I'd love to hear your comments and queries!

Feel free to email me: robert@robert-low.com. I'll use your comments, queries and resulting answers on this page.

September 2010

Just finished The Prow Beast and as with most of the other readers who have posted comments on your bulletin board, I could not put it down! It was a fantastic read, as were the other books in the series, with real characters that you can bring to reality in your minds eye and action all the way; thoroughly entertaining and one of the best reads I have had this year. Please don’t kill off the Oathsworn as they are quickly becoming a legend in this period as well as their own!

Don't worry too much about the Oathsworn; they are not all dead yet. I hope you enjoy the new trilogy as much.

I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying your books. I am an aspiring writer and your work is a fresh inspiration to me. You unquestionably rank among the
top writers today. Keep them coming.

I have just stumbled upon your 'oathsworn' series; what a fantastic read! As a viking reenactor since 1983 (and Jomsviking since 1992) I do like historical accuracy, which your books have in spades – many thanks!

Many thanks for the praise – hope you don't mind what I did with the Jomsvikings in The Prow Beast, all the same!
Robert Low

I have purchased all your books to date except the last at a bookstore here in British Columbia, and what I find annoying is that they brought in your first three novels but not the fourth. I cant understand why, if they ordered the first three, they didn't order the fourth? If it makes any difference to you I love the Oathsworn and their trials and tribulations. At my age, 63, through your books I do the things I would love to have done back then!

Just back from Canada (Okotosk, near Calgary) and the Gimli festival in Manitoba. I heard the same complaints from folk there, too. The pub dates are, of course, different in the UK and everything in North America seems to come out some months later. I imagine tour bookstore is a little reluctant to take hardback copies of The Prow Beast when the paperback is due out in the UK and available online. But thanks for your kind comments - we are of an age, and I am finding all these younglings more and more of a fighting handful every year. Soon I am going to have to admit defeat and hang up my baldrick!

I just want to thank you for writing the saga of Orm and his fellows. It has really sparked my lust for reading. I really like the historic feeling in the books. Its a great mix of history and fiction. One of the best tings about the books is the way you describe the little things. Like the small preparations before a raid, or the cooking by the fire. I can really picture the smells, the sights and filth of the people and places of the time. You describe it all with stunning realism. This is some of the best books i have read. And as a norwegian reader you described the viking life for me better than anything before. Thank you again, and keep on writing!

A great boost to my confidence to have a Norwegian tell me that I bring his history to life for him. I hope you enjoy the new trilogy, on the Scottish Wars, as much.

At three o'clock this morning I finished your book "The Whale Road". I was exhausted, happy and astonished after the enthralling and amazing journey I had the joy to follow in your book. At first it was a bit difficult to follow your style of writing and the all the Viking expressions - I am a non-native English speaker - but after about 30 pages I was pulled away by the drag of the story.

I am a fan of Harry Sidebottom and Bernard Cornwell, but where they write about the big historical picture, you are showing the day-to-day life of your characters, which is much more lively and coloured than their books. I love the harsh, ugly and coloured words your characters use, and the arguments they get into, be it human ones or the ones about religion.

As my friends gathered for a roleplaying session on Friday evening I read them aloud the part where Orm asks the Oathsworn where Gudleif is. My friends roared with laughter. Hild was also one of the scariest characters I read about in a long time. We are even thinking about running a Viking based RPG game in the future. Please excuse my bad English.

Your English is excellent - a lot better than any efforts I could make at your own language. I am delighted you enjoyed The Whale Road and I know you will love the others, too, since they are all better than that, my first book. Let me know what you think. Good luck with the RPG. I was a big fan of Runequest back in The Day, particularly their Viking expansion.

Over many years of reading novels I've come to realise that the most important thing for me is whether or not I care about the characters. They don't have to be angels – in fact they can be downright devils, just so long as I'm made to care. And your characters made me care. The Bearslayer got me straight away and of course when we find out he hasn't killed the bear, it makes him even more alive. I was so pleased to find you've written some more on a similar subject.  Many people in our sanitised world probably regard the Vikings with horror, whereas for example the Romans are held in esteem. Yet as far as I'm aware the Vikings never really yearned for the claustrophobic ego-trip of an empire (except maybe William if we still can called him a Norseman). The British aped the Romans; they would have done well to follow the Viking model which I sense would have been more natural to them.

I would like to claim that the Norse never really went for empire out of some radical sense of 'sod that' but it has more to do with a lack of resources and central authority. When both were sufficient, you can see an Empire of the North forming, with one ruler controlling large portions of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. What usually followed was an inability to hang on to it for longer than a hard man's prime, thanks to all the unruly wannabes who were his subjects. That, at least, is very Viking!

Are there any thoughts about putting The Oathsworn on the silver screen? There hasn't been a great historical epic adventure/war movie in some time.

I am at once attracted and repelled by the thought of a film – there are no plans but getting the Oathsworn into live action is a dream, tempered by the nightmare that had been made of every other Viking movie I have ever seen...

I have been intrigued with history, more importantly the history of Vikings and the sort, for as long as I can remember. Out of whim I bought The Whale Road and could not be happier with my investment. Your style of writing, character development, and realism in your stories have me turning page after page every night. I'm now starting The White Raven and will be very excited, yet sad, to read The Prow Beast.

I would not be too sad at reaching The Prow Beast – the Oathsworn are not done sailing yet – and I hope you enjoy it as much as the others.

July 2010

I'm 25 years old – but, I'm ashamed to say, have just recently begun writing books. I chose your Oathsworn series to start me off. I was a little anxious as I thought the books might be a bit complex for a beginner – but now that I'm on the second book I simply had to tell you how fantastic and gripping your books are. You're a genius! I can't put them down. I suppose what I'm trying to say is: thank you. At last I can appreciate reading a good book.

Never be ashamed to admit that you can read! I am delighted that I have been the author to introduce you to the sheer delight of books. Keep going... there are loads more books out there by authors every bit as good as me. And some, whisper it, who might be better on a good day...

I saw an advert for the prow beast on the History Channel and was happy to find it was the fourth in a series. I've now read them all and I'm happy to say Orm is up there with Cornwell's Uhtred. Your writing us up there with Cornwell and Pressfield, Iggulden and Sidebottom. Please keep it up – and don't be in a rush to kill Horshead off!

That's a rare crew to be among - thank you for the honour. And don't worry, Horsehead is not dead yet!

Thanks for another great read with The Prow Beast. I thought iw was going to be the end of the whale road for Orm until his Lazarusesque moment at the very end. Was that outcome in mind when you started the fourth book? You and Bernard Cornwell seem to have it in for the clergy of the time. Not that I'm a fan either, but were they really so despised and feared or both by Vikings and other non Christians? 

I honestly did not know how The Prow Beast was going to end myself, right up to the last minute. Then the ending popped up, clear as you like, and just fitted so well I knew it was right. I actually have no qualms about killing off anyone in my books – even the teller of the tale! There is a spin-off book about Crowbone and Orm and Finn. But that will come after my trilogy on Wallace and Bruce, so expect no more Vikings before 2014.

As for the clergy – well, it is a historical attitude, not my own or Bernard's. Blame Charlemagne. In making his Frankish and very Christian empire, he forcibly converted all the eastern pagans, especially in present day Belgium, Holland and north Germany. He even baptised pagans just so he could kill them and send them to God rather than the Devil. The legacy of that era haunted all those who fled into Denmark and then Scandinavia. So the truth is that the Vikings were more afraid of Christians than vice-versa – they believed a Christian was getting ready to top you when they dipped you in holy water!

I've just about finished The White Raven and pre-ordered The Prow Beast from US Amazon. It seems they don't know when the book will be available for distribution in the States. Can you enlighten some of us?

Turns out that HarperCollins have not yet completed the sale of the US rights. In theory, this means you can't buy it via Amazon US – but you can still get it from Amazon UK. Or Canada. This will be remedied very soon. I hope it doesn't spoil your enjoyment.

May 2010

Your series of books are inspirational and you have definitely become one of my favourite authors - beating Cornwell by a hair's breadth and just behind Phil Rickman. Now that I’ve finished The Prow Beast I have decided to re-read the series again. Please don't leave us hanging on a limb without another Orm tale. He seems to be almost back where he started, so could he not regain his fair fame and live again with Finn and Crowbone into yet more fantastic exploits? I love the authenticity of your writing and the way you have of really giving your characters depth and life. I look forward to reading your coming Kingdom trilogy and becoming equally enthralled.

I have read and enjoyed all your Viking books but I was hoping for more before our hero ended back home. There must have been some interesting story lines with his trip home…?

Rumours of the demise of the Oathsworn are premature - I will return to them sometime in the future, after my new trilogy on the Scottish Wars with Wallace and Bruce. There is a book, written and delivered, detailing the further adventures of Crowbone, but Harper are reluctant to publish it over the top of the new trilogy, so you may not see it until 2014, sadly.

