From the Bookshelf of Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"…

The Broken Sword

Poul Anderson

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What Members Thought

Mar 31, 2016 Markus rated it really liked it

Shelves: mythology, fantasy, 2016, viking-fiction, nordic-culture

"It was a cool spring dark with the moon nearly full, rime glittering on the grass and the stars still hard and bright as in winter. The night was very quiet save for the sighing of wind in budding branches, and the world was all sliding shadows and cold white light."

Published in 1954, Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword is one of the forgotten giants of early modern fantasy. The book remains an astounding influence of several important writers in the genre.

Set in medieval England, the book feature ...more

53 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2017 Clint rated it really liked it

Shelves: sword-sorcery, fantasy, studies-in-fantasy, ballantine-adult-fantasy-series, fantasy-worth-reading, appendix-n, 2017, own-bafs

The Skinny:
Timeline, the story takes place between 1000 and 1100 AD. The Vikings are beginning to follow Christianity, but still pay homage to the Norse and fear the Giants of the North. They believe the fairy exist (elves, trolls and goblins), but with the intrusion of the White Christ (the name given to Jesus in the fiction) the Vikings have lost their Witch Sight and can not see them.

Orm, a Viking, sets upon a raid. One of the victims of the raid is a witch. The witch seeks revenge and sets ...more

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Sep 22, 2017 Alex rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction-reviews

‘Fathering a son on a female troll held captive in his dungeons, Imric exchanged the nonhuman babe for the true son of Orm the Jutlander. Thus, while Valgard the Changeling was raised as Orm’s son in the Lands of Men, the true son of the Jutlander, Skafloc, was reared to manhood in the twilight fields and whispering woods of timeless and shadowy Faerie…’

Though an epic fantasy reminiscent of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Poul Anderson did not borrow from Tolkien; The Broken Sword was published in ‘Fathering a son on a female troll held captive in his dungeons, Imric exchanged the nonhuman babe for the true son of Orm the Jutlander. Thus, while Valgard the Changeling was raised as Orm’s son in the Lands of Men, the true son of the Jutlander, Skafloc, was reared to manhood in the twilight fields and whispering woods of timeless and shadowy Faerie…’

Though an epic fantasy reminiscent of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Poul Anderson did not borrow from Tolkien; The Broken Sword was published in the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954. Expect the usual elves, trolls, and goblins, but this time with a changeling twist. The infant son of Orm of Jutland has been substituted with the half-breed Valgard, son of elf-earl Imric and a female troll prisoner. Imric is behind all of it, but his motivations aren’t clear. Perhaps he wanted a human because they are stronger than elves and unlike them can withstand iron.

As they grow older, while the human Skafloc grows proficient in the magics, songs, and skills of faerie under his foster father Imric, Valgard grows up within Orm’s household in England and is despised for his moody countenance. Dogs bark at his passage. Valgard’s anger grows and he excels at the Viking raids. It is apparent there is a division between him and his family but it’s not until he is ensnared and tricked by a beautiful young witch that he takes a path of bloodshed and murder. Fuelled by his strength and hatred of his division he does what the witch advises: to head towards Trollheim to win the favour of Troll King Illrede, for Valgard has learnt he is of Troll and Elf, not human, blood.

What follows is an epic battle for the elf homelands. In the Troll versus Elf conflict Valgard comes face-to-face with Skafloc, who bears his likeness. The fated ‘brothers’ pit their skills against one another, and it’s Skafloc’s faerie skills against Valgard’s ‘berserkergang’. Their fates are destined to clash time and again, and are entwined with the future of faerie and the Lands of Men. Also in the midst of this is a tragic forbidden love story between a survivor of Orm’s household, the sorrowful Freda, and Skafloc. Their love is made all the more perilous when the Elf woman Leea yearns for Skafloc’s love.

My only criticism is that while the stakes and the characters were introduced well, much of how they came to the conclusion was mired in endless descriptions and irrelevant sub-characters.

What an epic read! It is certainly a contrasting read with Lord of the Rings, but is quicker, more tragic, and violent. I’d call this a classic. If you like Lord of the Rings, read it now! The mystery ‘the broken sword’ itself represents to me a broken or stray soul; a theme that resonates with Valgard (most obviously), but also Skafloc and the elf women. ...more

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