A few weeks ago a group of us scribes got together and formed the Historical Writers' Association – the HWA. The idea grew from the belief that historical writers need to have the same kind of professional body run by professional writers for professional writers to sustain, promote and support our work in the way that the Crime Writers' Association supports writers of crime fiction and non-fiction.
Everyone who is anyone will know how I have banged on long and hard about HF being a genre without a shelf or a prize.
Our initial plans involve a festival of historical writing to be held in conjunction with Historic England's Festival of History at Kelmarsh; probably in 2012, although we may have a dry run in 2011. We will move towards finding sponsorship for historical prizes and organise the social events similar to the CWA, plus alternatives as our members see fit: in the era of electronic networking, a great deal is being achieved already online.
Our aims of association:
The Historical Writers' Association is an association of professional writers of history, both fiction and non-fiction who have work published by recognised publishers, plus their agents and publishers. Membership shall be limited to those authors who have work published in the last 5 years, although others may be admitted at the discretion of the committee.
The HWA exists to promote, sustain and raise the profile of historical writing in all its forms.
For the avoidance of doubt, 'historical' shall be defined as being beyond 35 years from the point of application.
Thus we are open to writers of fiction and non-fiction alike – anyone who makes a living out of publishing books in which the core matter is historical – plus their agents and publishers. We have a wheen of the great and good already, standing shoulder-to-shoulder . If you think you'd like to join us, or know someone who does, please email me or Manda Scott, the woman almost single-handedly responsible for starting it (pause for suitable bows and cries of 'We are not worthy').
Here's a first look at what HarperCollins are planning for the cover of the first in my Kingdom series, The Lion Wakes. It's by no means a finished work but it sets the scene nicely and will almost certainly look something quite like this. Let me know what you think.
In this month's blog I bid a fond farewell to The Oathsworn at Largs, which, it turns out, is the perfec t place to do so – for reasons I'll explain.
For me it's heads down into the world of Wallace and Bruce and the Scots wars of independence. Three books are planned, in which I'll tell an old story in a new way.
But I'm sure the Oathsworn will return to send me adventuring again – and, I hope, you too.
I've added more of your comments to the bulletin board. It's important to keep in touch with what you think of my books, so please do keep those questions and opinions coming. Many thanks!
Back from Gimli, Manitoba – spare a thought for that town of Icelandic ex-pats. They thought it was a good idea to name this New World enclave after the Old Norse for heaven – but who knew Tolkien would come along and force them to live up the rear-end of a grumpy dwarf?
Now that I am home in Scotland, I plunge straight into edits for The Lion Wakes, first of the new Kingdom trilogy due in March next year. This weekend I’m at the Lanark Medieval Festival then it's the Largs festival; and then, finally, off to Manchester on October 16-17 to take part in the Historical Novel Society Conference together with a load of other authors. Well worth the money – I hope to see loads of historical fiction fans turn up to that.
I'm spending a lot of time on the road just now – just back from Scandinavia and just off to Canada. My latest blog shows how, yet again, other parts of the world are miles ahead of us in safeguarding their archaeological heritage – and how, yet again, some people just cannot fail to wind me up. The bulletin board update includes a wonderful compliment from someone who's only just taken the plunge into book-reading for the first time in his life. To have been chosen as his springboard is a great honour, and I'm delighted to have heard from him. If you have any comments of your own, or any questions regarding my work, please drop me a line.
My latest blog covers the topics of an author who says he can't work because of a noisy generator, a historic stone which should never be allowed to go to auction, and an interesting Oathsworn step into the world of sorcery... And I've added a few more of your comments to the bulletin board. Please keep them coming!
Latest information on my upcoming event appearances...
June 5: Off to Norway for the annual Viking festival at Karmoy in the Haugesund. You may well all remember my last visit some three years ago and it seems they have forgotten, thank God, since I have been invited back. Read more about it and don’t worry – hit the translate button to get it in English. Check out the photo gallery, too and see what fun we have... if the weather stays fine, that is!
July 30: The August Bank Holiday weekend in Canada sees me WAAYYY up in Manitoba at the town of Gimli which is holding its 121st Icelandic Heritage Festival. I will be living, dressing and fighting all weekend as a Norse warrior, in between doing talks, lectures and signing books – so if you got any that you want my scrawl in, now is your chance. You can also but them there, so don’t worry. Find out more on how Icelanders ended up in Manitoba, the festival in general and how a town of approx 3000 people swells tenfold over a weekend, go here:
October 17: Off to Manchester to take part in a conference organised by the Historical Novel Society. Strange day to hold it, a Sunday, but I am told this is to fit in with events surrounding the coincidental Manchester Literature Festival and a Time-To-Read promo by Manchester Libraries, so I will be a busy old lad. Not sure what I will be doing, but am comforted with the thought that at least one old friend will be there, too – Doug Jackson, author of the Claudius and Caligula novels.