I absolutely love the series and with each passing book mourn the loss of another crew member! I am two thirds of the way through The Prow Beast and you have bested yourself once again. Being Scottish, I eagerly look for to your Scottish series of Robert the Bruce and the adventures awaiting that series!

I was always a believer in bowing out when you are on a high - but the lure of the Oathsworn will drag me back, I know it will. Not, however, before three books on Wallace and Bruce, which I also hope you will love.

April 2010

I have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the Prow Beast and am about to re-read the first three books in the series. I am looking forward to seeing if the saga goes full circle and Orm ends up in the same position as Einar when they first met in the Whale Road – and if he recognises that. Please could you let me know if there are any book signings planned as part of the launch.

Delighted to hear that you consider the series good enough to re-read – hope you enjoy The Prow Beast as much and I leave it to you to discover if Orm and Einar are connected at the end. Book signings - depends where you are. I have just come back from London, I have signed several hundred here in Glasgow for dealers, but the days of bookshop signings are few and far between - mainly because there are fewer bookshops. Only Waterstones seems to be in operation these days and I will be slipping quietly into the Glasgow branches to sign some copies for them to put stickers on. Most of my sales are through Amazon and, believe it or not, Tesco!

G'day from Down Under! I've just finished The White Raven and now wait for the next soft-cover in the series, out in August. Thanks so much for the first three books in the Oathsworn saga - brilliant stuff and the best read I've had for years and years. I've been waiting for Killer-Styr (from the Laxerdale Saga) or Styr Thorgrimmson (from another Icelandic saga) to show up and perform some incredibly heroic feat, so I'm recovering from the introduction to poor old Stoor, Klerkon's thrall, who doesn't come off as well as I'd like. Alas we appear to be name-related, since my folk were named Sture until the 1700s.

Greetings to you and thanks for taking the time to email - glad you are enjoying the books so far. Sorry about Stoor - but he isn't a Styr from the sagas. He's based on a Norwegian re-enactor who tried to do a fancy two-weapon hand display a-la Indiana Jones movie - and succeeded only in whacking himself above the eye. Cue blood, hospital and stitches. Made us laugh though!

Well I've finished the Prow Beast, my favourite Oathsworn of the series, and I've posted a suitably glowing review on Amazon! It might just be the fevered ravings of a 40-plus aged mind but I'm sure I remember reading that you had a Crowbone book written? Is there any chance of it coming to print? I fully intend to buy the Wallace/Bruce story but I amm not sure I can face my midlife crisis without another Viking saga in the next year or two. I like Giles Kristian and the living legend that is Cornwell but they don't make me feel I'm actually there in the same way Orm and Finn do. Surely HarperCollins can allow you to have a double presence on the book shelves next year? Lastly, thanks to the site's contributors I recently looked up and bought The Longships by Bengsston. Great stuff! I've ordered a Poul Anderson too.

I have just finished reading The Prow Beast. Magnificent – congratulations! It has been an undiluted pleasure reading the trials and tribulations of the Oathsworn – but now I’m going through what I imagine is akin to cold turkey. Please tell me that you have plans for number five. Orm is still wet behind the years after all! Nobody I have read (Iggulden and Cornwell to name a couple) capture the camaraderie and nature of man as you have. The peaks and troughs of life, the sheer delight of existing after hardship, simply staying alive... the banter, humour, characterisation, vulnerability etc... I can go on and on...

There is indeed a Crowbone book, written and delivered, but HarperCollins are still considering what to do with it, considering that the new Kingdom trilogy is coming out next year. If it makes financial and marketing sense to them, the world will get it sooner - if not, you may have to wait until 2015! Actually, in the terms of the age he lives in, Orm is almost past his prime and Finn is already old - but I suspect there is life left in the pair of them, and others, for a while yet...

I have just finished the Prow Beast after receiving it from the UK. Bloody fantastic! It is the best yet by far. I was so excited by it and could not put it down. You have captured a tale that will stand the test of time and be read for decades. I was in deadly fear that Orm and the old Oathsworn were all going to die by the end of the siege but was elated and saddened to find they were destined to survive but without so much of their past. Someday, I hope you will return to it and write a fifth volume. They deserve an epitaph. I heard a rumour that you might be coming to Canada this summer, and if this is the case, I will no doubt cross blades with you and get my four volumes hopefully autographed. Till then, have a great spring!

Always nice to get praise from re-enactors - a bit like comics making the band laugh! I am coming to Gimli this summer, so you will get a chance to cross blades - I will glady sign your copies, too... but only providing you let me win!

March 2010

I ordered White Raven on a whim from Amazon and have just begun reading it today, very enjoyable stuff and I'm having trouble putting
it down! Reading your blog, I saw your recent post about Ayn Rand. I've read some of her work and never found it that interesting so I
understand your thoughts. I recently read an article in Democracy Journal about Rand you might find interesting. Looking forward to the fourth book (although I have to go back and catch up now!)

Incisive article - thanks for that. Hope you enjoy The White Raven (and the others). Let me know what you think.

Having just finished reading your three novels I am delighted to tell you how very much I enjoyed them. I read all three in two and a half days. I just couldn't put them down, sometimes at the expense of adequate nourishment. I was also delighted to read that you live in Largs. As an ex-resident, and lover, of Largs myself, it somehow made your work more enjoyable. I sincerely hope that the 'knife-edge' you experienced has dulled completely as I truly believe that you deserve it. I am looking forward to the publishing of your latest opus and hope that there will be many more after that.

Thank you for the kind words - I hope you manage to get some adequate nourishment so that you can grab No. 4, The Prow Beast, which is released on March 3 in the UK. I hope your sheer delight continues.

January 2010

I wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed all three of your Oathsworn books, having just finished The White Raven at 3 this morning. With the heavy snow outside just now it fitted perfectly with our heroes crossing the frozen steppes for the loot. Did you visit the Steppes in the winter as part of your research? My challenge now is to get my Japanese other half to get stuck into the Oathsworn - to her credit she's done all five of Bernard Cornwall's Saxon chronicles but I fear she may be veering to the Romans with Conn and Simon Scarrow. So its up to the Oathsworn to bring her back. I've also just started The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane, about a Roman legion reaching as far as Liquan in China. It's possibly more fact than fiction - but I was wondering how far east the Vikings got to? Maybe Japan was too far but Finn versus a samurai would have been quite a scrap. Finally I dont generally like seeing the author's photo on the inside cover of books - somehow it puts an image in the way of my open mind. You don't (on your paperbacks) to your credit. But on this site, there you are in your full glory. Fits the bill for the Oathsworn to perfection!

Nice Christmas present! Thanks for the praise. I hope The Prow Beast lives up to your expectations in March. I didn't visit the steppes - I live in the far north, so a trip to Rannoch Moor in the depths of a winter like this did it for me! It is established that the Vikings went out as far as the Caspian Sea and possibly a little further, seeking the source of the best quality iron and silver. I am intrigued, however, by this article - I love the idea of a band of Norse getting that far east!

Hi I just finished reading your book 'The Whale Road'. Absolutely brilliant. And your from Largs!! Im just over the hill from you in Beith. Loved the Glasgow Vikings site as well, be interested in learning more. Anyway thanks for the book and I'll be sure to read more... keep 'em coming!

Glad you enjoyed The Whale Road and I hope you like the others as much. You may be just over the hill - but the current snow weather makes it the other side of the Moon!

I am really looking forward to the release of "The Prow Beast"and I have a question about the upcoming Wallace trilogy... Since there was quite a bit of contact between the Vikings and the Scots, will there be any Viking-like characters in the Wallace books? Also, it was just announced that Mel Gibson is set to make the biggest Viking movie ever.I think he could not do better than to turn to your books for a screenplay. Hope the new books are coming along and hope you keep on writing!

Let's not forget that Wallace himself (large lad, handy with a sword) is a bit of a Viking character - but I take your point. Norway was a refuge for the Bruces particularly, since they were married into the royal family there - and it is is only thirty-six years before the events start in my trilogy that the Norwegian king Haakon was finally kicked out of Scotland (1263) - at Largs, of course. The Western Isles at this time are more Norse than Scots - yet it was the the chieftains of the Isles who came to Bruce's rescue in the darkest hour. In the final book of the series, which deals with the year of Bannockburn, there is a definite Islesman/Viking character I think you will enjoy. As regards Mel - regardless of what you think of Braveheart, it is still a watchable movie, so I think he will make a similarly enjoyable Viking film - and thanks for the compliment but I think William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven) is writing the script.

November 2009

I'm in Jakarta, currently reluctant to turn the last few pages of The White Raven for fear I will reach the end of another brilliant saga.  By luck the air-con is so fierce that I really could be on the edge of the Great White. My thanks for the pleasure of this enthralling read, and for its predecessors.

