The Long Ships

Fülszöveg

The Long Ships is the story of a fighting man
in a lawless age. While still a boy, Orm,
himself the son of a famous pirate, was shang-
haied by Vikings on the threshold of his home
in southern Sweden. He sailed with them
marauding against the Franks and Spaniards,
was captured by the Moors and spent several
years as their galley-slave, escaped to Ireland,
partook in the defeat of Ethelred the Unready's
army at the Battle of Maldon of 991, fought for
his honour against King Sven Forkbeard's
champion at King Harald of Denmark's
Christmas feast, and journeyed down the half-
known rivers of Russia in search of gold.
In this remarkable novel, a great scholar and
imaginative artist recreates the Vikings and the
world that revealed itself to their fearless, child-
like eyes. With them we range the uncharted
seas and rivers of tenth-century Europe, voyaging
into the rumoured lands across the world—the
England of Ethelred, the Ireland of Brian Boru,
Moorish Spain, the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The Long Ships is the story of a fighting man
in a lawless age. While still a boy, Orm,
himself the son of a famous pirate, was shang-
haied by Vikings on the threshold of his home
in southern Sweden. He sailed with them
marauding against the Franks and Spaniards,
was captured by the Moors and spent several
years as their galley-slave, escaped to Ireland,
partook in the defeat of Ethelred the Unready's
army at the Battle of Maldon of 991, fought for
his honour against King Sven Forkbeard's
champion at King Harald of Denmark's
Christmas feast, and journeyed down the half-
known rivers of Russia in search of gold.
In this remarkable novel, a great scholar and
imaginative artist recreates the Vikings and the
world that revealed itself to their fearless, child-
like eyes. With them we range the uncharted
seas and rivers of tenth-century Europe, voyaging
into the rumoured lands across the world—the
England of Ethelred, the Ireland of Brian Boru,
Moorish Spain, the Byzantium of Basil and
Constantine, and a Russia inhabited by wild and
merciless tribes. We witness the triennial Viking
parliament at the great stone, where disputes
were decided bv the assembled warriors, or
when these disagreed, by combats to the death ;
the coming of Christianity to the heathen North;
life in the dragon-pro wed long ships and the
Moorish galleys, among the head hunters of the
Dnieper valley, and in the courts of kings. The
Long Ships is written with a gusto and humour
as uninhibited as the men and women around
whom the story is woven. It is a very exciting,
a very funny and a very moving book. Vissza