I've added a new blog. I'm glad you all seem to be enjoying The Prow Beast so much, and I'm grateful for the comments you've posted on online stores like Amazon. Please keep them coming – they're lifeblood in modern bookselling! It's also nice to find so many queries about whether the Oathsworn have a future. A little more of that in the Forum section...
As my good friend Angus Donald (author of Outlaw) says, there should be a name for that moment when you finish reading the last book of in a series you have loved. Post-Textual Tristesse, he calls it brilliantly – but I have to extend that to the moments after putting the last full stop on writing The Prow Beast. It’s not the end of the Viking sagas in me, but it may well be the end of the whale road for the Oathsworn. Waving goodbye to old friends you have traveled so far with with is bitter-sweet.
I hope you all enjoyed the journey as much as I did – and that this final leg of it keeps you glued until the turn of the last page.
Then you can look forward, as I am, to seeing Robert the Bruce, William Wallace and the tortured Kingdom of Scotland come into print.
The Prow Beast is published tomorrow – and starting tomorrow you'll be able to see the title on TV. Publishers HarperCollins have tied up with the History Channel to have the Prow Beast named as sponsor during a series of shows in the coming month. You'll see the ad during the following programmes (all times GMT):
03/03 Rome: Rise & Fall - 6pm
04/03 Rome: Rise & Fall - 6pm
06/03 Clash of the Gods - 10am
12/03 Clash of the Gods - 9pm
17/03 Richard the Lionheart - 9pm
17/03 Richard the Lionheart - 12midnight
19/03 Clash of the Gods - 9pm
19/03 Clash of the Gods - 12midnight
20/03 Clash of the Gods - 10am
24/03 Roman Invasion - 7am
24/03 Roman Invasion - 3pm
25/03 Roman Invasion - 7am
23/03 Roman Invasion - 3pm
26/03 Roman Invasion - 7am
26/03 Roman Invasion - 3pm
26/03 Clash of the Gods - 12midnight
My fourth Oathsworn book, the Prow Beast, will be published on March 5 in the UK by HarperCollins. (I'll confirm international publication dates soon.) Book IV sees Orm and his followers discovering that when you're known as the men to beat, people come from far and wide to try to beat you. That's how they end up shipless, homeless and fighting for survival, while they're also charged with protecting pregnant Queen Sigrith from an attempt to destroy her bloodline. Watch out for more details here soon.
Meanwhile, if you're interested in my musings on the Apple iPad, read my most recent blog entry.
Professional historian Terry D Janes has written a glowing review of my Oathsworn series and posted it here on Amazon.com. Here's some of what Terry says:
As one who has made a life-long study of the Norse I am very critical when it comes to books on this subject. Only a very few reach the level of excellence that make me want to keep them in my collection.
Robert Low's Oathsworn series is one of those few I will keep. Mr. Low truly understands the subject matter and crafts his stories much like a Norse Skald would. I just finished reading White Raven, and enjoyed it so much that I neglected everything else until I finished it.
Good writers in this subject are rare, and Mr. Low is one of the very best. We need more literature that portrays the Norse the way they really were. My thanks to Mr. Low for many hours of good, entertaining reading!
I'm very grateful for his generous and supportive words - thanks, Terry! Visit Terry's website, TheVikingWorld.com. It's difficult to understate how important reviews like these are to the modern author. If you have enjoyed any of my works, I would be delighted if you could find the time to say so on the Amazon website. Many thanks in advance.
Happy new year! We're now only weeks away from the publication of The Prow Beast, the last of the Oathsworn series (for now). More information will be here soon. These days I tend to think of books for Christmas the way I thought of satsumas when I was young... find out more on my Blog page. I've added a handful of your recent emails - keep them coming because I'm always delighted to hear from you.
Harry Sidebottom, author of the Warrior of Rome novels, has been incredibly generous with a quote about my work. He says: “Robert Low knows his period inside out. No modern novelist knows more about the Vikings than Robert Low. In the Oathsworn series he has created a completely convincing and utterly compelling modern Viking Saga. The history, myth and fiction are folded seamlessly together: wonderful, unbeatable stuff.” I'm very grateful and honoured to be referred to in such glowing terms by a talent like Harry.
And there's a new Blog about the impact of talking or writing about historical eras.
I wish you all the best for the festive season and for 2010, and I hope you'll come back to this site in the new year to find out more about my next books.
While I'm writing about what happens when someone finds a hoard of treasure, it seems real life is copying me - more than once right now. Find out about the latest real-life adventures in my Blog. Thank you for another month of kind emails... I've put a few up on the Bulletin Board page.