One of the pleasures of this job is discovering just where your books get to - the fact that they are being enjoyed in Jakarta is a boost. Hope you like The Prow Beast, out in March and the last of the Oathsworn, for a while at least.

I was on Amazon and they suggested your books to me as I've ordered books by Bernard Cornwell, David Ball, C.S. Forester, etc.  I'm very much enjoying reading about Orm's adventures. I'm a native Californian but my grandparents came from Ireland and Norway. I love reading history as it gives one an appreciation of just how bloody tough our ancestors were. It's a real pleasure to read your writing.

My thanks for taking the time to write and let me know how much you enjoyed The Whale Road. I hope the others provide as much entertainment and, if you stick with it, eventually you will find some of my characters in Ireland and Mann at the time when Dyfflin (Dublin) was a Norse stronghold. Before that, you might also like my upcoming trilogy on the Scottish Wars.

I never thought I’d ever, in a million years, find a series that has captured my imagination as fully as the entirety of Glen Cook’s Black Company series. I am glad to say I was well wrong. I have enjoyed the adventures of Orm and the Oathsworn time and time again. I am positively tickled pink to know there is a 4th book due this coming March! Thank you for your great stories; I intend to enjoy them for years to come.

You place me in exalted company - my thanks for that and I hope you enjoy The Prow Beast when it comes out in March.

I love your books so far but wonder if you had ever thought of dealing with some of the forgotten heros of scottish history? Bernard Cornwall has written about Arthur and Alfred, What about a Scottish writer writing about Somerled or Kenneth MacAlpine - both of whom few Scottish children have probably heard of?

I am pleased to hear you like my books so far - look out for the forthcoming Kingdom series which deals with some Scottish heroes who have not so much been forgotten as swallowed by myth - Wallace, Bruce and the Scottish Wars of Independence. The first - The Lion Wakes - is due out in 2011.

October 2009

I guess the best compliment I can give you is I feel a since of loss at not having another adventure yet to share with Orm and Finn. You have rightly earned an armring and a place beside Cornwell and Iggulden on the bookshelf. Can you give us a glimpse of what adventure The Prow Beast entails? Do you have a tentative release date for your next project, Wallace and the Scots?

The Prow Beast is the tale of what happens when you get everything you wish for - the Oathsworn end up choking on riches and unable to summon up the old fire for raiding until they are raided themselves, in revenge for an old wrong (Klerkon). That forces Orm and the Oathsworn across the Baltic and up the Oder River to try and get back Jarl Brand's son and Orm's fosterling. On the way, Orm discovers just how cursed the hoard of Attila really is. Odin gave you all the riches of the world... he just never mentioned the price, or whether you would get to enjoy them. The Prow Beast is published in March 2010.

The first of the Wallace and Bruce books, to be known as The Kingdom Trilogy, is called The Lion Wakes. It's scheduled for March 2011. I hope you enjoy them.

I was wondering if you have put together a list of the characters and their relationships to each other, even a breakdown of the factions or events taking place?

The events forming the background of the books are always explained in the Author's Note at the end, But you are the second person in as many days to ask about a list of characters, so I will give serious thought to putting one on the website. The problem is doing it without spoiling matters for someone reading it - so I can't say whether characters die, for instance or what part they play in the plot...

Being Welsh, i find there is a shortage of Welsh historical fiction history but a lot of Welsh history could make good books. Do you know of any?

There is indeed a great deal of Welsh history and some of it has turned up, in a greater or lesser degree, in some excellent books. Try Sharon Penman's excellent Welsh Trilogy, or Edith Pargeter's Brothers of Gwynned Quartet. Stephen Lawhead's Robin Hood books (Hood, Scarlet and Tuck) are all set in Wales. So there's ten for a start!

My own next project is the Scottish Wars of Independence, the first one of which has more than a few Welsh characters, all serving in the English army and still smarting from defeats only a few years old - tensions at the Battle of Falkirk are high as a result.

Can you recommend any other recent Viking fiction? Having read your books I can't get enough, but I'm struggling to find material written recently.

You could do worse than Giles Kristian's Raven books. We have a joke that he is my 'padwan' since he is just starting out on a Viking series as I end mine. So the shelves are clear for him! It is good stuff. Then there is Bernard Cornwell's latest Uhtred, which is bound to be good. Now I'm clear of my own Vikings I'm about to read it, and looking forward to it.

I'm finishing my third Jack Reacher novel, but I don't think I will bother with a fourth. Lee Child gives a good read but I'm getting bored with the meet/ fall in love with/ save the girl, kill the baddies and leave scenario... I've  got something called Raven Bloodeye in waiting, and the latest Saxon saga by Mr Cornwell on pre-order. what I would really like is to hear of the Bear slayer again. Is there any chance?

The Prow Beast - fourth and last for a while in the Oathsworn series - is out in March. But the two books you're about to read are excellent and, believe me, you won't be missing mine until they are done. Giles Kristian's Bloodeye is almost a prequel to the Oathsworn saga so, if you like that, you will like his Raven books. And Bernard is Bernard and can't be faulted.

Just wanted to send you a congratulations and big thank you for your excellent First Novel The Whale Road. I have an increasing interest in my Scottish and Nordic Heritage, and being a 30 year old male cannot help but wonder what it would have been like in those times and circumstances. The Whale Road takes me there like no other book before, even the great Bernard Cornwell wishes he'd written it. Magic! I have The Wolf Sea and The White Raven on order, and I have bought my first Viking Sword - it's only worthy of wall hanging really, but you have to start somewhere!

Ah, that first sword. You have set your feet firmly on the road to obsession and poverty now, brother...

First the thanks bit - I asked you if you knew of any re enactment groups in my area, and I managed to find one with your help. Now the next request - did Vikings have tattoos or piercings?

Glad you found a group. As regards tattoos and piercings - an emphatic NO to the latter. Even women did not poke holes in their ears and any good re-enactment group will order you to remove any really visible ones (nose, eyebrows etc) before you are considered authentic. Tattoos are another matter - it is known that the Rus (Kiev/Novgorod) Vikings skin-marked themselves with runes, but whether this was painted or needle-inked is not known. It shouldn't be a problem to reveal any tattoos, depending on what they are (hearts, daggers, Mother, the name of your lover, your football team, the Armed Forces etc etc are all obvious no-nos) so using some common-sense on what is anchronistic is the way ahead.

I’ve got a query which relates to some of the expressions used by Orm & Co. "Just so", "You have the rights of it" and "I am thinking" are repeated a lot in the narrative, and I'm interested to know whether they're actual quirks of Norse speech, or whether you invented them?

They are invented - but they're based on English as spoken by Highland Scots more used to the Gaelic. Those rythmns and patterns are very close to Scandinavian - which is hardly surprising - and I always assumed there was a deal of Old Norse locked in it. "Just so" is one of those phrases (pronounced with a soft J, as in "chust") and that gave me the idea for the others. Everything seemed to fall into place after that. I think it works anyway!

August 2009

When a Paisley man says your books are value for money you should award yourself a silver torc! But don't get too swollen- heided. I paid only a pound for the Whale Road in a wee shop in Pitlochry, where it was in the company of recent books by Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell at the same price. Soon after starting The Whale Road I bought your other books and have today finished The White Raven - although I am not certain it is finished with me. The books are exceptional - and when I have savoured my enjoyment a little more I will attempt to put a reasoned review out there. But suffice to say for now  there is more to your literary talent than action scenes. You will be pleased to know that I paid the proper yet insufficient prices for the other books. It seems ludicrous to say to a Viking that the pen is mightier than the sword but having been a lawyer all my working life what else would I say? Will we hear more of Orm and the Oathsworn?

When a Paisley man offers any praise with the word 'exceptional' in it, I am entitled to get as swell-heided as I like - so thanks for that. Please, by all means put out a review, especially on Amazon; I hate the idea of the most current one being that I seem to have lost my touch, though it is a constant fear. What happens is that you write the first for yourself and then, gradually, start trying to fit what the publisher sees as the demographic. I gave that the elbow at first pitch, so have no-one to blame but myself if it all goes pear-shaped. There is one more Oathsworn, out in March and called The Prow Beast. I wrote another about Crowbone himself, which will be published, but not for some time - my publisher is desperate for a new series and I am about to launch a trilogy about the Scottish Wars of Independence on an unsuspecting public - Wallace, Bruce et al, with the brakes off and the warts on.
 

First, I love your website, as, being of Viking ancestry, it interests me very much. I want to say my name is Threet, a pronunication-change of Thwaite (clearing in the woods) as stated by yourself. I've researched my family name and traced it from Virginia in 1662 to Wales, Isle of Man, Yorkshire, and Denmark in about the eighth century. It gets to there from either Germany or Italy, but I can't verify either.

