
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/VikingThemedNovels.shtml
And there's another list here (with reviews):
http://www.historicalnovels.info/Best-Viking-Novels.html

Some of my reenactment buddies in the US have raved about one of the recent series -- I can't remember whether it is the one by Robert Low or by Tim Severin, though.

Axel Meyer's Viking books (in German only) seem to be well-researched, although not the most gripping thing I've ever read.

Thanks for the links!

and re:Axel Meyer - that's exactly what I've heard, "yeah, ok, well enough researched, but I couldn't care less about his characters..."

I can vouch for The long ships (it's probably my favorite fiction book all categories), but it's only less than a fourth of the book that is set in England. There's a lots of mooric Spain, Scandinavia, and Russia in there as well.

If you want to go to the original sagas, The saga of Egil Skallagrimsson has a part set in England (but keep in mind that it is also sort of historical fiction, just much older).

I get my Vikings, Danes and Saxons all confused, but maybe you could try Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom and it sequels.

EDIT: aha, they're on the list linked to above, must be okay :)

Robert Low's Oathsworn series books are very fine--though not mostly set in England. And I also second The Long Ships.

(Freydis and Gudrid) by ((Elizabeth Boyer)) shows the day to day life of 2 Viking women who are part of a new settlement is what appears to be North America.

Freydis and Gudrid

Touchstone fairy

Freydis and Gudrid
by
Elizabeth Boyer