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Vikings

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Margaret
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Vikings

Post by Margaret » Fri November 21st, 2008, 11:52 pm

The new "Medieval Vikings and Scandinavia" page is up at HistoricalNovels.info. It covers the whole medieval period. There's a little overlap with other pages. For example, the Byzantine Emperors used Vikings for the Varangian Guard, and most of the novels about Varangians are listed on the Vikings page.

I'm a big Cecelia Holland fan, but I haven't read her Soul Thief series yet. There are four novels currently out, with a fifth due very soon. Another fun listing is for Edison Marshall's 1951 novel The Viking. I'll bet most of us have seen the 1958 movie with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis - the movie was based on Marshall's novel.

All of Sigrid Undset's historical novels are on this page, as well.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

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donroc
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Post by donroc » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 12:28 am

I enjoyed Edison Marshall's The Vikings and his Great Smith about John Smith is a romp. One of his female characters had a name I never forgot, Charitza Tragabizonda -- now that is creative naming.
Image

Bodo the Apostate, a novel set during the reign of Louis the Pious and end of the Carolingian Empire.

http://www.donaldmichaelplatt.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZthhY6 ... annel_page

annis
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Post by annis » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 12:29 am

I like your longship :)

I remember when I was about 12 (and already enamoured of historical tales) being extremely put out when my mother wouldn't let me go and watch the movie "The Vikings" when it came to our local cinema, claiming it was unsuitable. It took me a long time to forgive her.

Just as well she didn't know about all the "unsuitable" books I'd already devoured!

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Alaric
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Post by Alaric » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 3:25 am

I'm not sure if it qualifies as most of it takes place in England, but Bernard Cornwell's Saxon stories are all about the Danes.

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Post by annis » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 5:04 am

Yes, those Vikings certainly got around-- England, France, Ireland, Eastern Europe--
Wish I could remember the title of that book I read a few years back which featured Erik Bloodaxe during his time as king of York (Not Cecelia Holland). The frustration when you can only remember bits of a story and no author or title :(

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Alaric
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Post by Alaric » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 6:01 am

It wasn't Paul Anderson, was it? He's a scifi author (my dad's big into scifi and has some of his novels) but I know he wrote about the Vikings at some stage.

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Kveto from Prague
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Post by Kveto from Prague » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 11:19 am

[quote=""Alaric""]It wasn't Paul Anderson, was it? He's a scifi author (my dad's big into scifi and has some of his novels) but I know he wrote about the Vikings at some stage.[/quote]

ive read some poul anderson (his fantasy not sci-fi stuff)


poul anderson did a lot of viking/scandinavian stuff. its definately more fantasy than history, but he at least did quite a bit of research and tried to fit all of the stories into the "real" world (not a made up middle earth type world)

the broken sword had viking danes battling trolls and elves around the alfred the great period.

he did one on danish mythology called the mermaids children that nicely weaved in circa 1300 greenland vikings and innuit as well as croatian history/mythology. havent read it in ages.

ive got one of his "harald haadrada, the last viking" on my shelf. i reckon ill read it someday

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 12:06 pm

[quote=""annis""]Yes, those Vikings certainly got around-- England, France, Ireland, Eastern Europe--
Wish I could remember the title of that book I read a few years back which featured Erik Bloodaxe during his time as king of York (Not Cecelia Holland). The frustration when you can only remember bits of a story and no author or title :( [/quote]

Annis, was it Jorvik by Sheelah Kelly? I really enjoyed that one. One of my 10 out of 10 reads. Margaret, it's a great one to add to your list on the website. Pic of the cover here.
http://www.oztion.com.au/OA/oa_previewp ... num=1&#pic
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Ludmilla
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Post by Ludmilla » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 6:36 pm

If you are including historical fantasy in your list, Guy Gavriel Kay's The Last Light of the Sun is a beautiful book (I loved it, anyway). It could easily fit in your Viking Raiders category.

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Post by annis » Sat November 22nd, 2008, 7:59 pm

Posted by EC
Annis, was it Jorvik by Sheelah Kelly? I really enjoyed that one.
I did defimitely read "Jorvik" many years ago, EC, so it is a possibility, though I keep feeling it was something I read a bit more recently. I believe that "Jorvik" is quite hard to get hold of these days- should have hung on to my old copy.

Poul Anderson did write straight historical fiction as well as fantasy- I have a few- his "Last Viking" trilogy about Harald Hardrada and "Mother of Kings", which is about Erik Bloodaxe's wife Gunhild, who had the reputation of being a witch (and no, it's not the book I'n trying to track, either, unfortunately).
He did a couple of others as well; "Rogue Sword" and "Golden Slave" which are more in the line of historical swashbucklers.

Agreed on GGK's "Last Light of the Sun", Ludmilla. I often recommend it to people who've read Bernard Cornwell's "Saxon" series and want something similar, and added a mention of it to the review I did for Margaret's HNI website of BC's "Last Kingdom".
GGK really has the ability to capture the essence of a time and place, though I didn't care too much for his latest time-slip novel,"Ysabel".

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