Thanks for the praise and nice to see my books are read in such far-off places. Strange, isn't it, how far-travelled the Norse still are, to have ancestors in America's deep south.
 

I finally started reading The Wolf Sea a few days ago. I'm about halfway through, but I must say, while I liked The Whale Road, I think this one is paced much better. The interweaving of flashbacks to the steppes and the current narrative work very well - perhaps your background in journalism showing through?. Anyways, The White Raven is in the mail headed for me, and I hope I like it even more than The Wolf Sea, just as I liked The Wolf Sea more than The Whale Road. Or maybe I just like Orm better, since he doesn't fumble as much in this story. Whatever the case may be, great book!

"The coward believes he will live forever
if he holds back in the battle,
but in old age he shall have no peace
though spears have spared his limbs."- Havamal

I am always amazed what folk get out of my writings, for it is always disparate and never what I imagine. I am pleased that Orm's gradual growth, from boy to man and fumbler to leader, comes through. Hope you like The White Raven - please write and let me know.
 

July 2009

Is it planned to translate the Oathsworn series into German? I'm not asking for myself, for I quite enjoy reading books in English, but for my mother, who would love your books almost as I love them. She inhaled Cornwell's Saxon Stories and keeps asking for more! Thank you a lot for the Oathsworn's story and for introducing enthralling new characters and
twists in The White Raven. I've not quite finished it, but I already know I'll be close to tears at its end because it is the last one! Finishing a really good book can be like losing a newly
discovered family.

The translation rights are HarperCollins' dept and I tend not to take too much interest. I know it has been translated into Russian and Spanish, though! Not sure about German - but if someone wants to do it, HC will be happy. Rest assured - this is NOT the last Oathsworn book. There is one more next year, called The Prow Beast, which carries the story on that little bit further. After that I am doing a trilogy on Wallace and Robert Bruce, which I hope you will like as much.

I hope my books are not responsible for bad exam results - but I am glad you are enjoying them. You are correct regarding films about Vikings (though some of the bad ones are still enjoyable entertainment). The trouble is - and I know film-making from both sides - that authenticity tends to take a back seat to drama; and that authors, once they have taken the money, rarely then have an input. Even the screenplay is written by someone else. So the answer is - yes, I would love to see the Oathsworn on screen, but I would probably be tearing my beard out at what is done to them. I am doing a trilogy on the Scottish Wars of Independence. I will get back to the Vikings, though.

I read with interest your appeal to your fanbase to submit online reviews on sites such as Amazon. As a reader who does post reviews (including thee very favourable Oathsworn ones) and who buys most of his books online too, I'd like to add my voice to yours. There is an increased trend just now, where books are receiving lots of 5-star reviews from very suspicious 'one time' posters (I suspect friends and family of the writer) which really distorts things. It leads to some quite average books being rated up with the classics, whilst some excellent books whose writers play by the rules can be made to look average by one or two unfavourable ones - or the odd crackpot who seem to frequent Amazon in particular! I've bought a couple of duffers lately, then gone back and looked at the reviews more closely and spotted this bit of sharp practice.I just want to urge more genuine readers and book lovers to post. That will give a much truer reflection on the merits of a book, as well as giving authors such as yourself a shot in the arm! Come on guys - it takes about 20 minutes of your time but it's great for book addicts like me who want toavoid the turkeys! I'm looking forward to adding the Prow Beast to my Oathsworn collection - but kill off Finn Horsehead at your peril!

Thanks for that - and the favourable reviews. I try to be stoical, in the old Roman sense of treating good and bad news with equal disinterest, about Amazon reviews. But I also like to play by the rules, as you say. The other reason I like to see a diverse spread of views is because it means those people have read it - and that is what should be most important to any writer.
I shall keep your threat re Finn in my mind - but since The Prow Beast is already written...

June 2009

This is a short email but for me it's two firsts. I was born with a book in my hand but I have never read a book then re read it immediately, nor have I ever written to an author. Thank you so much and please keep writing.

Great to hear from you and thank you for the kind words. I hope you enjoy the new ones I am working on just as much.

Just finished Wolf Sea. Terrific. Given the times, one can imagine innumerable groups of landless, adventurous men setting off on whatever their culture called viking. What else were they going to do?  Even if they had land, they'd not go more than a couple of miles from it in their lives. Some, no doubt, couldn't stand the prospect. William Manchester, in A World Lit Only By Fire notes that, once you left, you weren't likely to get back. No maps, nobody ten miles from your village had ever heard of it, nineteen different names for a river in a hundred miles, no reason to know which road led back. Those living on a coast had it better, of course, since you hit the coast and turn right or left. Presuming you got the right coast, you should be okay.  If you were sailing, a decent sailing master - defined as one still above water - would be able to manage. However, it is easy to imagine such groups dissolving sooner rather than later. You make the survival of the Oathsworn more than plausible. Orm's burden of leadership is interesting. Also plausible and probably a lesson for those who haven't had ultimate responsibility. It's not all the Officer's Mess and being called "Sir".
 
Thanks for that - hope The White Raven lives up to expectations, too. Interesting to see the likes of Cape Wrath as a placename; everyone assumes it is named because of angry seas, it being the northern tip of Scotland. It isn't. It comes from the Norse word for 'turn' and was the sighting mark for ships to turn north, putting it at their backs for a straight sail to Orkney.
Navigation, even for the far-travelled, was a hit and miss affair!

Have just finished the trilogy (although I gather that a fourth book is in the pipeline) I felt I had to say how much I have enjoyed it. My all-time favourite viking book is Frans Bengtsson's The Long Ships, but you come a very close and respectable second! Many thanks again for writing such great books!

To even be mentioned in the same breath as Bengtsson is an honour and I thank you for it. Glad you are enjoying the 'trilogy' and I hope you also enjoy the fourth book of it!

I would like to say thank you for taking me on such a wonderful journey. I thoroughly enjoyed each book and it really sparked my interest into my favourite area of history. I am thrilled to find out there will be a 4th book on its way and cannot wait to read it. I am just about to start reading Raven: Blood eye by Giles Kristian and look forward to it even more after seeing a good review from yourself on the cover.  A quick question if you don't mind - do you visit many places on book signings? I live near York and would love the chance to get my books signed and the pleasure of meeting you. Would you broadcast such an event on the news section of your website? I will keep an eye out anyway.

It is good to hear that The White Raven went down so well - I am happy to endorse Giles' work, even if he is so irritatingly better looking than I am! I do visit literary events nationwide, though not as many as I should - which, coincidentally, is about to change. I shall certainly note them on the website, if only to get as big an audience as possible.
Keep reading - The Prow Beast is out next March and I hope you will like that one, too.

Just watching that Channel 4 programme, 1066 - what do you think?

After watching 1066 I am sure that all my research, such a pain at the time, has been well worth it. I mean, I can put up with the ananchronistic helmets, the recurve bows, the Norman mounted archers, the strange tents (like a 19th century British camp) and all the other blatant historical costume anomalies, because being a novelist I can relate to the drama in it. So I am prepared to forgive most of it.

What I am NOT prepared to forgive is the ludicrous changing of history. They kept quoting the Carmen de Hastingae and then ignored just about every fact in it. No locally-raised troops hoofed it all the way to the north - it was Harold's huscarles, his splendidly armed and armoured personal retinue, the core of his army, who went north. They RODE north, with their armour on pack ponies, which is why they could do some 50 miles a day and arrive fresh to fight. The rest of the army was raised locally to fight the Vikings and left behind when the huscarles once more hoofed it south, to join a locally-raised fyrd to fight at Hastings. And no bloody Vikings came with them - not as warriors anyway. Statements such as ' the desperate English took anyone prepared to fight for them' is re-imagining run wild.

I can understand why this was done - the huscarles' journeys and double battles, bravery and fierce resistance is more than epic, but not if the point of the programme was to show how the wee farmers of England rose up in the face of tyranny to defend their homes - a rallying cry for the 21st century if ever there was one, and proof of why politics should never enter into history (though the reverse is also true).

Yet the programme-makers missed the essential point which would have served their purpose just as well: the southern fyrd troops were numerous enough and stayed in place long past harvests to deter the Normans, which is why they fortified themselves on a peninsula in the first place, instead of marching to London and winning outright.

It hacks me off when history programmes do this, since this sort of TV docu-drama is where 90 per cent of folk get their history from. I don't mind sexing it up a bit - but altering the history completely is just plain unforgivable. This is stuff about to be taught in schools, for God's sake. They might make the effort to at least get the core facts of it correct.

Thanks for the question - gave me a chance to rant!

