Dagfinn Skre: The Northern Routes to Kingship—A History of Scandinavia AD 180–550

With this book, Dagfinn Skre seeks to demonstrate how kingship in late Iron Age Scandinavia was formed through a military hierarchy starting with the conquest and settlement in parts of Scandinavia of seasoned warriors under the rule of their commander, who had previously served in the Roman army as auxiliary soldiers (non-Roman units). This is believed to be a direct effect of the termination of the wars in Central Europe known as the Marcomannic Wars, named after the Germanic tribe the Marcomanni, who lived in Moravia north of the Roman frontier along the Danube. These Germanic auxiliary units were let go again over the two decades following the end of the war in AD 180 according to Skre.