num_pages: 640
description: An historical adventure in the heady tradition of Sir Walter Scott, James Fenimore Cooper, and H. Rider Haggard, this book sweeps the reader back to a time when bold men hazarded harsh and unknown seas in search of treasure and fame. Denied his birthright at home, Sigtrygg Thorgilsson, orphaned grandson of Leif Eiriksson, must seek his due overseas-in Leif's half-forgotten land-claim of nearly 50 years before, on the shores of the New World.pUrged on by his beautiful young cousin, Thjodhild, and aided by a mysterious, one-eyed seaman, with a knack for spell-casting and dream interpretation, and a local ruffian armed with an unusual axe, Sigtrygg flees the ice-clad fjords of coastal Greenland just ahead of his greedy uncles who would keep his inheritance from him. Once in the new land, the adventurers must carve a place for themselves amidst the warring native tribes who rule the unknown country. Though finding the strange ways of these tribal people both fascinating and repellant, they soon form an uneasy alliance with one side to save themselves and the daughter of one of their enemies. Yet they are not the only Norsemen in the land as they shortly discover when Sigtrygg's kinsmen abruptly arrive to contest his land-claim and the place he has made for himself among the tribes. Then only the passion of the head-strong and willful Thjodhild stands in the way of an irrevocable breach between the two Norse factions. But even she cannot win Sigtrygg back from the native woman who has captured his heart.pForced to choose between two women, two peoples and two lands, Sigtrygg wavers perilously as a native host gathers, like storm clouds overhead, and the two Norse factions stand poised on the edge of a blade which, once drawn, cannot be sheathed again-until it has been bathed in kinsmen's blood. Then not even the invincibility of an enchanted axe or the wisdom of sorcerers can avert the doom which awaits those who walk in the shadow of Leif Eiriksson's greatest achievement . . . and that curse which lies across the land he took for his own. pbFrom the Author:/bp An Historical Adventure in the Old Tradition pWhen I set out to write this book I aimed to create a tale both modern and old-fashioned-one which could hold its head up as an historical romance of the 19th century sort, yet still work for us moderns. To do so, I selected the "voice" of a 13th century sagaman to recount an 11th century adventure in the guise of a 19th century historical romance. And frankly, while I had to cheat a little to make the tale contemporary, I really didn't cheat all that much. In truth, adopting the voice of other times is actually a very respectable tradition for telling a tale of high adventure, though it seems to have gone out of style in the late twentieth century. (The closest thing we seem to have to it today is "fantasy and science fiction"-which this book isn't, so be forewarned.) Hopefully, iThe King of Vinland's Saga/i will help make high adventure fashionable once more, finding its audience among those who like history or who just like their fiction well-leavened with the archaic. For myself, I was particularly taken with the remarkable sympathetic resonance between the old sagas of medieval Iceland and our own American mythos of the West so I tried to capture that as well. I hope the reader will find some or all of this in the book offered here. I, at least, enjoyed writing it.
language: English
title: The King of Vinland's Saga
titlecomplete: The King of Vinland's Saga
genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adventure
ratings_count: 47
publisher: Xlibris, Corp.