It has been an interesting month for things Dark Age. I can't help wondering about the story behind the discovery of a 1500-piece Saxon treasure hoard - and being grateful the items haven't wound up in a museum with a non-returning policy. It's also nice to know the art of bending fact into saga is still alive and well after 800 years - read my Blog for more details. Plus, this month's addition to the Forum page covers other authors, weaponry and why I decided to have the Oathsworn speak the way they do.
Read my new Blog via the links on the left to read my thoughts on people's reaction to a roat lamb in Lanark, and why it leads to Libya via Lockerbie. Many thanks for your continued queries and comments - more coming to the site soon.
I'll be talking about writing, books and history at Bo'ness Library in the Falkirk area of Scotland on Thursday October 8 at 7pm, as part of Falkirk Libraries' Homecoming Scotland celebrations. Hope to see you there - and if you bring copies of my books I'll be happy to sign them.
It seems the job of debunking fudged history is never-ending, thanks partly to the silver screen; but thanks mainly to the inability of today's kids to suspend their disbelief and tell fact from fiction. Matters are not helped by those we assume should be respected making factual howlers. It just adds to the blurred picture, making it more and more difficult to work out who we were and where we came from - and therefore working out who we could be and where we could go. This month, it's the turn of the haggis to be misunderstood. Someone has claimed the dish is not Scottish in origin. And she's right - but the rest of her argument is wrong. Find out more on my Blog page. And, as ever, thank you for the kind and often insightful words about my writing - there are some new additions, with my comments, on the Forum page.
I've recently returned from a very memorable trip to Ireland. Not memorable for entirely the best reasons, but memorable in a way that will become more and more valuable - and entertaining - as the years go by, I'm sure. Read my blog to find out more - and see a picture of the state I wound up in. Also, within the latest batch of your comments and queries there's a book fan who helps explain just why it's so important to write a review for the Amazon website - regardless of whether you liked a book or not. Although, I hope you will write positively about my work.
You may have heard how British band the Manic Street Preachers got into trouble with supermarkets who didn't want to stock their new album due to the cover art. Well, it seems the same thing has happened to me - and so there's a new cover for the paperback version of The White Raven. Take a look at my blog page for more information. Plus, another selection of your comments and queries added to the forum. Many thanks for your continued interest.
The first show of the season at Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow saw us pull out all the stops to cover the periods from the 9th century Picts to the 17th century Scots Royalist and Roundheads.
I was, as you can see, Sir Robert the Bruce’s second cousin twice removed on his mother’s side, in full mail, silly helmet and even some plate pieces on arms and belly. Once it is all on, that stuff adds 130 extra pounds and plays merry hell with your hips and ankles.
Still, I was cheered by the influx of new idiot questions from Joe Public – it has to be said, in the shape of the Maryhill Ned, with Buckie bottle tastefully unhidden in a plastic bag and scars that turned wee fresh faces into zip fasteners.
They also had this idea that we were there to sell all the stuff on show. One wanted to buy ‘flint an’ tinder, mister’, presumably because arson with a lighter was just no’ challenging enough.
Another, inevitably, wondered if any of the swords were for sale.
The best, though, was reserved for our leatherworker.
“Whit ye daein?"
“Working with leather. I make things.”
“Aw, man – kin ah hey a shot? Ah want tae make a jaiket.”
Pure dead brilliant, all of youse.
The Vikings recently gathered in Nottinghamshire to shake off the winter cobwebs, ahead of the 2009 campaign. You can find out a little more about what we're looking forward to – and what we're definitely not – on my blog. I've also added more of your comments on the Bulletin Board. Many thanks for all your kinds words about The White Raven. If you really like it, please consider writing a review on Amazaon – it's incredibly important!
Our first engagement of the season is in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum on May 2-3, where we'll be showing off Viking arms and armoury. Hope to see you there.
At last, I get to play Carnegie Hall. Well, the hall of Carnegie Library in Ayr, on April 22, where I will stand up and be counted for everything you like or don't like about my books. Tickets are a mere two quid - well worth it.
Scientists at the National Physical Lab in Teddington, working in conjunction with the Wallace Collection, have come up with some genuinely interesting and revelationary findings regarding the Norse.
They analysed the metal of real Viking grave-find swords from Norway and Sweden and came up with the link between the metal, the technique and Afghanistan. The results showed that the swords were made of imperfectly melted steel - consisting of a mixture of iron and carbonaceous materials heated together to give high-carbon steel. NPL's results match descriptions of ancient sword making in Herat (now in Afghanistan) described by ninth century Arab philosopher and writer Al-Kindi
This links to a known Viking trade route down the Volga and across the Caspian Sea to Iran but until now it was not known that Vikings had brought crucible steel back to Scandinavia and integrated ancient Arab steelmaking methods with their own swordsmithing.