May 2009

Thanks very much for such a fantastically exciting, entertaining and educating read with the three Oathsworn novels. I look forward to the fourth as hinted strongly on your website. I am sure you have a wealth of stuff to read already, but can I recommend some of the novels by Henry Treece? He wrote for adults and children, and although not always historically accurate (he was after all  writing in the 1950/60’s), they are superb stories, many covering the same types of characters and periods as yourself. In ‘The Green Man’ for example he links the stories of Hamlet (Amleth), and Arthur with a broodingly scary, piratical Beowulf. Swords from the North deals with the exploits of a royal band of warriors in Miklagard and beyond, and The Burning of Njal is a retelling of the Icelandic saga. All heartily recommended.

I hope No4 in the Oathsworn series lives up to all your expectations. I read Henry Treece as a child and loved what he did. It is fair to say that he and Rosemary Sutcliff were the writers who kept me up on schoolnights, under a tent of beclothes with a filched torch. Nothing has pleased me more than to hear that the Eagle Of The Ninth is to be made into a movie at last.

Much as I love your books (I devoured The White Raven in two days washed down with a bottle of mead) and enjoy your website, I feel I have to correct you on one thing from your most recent blog post, nowhere is easily accessible from Caithness!

Perfect accompaniment to The White Raven is mead - I hope you enjoy The Prow Beast and would recommend a case of fraoch (heather ale) for that one. I am sorry you think Caithness inaccessible, because it will now be cut off in only one language if the locals have their way - check out my May blog for more.

I'm writing to ask your opinion on a question I have long been debating with myself. I've always wanted to learn Viking sword and shield fighting, or how to use a seax or axe, or march in a shield wall. However, I'm a woman, and obviously Viking women were toting around key rings, not seaxes. Would it be completely divorcing the spirit of authentic reenactment for a woman to reenact a male character? Do reenactment groups allow that?

More power to your arm! Yes, the Vikings UK (and our 'other longships' in the US and Canada) not only allow women fighters but actively encourage them. Some of the best warriors on the field on any given day are the women. However, because we are sticklers for authenticity and cannot find any firm references beyond a few vague early-period saga tales which have women fighting, we always ask our women warriors to dress in male kit. This does not cause women or anyone else problems and I would suggest that any good re-enactment group would do the same. If you can walk the walk and, more importantly, swing the blade, you can and should be doing it. This is not to say that basket-weaving, dyeing and other traditional female pursuits of the age can be dismissed – frequently our women do both. It is to the credit of some of our Viking males that they also pursue 'womanly' crafts, such as spinning or weaving. But, of course, they can do it as men and don't, mercifully, have to get on a dress and wimple. God forbid... a dress and those beards would traumatise bairns everywhere!

April 2009

Just a note to say that the books are fantastic and there’s nothing better to beat the dreaded commute on the train into London. That pleasure of immersing ones self into the press of the shield wall, the banter around the fire, the quench of that first ale and the salt spray on the wind…. Ahh the smell of it. Keep up the good work and look for the blue and white of Valhalla on the field Sir… Dogs of war and hungry for more!

I am sure I saw some of your Valhalla colours in between stars at the training weekend in Walesby. Glad to hear that the London commute is made a little brighter for you.


I just ordered your series from Amazon and have been perusing your website. I appreciate your support of Christianity even though you are a "sort-of atheist." Can you tell me why so many British folk don't believe in God anymore? For some reason this bothers me greatly. It seems like many authors I enjoy reading are atheists. Cornwell, Scarrow, and Follett to name a few. Not sure about Conn Iggulden. I'm looking forward to reading your books. God Bless!

Don't know about everyone else, but perhaps it is something to do with questioning, which more and more people are capable of doing thanks to the Internet. Writers, of course, spend their lives doing this, so that might be a clue as regards my colleagues. Bernard Cornwell was, I believe, brought up as an adopted child in a bleak, dour, fundamentalist Northumberland Christian household – which might well explain his own position. I usually try to avoid this sort of question, simply because my experience as a journalist has taught me that no-one can argue a case with someone entrenched in a belief system. God is taken on faith and no amount of evidence-building argument to the contrary will shake someone who has that faith. Try not to confuse God and Christianity. Also, try not to read too much regarding my own belief in my books. I try to write from the perspective of the people of the 10th century, pagan and Christian, Jew and Muslim. The view then was markedly different from the 21st century. Above all - enjoy the tale and keep letting me know what you think of the books.


Thank you for writing such great books and more for sharing them with us, I am lucky enough to have the first and third books signed, somehow missed the second one though.

Thank you for reading them - and taking the time to tell me how much you enjoyed the experience. If you send your copy of Book 2 to me via HarperCollins I can sign it and send it back to you.


I just read your latest book, The White Raven, and loved it. I posted a review on Amazon.com about how good it was. I do not understand why more readers have not yet reviewed this book because it is very good. I have a few questions concerning your new upcoming trilogy about Scotland during the time of Wallace and Bruce. I have always been interested in this time period and in a particular group of warriors from the Western Isles, the Galloglas. Do you have any thoughts about puttting this warrior group in your new books? From my readings I understand that they may have fought for Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn. I think because of their Norse-Gaelic mix they would make interesting characters. I want to say again I love your books and am looking forward to mant more.
 
Thanks for the review - I was beginning to wonder why no-one had posted, either on UK or US. Ironically, I just had new reviews for The Whale Road on Amazon UK, but it seems US/Canadian fans are a little more reluctant to share their thoughts! The Gallowglas are an interesting group, but their true heyday was the 16th century, although the first recorded mention of them is in 1259. I do have warriors joining Bruce and Wallace from the north and using the Lochaber axe rather than the great two-handed claymore, which again is more 16th century, despite claims that Wallace used one. The north contingents were fierce guerilla fighters, less inclined to stand in the shiltron like their Lowland cousins - you will find much of interest in this upcoming trilogy, the first of which will deal with both the battles of Stirling Bridge and Falkirk.

Just a few lines to say how much i have enjoyed reading your books. I have been fascinated by Vikings since a early age. In fact most people say I look like a Viking roadie! I also suffer a condition in my hands that make them look like im grasping a sword – this is supposed to link back to the Vikings. How true it is I dont know.

Delighted to hear you have been enjoying my efforts - long may that continue. Peculiarly, Ihave just written about that 'Viking disease' on my March blog. It is called Dupuytren’s Disease, a gradual contraction and sometimes fusing of the fingers – and nasty though it is, it is also a firm DNA marker to original Viking ancestry.


Hello Robert, I have read your Norse novels with much pleasure. I am writing to ask if you would consider including a glossary in your novels with all the specialised language and terms that the ancient Norse used? We do get the meaning through the context of the narrative , but it would make it easier to read I think.

I am delighted that you are enjoying my novels, even when the language is so specialised. The Glossary has been a running argument with my publishers for some time, with pros and cons on both sides. In the end, I put a glossary of terms here on my website (link on the left) and add to it with every book I write.

March 2009

Was Orm's encounter with the were dragons or scaled trolls a Beowulf story, like in the13th Warrior, or just an encounter on his journey?As one of the beings was refered to as a Grendel, I'm inclined to think the later,but reading your notes has given me second thoughts. Was Grendel a Norse term for any troll-type creature, or had Orm heard the story of Beowulf and used it for the creature? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Not a daft question at all - quite the reverse, in fact. The Beowulf saga is an Anglo-Saxon tale from at least 100 years before Orm's time, possibly even older, so he and the others would know it intimately. What the episode was meant to show was that, in the absence of modern science and genetics to explain events, creatures such as the fish-skinned ones encountered by Orm were so different as to be inherently evil. Even as late as the 19th century in Scotland, fish-skinned bairns were considered changelings and murdered by their own parents as a result. The fact that they were as human as anyone else is a 20th century ideal.
The entire episode shows, as I say in the notes, that legend eats truth. Somewhere in the origins of Beowulf is a story of some race or creed of 'differents' hunted down and exterminated simply because they were considered abominations.
So the word Grendel has come to mean, now as in Orm's time, a troll-monster. Don't forget also that trolls 'existed' in Norse times. They had names, characters, places they inhabited and which were shunned by sensible folk - the sagas are full of them and, peculiarly a great many of the most dire are female. Work the Freudian out of that if you dare!


Just to say I bought The White Raven on Monday and finished it today, Wednesday (or should that be Odins day?). Glad to see there will be one more tale of the Oathsworn to come.

Glad you liked it - and, yes, there will be at least one more Oathsworn – The Prow Beast.
 
