The royal sites of Lejre and Gamla Uppsala loom large in Nordic history and folklore, as aristocratic power centres founded by descendants of the gods. With almost no contemporary records from within Scandinavia, the histories of the early Viking Age kings of Denmark and Sweden have largely been shaped by foreign chroniclers and medieval legends – each adding layers of myth and bias. At the same time, scholarly trends in the interpretation of such texts have moved through cycles of source critical emphasis that have spanned the full bandwidth from extreme credulity to the total rejection of any genuine historical content.

This book, and the six-year project of which it is the result, presents a unique Danish-Swedish interdisciplinary collaboration between historians, saga scholars, and archaeologists to explore the roots of Scandinavia’s earliest kingdoms. The team of authors examines these elusive records alongside new striking archaeological discoveries at both sites, revealing high-status environments. Is it possible to illuminate the shadows of early Northern history, to attempt a genuine chronicle of the first kingdoms and their peoples? How does the archaeology of what can truly be termed royal palaces compare to the evidence of texts? Deliberately embracing debate without necessarily reaching consensus, the authors present the state of the art in our understanding of the dynasties that would reshape the Northern world.