"...They burst out of the forest, screaming like wild things, brandishing spears and axes...!"

Nope, not Native Americans, though the 'behaviour' certainly sounds familiar.

People descended from Native Americans "remember" their ancestors living simply, boldly, in small communities, dependent on and fiercely loyal to the tribal unit, not affiliated with a larger 'governmental body,' often roaming freely across thinly populated land.

Interestingly, people of European descent can identify with a strikingly similar ancestry. Surprising, in this day of millions of volumes available, how few address that period of European history.

Osprey's Germanic Warrior AD 236-568 deals with a positively intriguing time, non-Roman and post-Western Roman Empire Europe. These were the centuries before Christianity became widespread, before the Vikings, before Charlemagne, before the feudal system. Before Germans, French, Spanish, English, assumed national identities. Before them, were...

...Franks, Romano-Gauls, Alamanni, Britons, Burgundians, Visigoths...wow.

In this volume, one receives the treat of a fine visualisation of pre-national-character Europe, warrior, as well as glimpses into their greater social and familial world.

Author Simon MacDowall took on a tough subject in Germanic Warrior AD 236-568, a really tough one. While many periods of history are written about ad nauseum, documented and have gobs of 'archaeological artifacts,' the period of this book, the 3rd to sixth centuries in non-Roman Europe, is neither well recorded or widely represented by archaeology. Not to worry; MacDowall used what he had and in a thoroughly scholarly way, presents a textual picture of life in 'Dark Ages' Europe.

Meister Illustrator Angus McBride needs no introduction for dedicated Osprey readers. Author MacDowall won big, teaming with Angus McBride, truly an outstanding artist. McBride's command of colour and ability to replicate various textures alone captures the reader's attention. However, McBride's true strength is in his depiction of the human form, giving it weight, bulk, mood...and for a work like this, a sense of the time and place, the elusive "Zeitgeist," that spirit of a certain time and place.

Figure modelers, 'not too much out there in the way of Dark Ages (better called, pre-medieval) figures. One's largely left on their own when choice is made to do a fifth century Germanic. After a serious look, one finds a few, but not many. (Valiant's old 'Vandal' and 'Visigoth' come to mind, for starters.) Fortunately, 5th Century garb and equippage is fairly simple, so nit-pickers will likely be out in the metaphorical cold trying to find a nit on your Germanic Warrior worthy of picking...unless the figure modeler 'erroneously' does something so blatant as sling an MP40 machine pistol from his subject's shoulder....

Germanic Warrior AD 236-568 is highly recommended for any students of history...and is not just one more rehash of a five year period. Especially recommended, as a change from "the usual" for anyone wishing to expand their education of "pre-modern" times...or just make a brief sabbatical, a literary "Wayback Machine" trip into the mists of bygone centuries. For those of European descent, this is a fascinating look into your ancestry, as far back as 1700 years ago. Few books deal with the era, so glomming onto this one fills a 'disproportionally large' gap in your history bookshelf.

Review copy courtesy of the reviewer's chequeboook, purchased at Venture Hobbies, Wheeling, Illinois, USA

Reviewed by James Hood

(see Scott Van Aken's m2 and other reviews of James Hood's novel Adventure--Into The Neverland, of exploring a parallel, Alternate world (concept based on the Superstring theory of physics) using WW II surplus ships, aircraft and vehicles at:)    <http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm>

Book can be ordered at <http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/SearchCatalog.aspx>  or from your local bookstore (ISBN 0-7596-9062-6 Hardbound or ISBN-0-7596-2646-4 Softcover)

June 2005

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