I am writing merely to say how much I enjoyed reading your first book, The Whale Road, which I picked up on accident in my local library when I recognized the title on the cover as a Viking kenning (the first kenning I learned in middle school English, actually, when I learned what kennings were). I have a great love for Northern European history and historical fiction about it in particular (your Oathsworn series, Harry Harrison's Hammer and Cross series, Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series, and Tim Severin's Viking novels being my favorites). However, Orm is one of my favorite heroes simply for his realism -- he is not always the most brave or clever or ruthless character as the plot progresses, but he remains interesting nonetheless. Einar the Black's a very interesting character as well, and I think he's an excellent foil for the occasionally-guileless Orm. I love how gritty and dirty your fiction is as well, as when Orm bumps and scrapes down into the roof of the cavern when the Oathsworn finally reach Hild's old village. It's written in such a way that transports the reader without the deus ex machina of "THIS IS A VIKING NOVEL" clanging merrily in the background, as happens in many other Viking novels I've read. Thanks so much for writing the series - I look forward to reading The Wolf Sea and The White Raven next.

"The coward believes he will live forever
if he holds back in the battle,
but in old age he shall have no peace
though spears have spared his limbs." - Havamal

Thanks for taking the time to write and I am pleased you enjoyed The Whale Road. The young Orm is exactly that, of course - young, naive and learning fast in a hard school. In The Wolf Sea (another kenning) he has to cope with leadership and in The White Raven (yet another) he has to face old fears, cope with loss, love and fame. All the facets, of course, of growing up in any age. There will be one more, The Prow Beast, which deals with honour, wives, children - and the treachery of gods.

I hope you enjoy them all and write to tell me about it!

February 2009

As someone who's been planning on writing a Pictish epic for a while I wanted to ask you a question. I read in one of your interviews that you said being a former reporter helped you write your novel, as you're used to deadlines and to getting a story down on a page. My procrastinating with writing is legendary and I think being a sub-editor at the local paper doesn't help either. It makes someone who's already critical of their writing even more critical. I wondered if you had any tips on silencing the dreaded inner editor or and general insights?

Good luck with your endeavours – the world is waiting for a decent Pictish novel; all the ones I have read so far have been less than enjoyable. My own journalistic experience, as I say, helped me with deadlines and helped me get the kernel of the idea into a story fairly concisely. That's the up-side of journalism, and especially sub-editing. The down-side is ridding yourself of the newspaper style that turns every drama into oatmeal mush, with the denoument revealed in the first sentence. As for procrastinating – well, if you are not fired by your own ideas of plot and setting, you should not even start. I end up spewing a mass of words out and having to go back and edit them once I can take a steady breath. But everyone writes differently, so don't be put off if that is not a description of you.

I'd like to read about Orm or his progeny in the western Wolf Sea. I understand Norsemen controlled the wine trade between Oporto and Dyfflin - that could be an entry point. It might be interesting to see them muddle about in Moorish politics on both sides of the Straits. No charge or copyright on this! After that trilogy, I'll bet Iceland, Greenland and Vinland could be adventurous. It's too bad Skraelings left few records.

Pleased that you are enoying the Oathsworn series – and thanks for the plot idea. There is a fourth book, to be called The Prow Beast, which takes our heroes about the Oder, and I think you will like that one. I have plans to take some of the Oathsworn up to Mann and Ireland, then further north, but you are going to have to wait for that journey...

I have read Whale Road and I am about a hundred pages into Wolf Sea. I must say these are two of the best books I have ever read. I have Cornwell's Uhtred series and Severin's Odin's Child series, and while I enjoyed them greatly, your books are superior. Do you have date for the third book yet?

It is gratifying to be put in the same list as Bernard and the others – but to be considered superior is brilliant. Thanks for that. I hope you also enjoy The White Raven, which is out at the start of March in the UK, so presumably the same in Canada and US – I am never sure of the vagaries of transatlantic publishing.

January 2009

Robert, I just finished the Wolf Sea and I thought that it was awesome!
Now I can't wait for The White Raven. I see it is to come out in 2009... but when?

Thanks for the kind thoughts - a nice Christmas present. As for The White Raven - depends where you are. For UK, Oz, Canada and the like, it is March. For the US, you are looking at August, I think. The Russians have it, too, but what they do with it is anyone's guess...

I am currently half way through The Whale Road and enjoying the story immensely. I Have The Wolf Sea on standby. Have you read the Viking series
by Tim Severin? I found them and the Bernard Cornwell books about Uhtred riveting. The Viking age, is certainly the one age Ii would go back to if I had a time machine!
 
Myself and two friends are walking Hadrian's Wall for charity in summer 2009,
dressed as Roman Legionnaires. We are having difficulties sourcing armour and clothing. I know it's not the Viking era, but would you know of any contacts?
 
Happy to hear that you are following the trail of the Oathsworn so avidly - Book 3 is out in March 2009 and there is a Book 4 after that, so I hope you continue to enjoy them. I have read and enjoyed Tim Severin and Bernard - can't recommend them highly enough.

As regards Romans - try this: http://www.romanarmy.net/links.htm

I should be wary of wanting to buy complete outfits, all the same - authentic re-enactment gear, especially Roman (they have a lot of shiny armour!) is fearsomely expensive. I know because we meet them from time to time and try to persuade them to let us play hairy German barbarians; they won't do it because they don't want their nice shields or segmenta damaged. We don't really want to do it either because all their weapons, since they are not for fighting, are real... and Very Sharp.

October 2008

I enjoyed David Rintoul's reading of The Whale Road and I am looking forward to the audio version of The Wolf Sea. I have seen hints that it was coming out in August 2008, but so far my web searches have been unable to locate it. Is it coming soon, and who is publishing it?

Sadly, no-one is. It seems that HarperCollins looked at the returns for the audio of The Whale Road and thought the margins 'too tight' during the credit crunch to produce one for The Wolf Sea. Audio books are not exactly huge sellers at the best of times. The audio rights reverted to me and are being touted by my agent. Too early to tell yet when anyone will bite, but we're both are certain someone will, for this and the next one, The White Raven.

Hello from steamy Florida! As most who write you, I am sure, I have read both the Oathsworn novels and loved them. I hope there are many more to follow. I also followed some links on your site and found an interview in which you spoke about Mary Renault's work and said you felt The Persian Boy was one of the finest historical novels of all time. I had to run right out and get it - and I agree with you. I have since read all her novels on ancient Greece and find her work magnificent. Thanks for your fantastic writing on a wonderful subject, and for helping me to find another favorite author. For what it's worth your name and hers will always be linked on my favourites list.

Thank you for the praise and I hope you enjoy the third in the series, The White Raven, out in March 2009 in the UK (not sure when in the US). I am also pleased that you enjoy Mary Renault; she is one of those authors who have terrific stature but whose books have fallen out of fashion. Alfred Duggan is another, as laconic and spare as Mary Renault is lush and, happily, his books are currently being re-released after a long time out of print. I have a bit of an affinity with Duggan because, like me, he started late. In all, he wrote fifteen books in fifteen years, dying at 61.

Hello Robert,I have written before saying how much I enjoy your books and look forward to your next one.I have a question. In Richard Morgan's new book, The Steel Remains, he mentions you in the acknowledgements for helping him add realism to the story. I wonder what advice you gave him? I thought his book was very good, especially the sword combat.

It was nice of Richard to give me a shout - we have dinner now and then. He told me he was writing a fantasy novel and wanted to get the combat right, so I took him to a Viking training session and he had all the steel-on-steel fighting he could take! Seems to have paid off.

I don't tend to read too much - but then, I do come from Bellshill! I met you when I was working at HarperCollins in London, and I was already interested in reading your first novel. But after realising you're as down-to-earth and as gritty as one of the Oathsworn - but cleaner, I can assure everyone! - I definitely had to read it! I absolutely loved it. I rarely find a book that creates intriguing characters so vividly, and prompts me to continue so enthusiastically. I've just re-read it in preparation for The Wolf Sea. It's re-awakened my interest in literature, and I'm thrilled to know there will be another.

But one question... I recall hearing that James Joyce often visualised his writing in terms of cinema, and clearly there are stunning panoramic scenes of battles and milky-white sea horizons. If it was made into a film, would you alter anything for the big screen?

I remember you well! Everyone at HC was very nice and enthusiastic and it was a bonus to meet someone from close to home (I am a Hamilton man myself). Delighted to have re-awakened your interest in reading and books - keep it up! Would I change anything for the big screen? No.., but then, if it ever comes to pass, it probably won't be up to me.

September 2008

I read the Whale Road last year and was totally bowled over by it. I
never thought you would be able to reach that standard of story
telling again - and yet here I am with the Wolf Sea constantly to hand.
My wife blames you for me sitting up half the night reading!

I tend to read many historical novels and the Dark Ages is one of my
favourite periods. Having read books by all the well known authors I
have got to say that I rate the Whale Road and the Wolf Sea as the best yet.

Thanks for that - hope you enjoy The White Raven as much as the first two. Offer my sincere apologies to your wife and get her to read The White Raven - this is where the Viking women get a chance to show their mettle.

