Review: The Serpent King by Tim Hodkinson

Sysnopsis: AD936 The fight for vengeance has no victors...

The great warrior, Einar Unnsson, wants revenge. His mother's assassin has stolen her severed head and Einar is hungry for his blood. Only one thing holds him back. He is a newly sworn in Wolf Coat, and must accompany them on their latest quest.

The Wolf Coats are a band of fearsome bloodthirsty warriors, who roam the seas, killing any enemies who get in their way. Now they're determined to destroy their biggest enemy, King Eirik, as he attempts to take the throne of Norway.

Yet, for Einar, the urge to return to Iceland is growing every day. Only there, in his homeland, can he avenge his mother and salve his grief. But what Einar doesn't know is that this is where an old enemy lurks, and his thirst for vengeance equals Einar's...

This is a bloody brilliant series! And can I say that when we ever get to the end, I will be starting from the beginning in a self-indulgent binge session.

So, what's happening in Europe and Scandinavia in 936AD. In Iceland, what is referred to as the "age of settlement" was coming to its conclusion. The Landnámabók (“Book of the Settlements”, written c. 13th century) records how the first set of law codes was presented to the Athling (assembly of free men) in around 930AD. Communities tended to be a form of self-government, though often in co-operation with other nearby settlements; the bloodfeud was being replaced by a system of fines; and Christianity was decades away from yet taking foot.

Norway was still in thrall to Eirik Bloodaxe but not for much longer. Eirik's half-brother Haakon, who had been fostered by King Athelstan, as part of an agreement made by his father King Harald Farhair, was being fitted out with with ships and men for an expedition against his half-brother. Eirik was on the back foot and looking for allies. And it is to Orkney that Eirik looks, and where Einar's greatest foe - his own father Thorfinn Skull-Splitter - resides.

But do not for one moment suppose that medieval politics was in any way, shape or form, clear cut. Rulers and their followers formed alliances as and when it was prudent to do so; loyalty was bought and sold across the Kingdoms of Northumbria, Scotland, Dublin, Man, and Norway; kings were raised up and brought down with unnerving regularity. These leaders were often larger than life characters, who, had their deeds not been so readily documented, may have passed unremarked from the pages of history. This was the time of heroes and sagas; great battles and adventures; of an old world fighting to hold back the ever encroaching tide of the new.

It is back into this muddy whirlpool of politics, religion, loyalty and revenge that we once again find our motely band of Wolf Coats, as old enemies return and new ones are sent forth to distract and delay them at every turn. As Einar muses:" ... all the vipers are here .... I am right in the middle of a snakepit ..." Einar himself is still seeking out those responsible for his mother's murder and his journey will ultimately come full circle. Though what awaits him at its ends is quite unexpected.

Hodkinson once again draws the unaware reader ever deeper into the tale (or saga if you will) - like quicksand, once you have taken your first tentative steps, the ground falls away from under your feet, and you are carried along - in this instance, at the author's whim.  

At the end of every book, I constantly find myself asking what more can there be - how can Hodkinson keep the reader spellbound - and yet he somehow manages it, channeling the skalds of old as the words flow from pen to paper, with nary a dull moment in between.  If you haven't yet taken the journey down the Whale Road, it is high time you did.

About the author

Tim Hodkinson was born in 1971 in Northern Ireland. He studied Medieval English and Old Norse Literature at University with a subsidiary in Medieval European History. He has been writing all his life and has a strong interest in the historical, the mystical and the mysterious. After spending several happy years living in New Hampshire, USA, he has now returned to life in Northern Ireland with his wife Trudy and three lovely daughters in a village called Moira.

Tim is currently working on a series of viking novels for Aries Fiction, an imprint of Head of Zeus.

Buy links:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3oNubLI
Kobo: https://bit.ly/3wKzs9Z
Google Play: https://bit.ly/34edsYu
iBooks: https://apple.co/3ukCyzy

Follow Tim:
Twitter: @TimHodkinson

Follow Aries:
Twitter: @AriesFiction
Facebook: @AriesFiction
Website: www.headofzeus.com

Blog Tour - The Serpent King by Tim Hodkinson

Yes again I am on the blog tour for the new instalment in Tim Hodkinson's "Whale Road Chronicles". Book four - The Serpent King - is due our shortly and is the next in the continuing saga of Einar and the motley band of Wolf Coats.

Come back and check out my review when the tours passes this way! In the meantime, if you haven't already, dip into the first three!

Denmark, Iceland at odds over priceless medieval manuscripts

The Japan Times:

They recount tales of Viking raids, Norse history, kings and gods: a priceless collection of medieval manuscripts, bequeathed by an Icelandic scholar to the University of Copenhagen in the 18th century, that Iceland now wants back.

UNESCO, the U.N. cultural organization, has called them “the single most important collection of early Scandinavian manuscripts in existence,” with the earliest one dating from the 12th century.

Some of the texts — known as the Arnamagnaean Collection — have already been returned to Reykjavik, but 1,400 documents are still locked away in Copenhagen.

The jewel of the collection is an almost complete early 15th century copy of “Heimskringla” — the best known of the Old Norse kings’ sagas, originally written in the 13th century by Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson.

Unlike many Icelandic medieval manuscripts, which have few decorative flourishes, this version of the Heimskringla is richly illustrated with intricate red lettering on each page.

read more here @ The Japan Times

Frontiers for Peace in the Medieval North: The Norwegian-Scottish Frontier c. 1260-1470.

H-Net Reviews:

Frontiers for Peace in the Medieval North by Ian Peter Grohse deals with the Isles of Orkney between the 1266 Treaty of Perth, in which the Norwegian king ceded the Hebrides and the Isle of Man to Scotland, and 1468, when Orkney was itself pledged to the Scottish crown. Its central thesis is that this period was a time of relative peace that did not witness Orcadians and Norwegians struggling against encroaching Scots.

The book begins by arguing that the Norwegian and Scottish kings promoted mobility between Orkney and mainland Scotland. According to Ian Peter Grohse, they saw Orkney as a convenient site for diplomacy between the two countries. 

The Orcadian earls, administrators, and bishops were employed by the Norwegian kings as agents of this diplomacy. Especially the earls of Orkney played a pivotal role, as they held the earldoms of Orkney and Caithness in tandem, and were therefore vassals of both the Norwegian and Scottish kings. Many of Orkney’s earls and administrators were Scottish in origin, which, Grohse emphasizes, shows that the Norwegian rulers were not led by anti-Scottish sentiments in appointing their frontier officials. Military precautions were taken to defend Orkney, but the Scottish crown never attacked the islands. 

In previous literature, the intrusion of Scottish law was perceived as a real threat to Orkney’s law and custom. Grohse refutes this and shows a continuity of Norwegian law well beyond the period under investigation. The last chapter is an application of the concept of “nativism” to the Orcadians’ outlook on foreigners and immigrants.

read complete review by Daan Keijser @ H-Net Reviews

Viking Society Publications

The Viking Society for Northern Research is making virtually all its publications (and some other related items) from inception in 1893 to the present freely available on this website, though recent titles may not be released until three years from the date of publication.

These digital versions are not intended to replace our printed publications, and titles currently in print will remain available to buy in book form as long as there is a demand for them (the list can be seen at www.vsnr.org/publications/ ). The digital versions are intended to make the range of our publications known to a wider public, and may be used for reference purposes, to evaluate books for purchase or for university courses and for private study. The copyright belongs either to the authors or to the Viking Society, as stated at the beginning of each work, and permission must be obtained from the Society to use downloaded versions either in whole or in part for any other purpose.

See full list here @ Viking Society Publications