The Long Ships in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 18, 2023 Tony rated it it was amazing

Shelves: onthewater, novels, adapted-for-film, historical-fiction, setting-europe, own-loanable

I've held a lifelong appetite for historical adventure fiction, and this Swedish book from the 1940s is quite the feast for anyone with similar tastes. This edition weighs in at 500 pages, but it's best thought of as four shorter tales (it was originally published in two separate installments of two sections each). Set around 1000 AD, it follows the adventures of a viking named Orm from the southern tip of Sweden.

Part One ("The Long Voyage") tells of his setting out as a teenager to go raiding, I've held a lifelong appetite for historical adventure fiction, and this Swedish book from the 1940s is quite the feast for anyone with similar tastes. This edition weighs in at 500 pages, but it's best thought of as four shorter tales (it was originally published in two separate installments of two sections each). Set around 1000 AD, it follows the adventures of a viking named Orm from the southern tip of Sweden.

Part One ("The Long Voyage") tells of his setting out as a teenager to go raiding, only to find things going sideways and falling into slavery with some of his shipmates. Surprisingly, a Spanish Jew is the instrument to their salvation, and there's an interlude of a number of years spent serving in the imperial bodyguard of the Muslim ruler of Spain in the Caliphate of Cordoba. Many adventures ensue, including meeting with King Harald Bluetooth, before Orm returns home a grown man after eight years. Part Two ("King Ethelred's Kingdom") is much shorter , concerning a raid on England, the Battle of Maldon (c. 991 AD) and its aftermath (including Orm's conversion to Christianity).

Part Three ("In the Border Country") is purely domestic, showing how Orm builds a stronghold and family. Lest that seem relatively tame, there are all manner of foes, plots, and events that take place amidst these ten or so years. I especially enjoyed a section recounting how different regional groups assembled every few years for "the thing", where negotiations would happen, deals struck, and justice dispensed. Having seemingly settled down, Orm is drawn into one last big adventure in Part Four ("The Bulgar Gold"). In it, he assembles a party to travel all the way down the Dnieper River, almost to the Black Sea, in a mission to retrieve a cache of hidden gold.

For fans of historical adventure, there's so much to like here. Plenty of interesting period detail, plenty of well-written fight scenes, plenty of banter and wordplay, and a surprising amount of dry humor. I quite liked how our hero Orm often faced setbacks, and often had to think or talk himself out of a bad spot, as opposed to fighting it out. It's also the kind of story where supporting characters (both friend and foe) keep popping up unexpectedly to good effect. Any reader with an interest in the period or just historical adventure fiction should pick this up. ...more

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