Have just read the first 2 novels in the Orm Saga and I'm gagging for the next - I'm a bit of a historical fiction enthusiast  - Cornwell, Scarrow, Iggulden,  etc and Have to put Orm Up there with the best of them - he'd cut them all a new bunghole no doubt! Thanks for letting me join the journeys - top notch all the way.
 
Brilliant to hear that you are enjoying the Oathsworn so far and that you put me in the same crew as Cornwell, Iggulden and Scarrow.

Greetings from Connecticut.  Loved both books.  Just finished Wolf Sea and can't wait for the next installment.  Any idea when it will be published?  Since you look like you're almost as old as me I hope you write fast and finish it while I'm still around.
 
I'm glad to say I have no immediate intentions of popping off - hope it is the same for you. I'm glad you enjoyed The Wolf Sea - and The White Raven is scheduled for March 2009. Stay kicking until then!

This is the first time I have felt inspired to acknowledge a great read! Thank you for The Whale Road. Bloody brilliant. We visited the Ornkey Isles in June and explored amazing places, Maes Howe being prominent. I was transported back there via the Whale Road. Everything about Orm, the Bear Slayer, fitted perfectly into my way of seeing things as his story unfolded. Long may his adventures continue...and long may Bernard C and Simon S sing your skald.

Glad you enjoyed Orkney - and The Whale Road. You should be able to get The Wolf Sea by now, so I hope you enjoy that as much. Orm and the crew will be sailing for a few more journeys yet, Orkney among them...

August 2008

I wanted to let you know that after reading both your and Bernard Cornwell's books on Saxons and Vikings that I couldn't put it off any longer and have joined Vikings UK.

Since January I have been learning my 8's and free-form fighting whenever possible with my group Wolves of the North in Kingston, ON, and with other groups in my province.  Just last weekend I attended the Uxbridge Highland Games outside Toronto and we had four groups represented, including your Glasgow Vikes (Wee Mark came over and shared some laughs).

I hope one day soon to be able to get over to the UK and both meet the senior members of the organization and participate in some battles and cameraderie.  Until then, best wishes and keep writing those beautiful stories!

I am chuffed that my books inspired you to join the ranks - hope you like the next one as much. I wanted to get over to Canada with Mark this time round, but the schedule here is hectic. He and I took a van to Limerick in Ireland, which is a seven-hour drive and two-hour ferry trip - ONE WAY. Just as well we get on well together!. Maybe next year - one way or another, I will cross swords with you for sure. Pass on my regards to Fish if you see him over there - tell him he is in Book 3!

Thank you so much for two thrilling reads. I have posted reviews of both on play.com where I got them. I love the characters that you develop, and how they perceive the good, evil, heroism or cowardice of their and each others' acts. I applaud your bravery - or is it ruthlessness? - in killing off some of these well-developed characters at just the right moment. I am so glad that you have replaced them with different, equally intriguing ones as the saga progresses.

Also educational even in a non-viking way I had not heard the explanation of the derivation of word spurious before.

I also think that your website is excellent, the glossary has helped me out. I look forward with great anticipation to reading The White Raven.

Glad you enjoyed both books so far - thanks for the kind words. I am currently writing for future books, which takes one of the characters west for a change - to Ireland, in time for the Battle of Tara. You should enjoy that one - but it won't be out for a time yet. I keep trying to get the glossary in the books, but have not persuaded HarperCollins to do it yet. Maybe for the next one.

Love your books and recently read your interview where you said you were researching The Battle of Tannenberg. Are you planning to write a fiction book about this battle? Also, have you read The Religion by Tim Willock and if so what did you think of it?

Glad to hear my books are going down well with you. Originally, I planned to write about Tannenberg immediately after The White Raven was finished - but now two more Viking books have reared their un-horned helmets, so Tannenberg is a long-term project. Still alive, all the same, and the research is ongoing.

As you say, a fascinating subject - the Teutonic knights and their 'Ordenstaat' are amazing and the more you uncover, the more breathtaking it becomes. The year of Tannenberg, 1410, was a wierd time in that part of the world, where half-pagan Lithuanians and Christian Poles united to take on the self-styled guardians of Christianity in the east. And all just 15 years before a certain French-English conforntation at Agincourt.

I have read The Religion and, though the writing is a bit florid here and there, the premise is good and the set-pieces well constructed. Not my favourite novel of that period, all the same. I prefer Angels In Iron by Nicholas Prata.

I've just started reading The Wolf Sea now and let me just say that it's great. I have read a lot of books about the Vikings and can never get enough. I'm a teacher in South Korea and just had the book sent out to me. Anyways. Im sure you've been asked this before, but have you been approached to turn the Oathsworn series into a Film, TV series or a computer game? It would be brillient if they were. There isn't enough Viking things out there in my opinon.

I am amazed to think that my book is now in South Korea for a start, so more power to you for that. Glad you are enjoying it - I take it that you have not read The Whale Road, which is first in the series. Beg, borrow or steal it - The Wolf Sea can be read on its own, but is much better seen against the backdrop of No.1.

Yes, other appreciative readers have asked about the film and TV angle - you are the first to mention computer game, all the same. My answer is always the same: not yet, but hoping. One day...

June 2008

I wanted to say how much I enjoyed your new book. I bought a copy as soon as it was released in the US, and I posted a review on Amazon. I hope more people will read it. I have a question about tatooing – I read the Vikings tattooed themselves and I was wondering if any of the Oathsworn have tatoos? And could you tell me a little about any new books you plan to write after the White Raven?

Excellent - tell everyone who likes the book to review it on Amazon because it makes my day!

There is little evidence for Viking tattoos - skin is not something you expect to uncover in grave finds and we are seldom disappointed. This is why I have limited tattoos to those in the crew who are more Slav than Norse, that hybrid called Rhus or Rus. It doesn't surprise me that the Rus/Slavs were tattooed, since the Scythians and other steppe tribes are well documented in Roman sources as having been so marked, and there are even designs available. The resemblance between descriptions of these steppe tribe designs and the only extant source for Rus tattoos - Ibn Fadlan - is striking. Ibn Fadlan, of course, is the Arab writer whose work is the basis for Michael Crichton's 13th Warrior. He states: "Each man has an axe, a sword, and a knife and keeps each by him at all times. The swords are broad and grooved, of Frankish sort. Every man is tattooed from finger nails to neck with dark green (or green or blue-black) trees, figures, etc." The Arabic word for the colour of the tattoos can mean green, blue or black. Probably these were dark blue tattoos, created using wood ash. Fadlan calls the designs "trees", but current thinking is that he is actually describing knotwork patterns common in northern art.

There will be another Oathsworn after The White Raven. It will be called The Prow Beast and, though I don't want to give away much in the way of plot, suffice to say that Odin promised the Oathsworn all the silver in the world - he just didn't promise that they would enjoy it.

There are plans for another book after that, still on a Viking theme but not directly to do with Orm and the Oathsworn.

Can't wait for The White Raven to be released.  I want more of the story! Fantastic read, amazing writing.. I feel as if I'm transported back in time with The Oathsworn! While I was reading the Wolf Sea I got a puppy, so she was given a name from the book: Meyla, one of the words used to descrivbe Orm. I know it means ‘little girl’ and is derogatory to Orm, but it seems to fit our little girl just perfectly. She may be a little girl but she is hell on wheels!

Pleased you liked it – hope your Meyla matures as well as Orm does!

May 2008

I loved The Whale Road and recommend it to everyone. I enjoy your style, which captures Norse philosophy and imagery without seeming at all self-conscious. I've just started The Wolf Sea, and honestly, I think the story - and your writing - just gets better all the time! I usually race through books but I'm eking this one out so I can enjoy it for longer. I also discovered a new word, 'sheuch', which I hadn't come across before, although apparently it's comming in Gaelic. I'm curious - is it Norse-influence Gaelic then?

'Sheuch' is a marvellous word. I really should put it in the glossary, but it's one of those words for a part of the body which actually has no name, like the bit under your nose nad above your lip. It's originally Norse ('sjogvur') suitable mangled by the irish into 'seug', meaning ditch, furrow or trench. It's further twisted into meaning that particular furrow where sweat runs and too-tight underwear bunches. The things you learn researching Vikings!

During the last chapters of The Whale Road I was several times reminded of the great author Leonard Wibberley. I think he would have enjoyed the book too. I'll pick up The Wolf Sea next time I'm at my favourite bookstore. And I also enjoy your blog - first time I've ever said that!

Well... at least the beard is the same as Leonard's, albeit a lot more grey! Good to be classed in the same vein as the man who wrote The Testament of Theophilus. Everyone remembers him for The Mouse That Roared etc, but he did some sterling historical novels. And thanks for mentioning the blog!

When I visit a Renaissance fair, I am most glad to be unable to smell what you put into your description of life in those days. I've heard it said that armies didn't lose more men to combat than disease until the First World War. Kipling and Zinsser (Rats, Lice and History) both said the battalion medical officer ought to have been the commanding officer. I have a question - I'm not a nerd or a geek and I don't suffer from OCD, but I was an infantry officer, pretty good with a bayonet, and I used to fence too. On Page 51 of the Whale Road, when the Oathsworn raid the church, Orm is fighting a swordsman who has a shield. He wins by shoving his sword point against the bottom of the shield, forcing it backward, opening the man's shoulder and head to a stroke, which he duly delivers. For that move to succeed, the sword must come up further than the shield, as Orm must be winding up for a slash or hack. The shield would have what's called an interior line - and as long as the opponent is paying attention, he'd probably have got back into position before Orm's sword was ready for the stroke. What am I missing?

Speed! Since I fight (unrehearsed) with sword and shield against similarly-armed opponents, I've learned the tricks to opening up your enemy are many and varied, but almost always involve hand speed. Hitting the bottom of a big Viking shield hard not only tilts it forward, exposing the left shoulder and neck, but it bends the wrist on the handgrip. Those shields are heavy - in the time it takes him to recover you can bring the sword back up and slice into the neck. Another move is to repeatedly attack the top rim of the shield, hack on hack on hack, then feint and bring the sword up and under the shield, just as he lifts it slightly against the next expected top-cut. With speed, skill and luck, you end up cutting just under his armpit. It's hard to do all this with a heavy slashing Viking sword, so usually I employ a hefty kick to the bottom of the shield, which works much better. Doing it with the sword, though, is just about the only Errol Flynn-style fighting Vikings get to do!

Dear My Low... you git! For the second time in two years I've endured a week of late nights and being knackered and grumpy the next morning because I couldn't put your book down. I came across The Whale Road while I was shopping for ale and when I finished the book I sat about, moaning that I'd have to wait another year for The Wolf Sea. Well, it arrived, and the last week was as tiring as the one last year. What a brilliant follow-up - bot books are top of  my list. Keep up the bloody good work! Will there be an audiobook version of The Wolf Sea as well?

Knackered and grumpy... welcome to my life! That's how I feel most mornings while writing the books, so I'm glad to hear it was worth it. The White Raven is due out in March 2009, and I'm sorry I can't make it any sooner. I believed there will indeed be an audiobook of The Wolf Sea, done by the very excellent David Rintoul, who did such a fine job of reading The Whale Road.


I really like the way you portrayed Brother John. Don't get me wrong - I'm not of the 'one book' persuasion. But his witty and patient manner, being equal in the shield wall when required, and gently working on the non-Christians with sensible advice, makes me think that's how many people were won over to his religion. What an exceptional observation on the psychology of real people! One of the questions on the website intrigues me: 'what would Orm do in this century?' I recently watched a biography of a 70s rock group where one of them said they were like 'a group of commandos, looking out for each other, knowing each others' weaknesses'. It made me think, 'I wonder how long they'd last in a shield wall?' I didn't manage to make Pictavia at Easter - will you be back again soon?

I believe I'll be back some time in June, with a couple of colleagues, doing weapons demos and telling saga tales. I hope you'll manage to be there. Or, if you want a real gritty Viking experience, we'll be at Lindisfarne at the end of May.

March 2008

I've enjoyed reading The Whale Road. The characters are a lot of fun, the plot is strong, the narrative intriguing and the dialogue is a hoot to follow. I've laughed out loud, cringed at Einar, cheered for Orm and kept my eyes glued to the page. It is a very entertaining read. Pinleg was one of my favorite characters, it's a shame you had to kill him off but he went out in style. Looking forward to reading The Wolf Sea.

The Wolf Sea is out now in the UK, but I suspect the US publishers will do the same as they did before and put it out in August, which seems strange to me. Don't worry about the characters - there are lots more new ones!


Are you planning to do any public book signings? It would be great to meet you and get a book signed.

Nothing official - but check with the Glasgow Vikings website (there's a link on my own)and you'll find a list of places where I will be swinging an axe this summer. Pick one near you! The more exotic ones include Lindisfarne and Amlwch in Wales. I will gladly sign your book if you bring it. I am also doing some Ayrshire-based book club appearances, but I don't know the dates yet.


Are you planning to publish your books in Dutch? I am really interested in this period. I much enyoyed the Stephen Lawhead series.

Hello and thanks for the interest. So far my books are in Russian only, although I believe there are moves to get them in most European countries, including Scandinavia and, yes, Holland. Keep watching the website.

Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed The Wolf Sea. Throughly great read. After viewing your website, I am chuffed to see that Orm and the Oathsworn will continue battling in The White Raven. I hope you can continue putting info about the Norse onto your site – makes for interesting reading.

The Oathsworn are sailing as hard as they can into The White Raven. And the Glossary is gradually being extended so that, by the time you come to read The White Raven there should be no problems!

January 2008

Sometimes it can be rather boring to be a retired grandma of two sweet children, with hobbies of genealogy and miniatures... but not this week when in my soul I was an Oathsworn on the Fjord Elk. Thank you for the best book I've read in a long time!  

From a retired grandpa of two sweet children, with hobbies of re-enactment and miniatures, I can confidently say: whatever else it is, life is never boring! I'm pleased to hear I managed to carry you off in the Fjord Elk. Hope The Wolf Sea gives you more adventurous sailing.

Just started reading and I'm enjoying the ride. You've got onto my favourites list which includes Cornwell, Lawhead, Scarrow, Sutcliffe and Jack Whyte - very good company! Your book has been mentioned many times on the Amazon.com USA historical fiction blog. Feel free to join and chime in. And please keep those giant reads coming!

You're right - that's VERY good company. Hope I continue to live up to it!

I'm in Southern California - about as far in time and culture as one could get from Vikings. I'm half way through The Whale Road and enjoying it immensely - although, like another commenter, wish you would put a glossary in the next book. I've been able to decipher a few of the place names from the text. But, for example, I didn't know Valland was in Norway.

I'm a 70-year-old female who'd have loved to be a Viking. My husband is pure Norwegian dating back about 1000 years, but he doesn't have a Viking spirit - I'm the bloodthirsty one. My patronymic is Stinnett, and a cousin has pushed us back to 1066, when the name was either derived from Estinet (possibly Hugeunot) on Stanhard ('hard head') from Normandy Vikings. Someone went with William the Conqueror and the name was Anglisiced to Stinnett.

So, while reading Orm's story, I can pretend my lineage is the same as his.

BTW, who is your Viking character? I like the colourful outfit.

Sadly there was no room in The Wolf Sea for a glossary, but I hope you find the one on this site useful.

I can't claim such direct Viking ancestry - I'm originally a Fairbairn, a sept of Armstrong, a Borders clan. The name 'Armstrong' comes from a thirteenth-century warrior who, in full armour, lifted his stricken king onto his horse with one arm. The warrior's name was Fairbairn. So I'm Celt as much as any bloodline.

My colourful outfit is Rus Viking - the ones who went east into Russia and git first call on the expensive silk, which the costume is made from. Needless to say, my Viking character is Orm.

My wife spotted The Whale Road in the new books section of the Patten Free Library in Bath, Maine. She was sure I'd like it - and it was really great. I found it enlightening - I know very little about Vikings - and it was full speed from page one onward. When will the next one be published in the USA?

Well, The Wolf Sea is published in the UK, Canada, Australia etc in March. I suspect the US publishers may do what the did last time, and wait until August - although I have no idea why this happens. Let's hope the Patten Free Library is quick off the mark!

I picked up your book at the library on a whim, in case my main book was a dud. I read Bernard Cornwell's comment on the cover and thought, 'yeah, I've been promised that before'. Well, the main book was terribly dull so I quickly switched - and I was hooked from the beginning. Great characters, wonderful dialogue, action, action and more action. Thank you so much for writing it - I honestly have not read a Viking tale this good since Michael Chrichton's Eaters of the Dead.

Bernard's a good judge but even he can't please everybody... I read one comment on his site from a fan complaining he'd bought my book because of the cover quote and hadn't enjoyed it at all. Full marks to Bernard, though - he defended me!

I bought The Whale Road from the staff bookshop at HarperCollins in Bishopbriggs, where I work. You were here earlier in the year signing books. I'm looking forward to reading it... I feel like I know you already after a quick whizz round the website. I'm eager to continue learning about Vikings, after listening to the first four CD sets of Cornwell's Uhtred series. I've also read Nancy Farmer's Sea of Trolls and the Katherin Langrish Troll trilogy - even though they're childrens books, they're very good reads! It's fascinating to see common terms, names and undertakings throughout.

That's a bit special - HC employees buying my HC book! I hope it lives up to your expectations. If it does, I'll be back soon to sign copies of The Wolf Sea. Drop by and see me, and I'll sign one for you - even if it annoyes your bosses!

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