I am fascinated by this since I am about to take delivery of a genuine sword of my own, handcrafted by Paul Binns (http://www.paul-binns-swords.co.uk/) and with hilt decoration by George Easton (http://www.danegeld.co.uk/). It is a pattern-welded blade, made with twisted iron rods and is the real, sharp deal, a present to myself and called, appropriately enough, The White Raven.
The reason for this extravagance? I have just delivered The Prow Beast to the publishers – the LAST tale of the Oathsworn.
I am now about to start researching and writing three new books for HarperCollins, with a new hero and a new background of the Scottish Wars of Independence. Bruce, Wallace, Edward and all, with the gloves off and the warts on.
Watch out for The Kingdom Trilogy – I hope you all enjoy this as much as you seem to have enjoyed the Oathsworn.
The revisionists are at it again – but a lot of what they're telling us is old news. And what's left isn't that new, or good... Click the Blog link on the left.
The White Raven is published tomorrow Monday, March 9, 2009, by HarperCollins. Note this is the third in the Oathsworn series – not a trilogy as it has been described elsewhere – and there are plans for at least one more adventure for Orm.
This outing takes Orm and company back to where it all began – the tomb of Attilla. The setting for The White Raven is the steppe, that formidable expanse of Russia which has claimed so many reputations, armies and lives in the past. The underlying theme is legend and the forging of it, so that the enemies of the Oathsworn are those who hover on the edge of myth and magic, where the reality is almost always swallowed by the tale.
The true enemy of Orm and the Oathsworn, of course, is the steppe in winter – the White Raven of the title – and their own hopes, fears and greed.
I hope you all enjoy this – and, if it feels as if there is a closure to events, don't forget that the saga never ends... it merely circles like the World Serpent eatings its own tail.We're counting down to the release of the third Oathsworn book, The White Raven. It's out in the UK next month. I can't wait to hear what you think of it.
Meanwhile... a crucifix hidden because it scares churchgoing children... a nurse in trouble for asking to pray for someone... are we sure this is a Christian country? Those who believe in other things are bemused. Read the Blog page for more. Plus a few more comments on the Bulletin Board.
Historian Michael Fry has said Rabbie Burns should not be regarded as a Scottish national hero... so I've come up with a few alternative suggestions that prove how stupid a thing it is so say in the first place. Check the Blog page for more.
And a few more of your comments and queries on the Bulletin Board page – many thanks, and keep them coming.
All the best for 2009.
If you're looking for Christmas gift ideas, perhaps I can help. On my blog page you'll find my top-ten reads which could make great presents for friends, family - or even yourself. Some of them may be hard to find, in which case I suggest you try ABE Books, the online resource for rare publications: www.abebooks.co.uk
Have a happy Yule!
I've just received the final artwork for the third Oathsworn book, The White Raven. Very stylish and very much in keeping with the previous two, and I hope you like it as much as I do.
Meantime, the landmark BBC series A History of Scotland begins on November 9, complete with a wide range of appearances from myself and some of my re-enactment colleagues - so don't miss it.
Who's getting it in the neck this month? Two men by the name of Starkey... read more on the blog page. And yet more comments from you, my dear and much-appreciated readers, on the bulletin board page.
I will be
appearing at the Guildford
Book Festival at 3.30pm on 23 October in the Electric
Theatre. I'll be talking about how to get into character and showing off my
full regalia to underline how dressing up and re-enacting actually helps the
writing process.
I'm sharing the stage with fellow HarperCollins author Christie Dickason, who
writes historical fiction and uses her 14 years' experience as a theatre director
to help her make characters more vivid. She may spring a few costume surprises
herself...
Tickets are £6 or £5 for friends of the Festival. Hope to see you there.
It's been so hectic recently I've had to die twice on camera in the same TV series. I hope that's not any kind of hint... Read (and see) more on the blog page. And thank you once again for your continued emails - I've put a few more up on the bulletin board page. Must go - time to die again!
In newspapers we call this time of year 'silly season' - with much of the world on holiday a lot fewer run-of-the-mill news events take place, and we are forced to fill papers with stories we wouldn't normally use, even as one-paragraph shorts. So, what the heck - I've joined in, as you'll see on my blog page. Enjoy! There's also a bulletin board update.
The
paperback edition of The Wolf Sea goes on sale this month - click on the detail
on the left if you'd like to see the whole cover art. And a warm welcome to
those of you who are visiting for the first time after reading it! I hope you
find plenty more entertainment on the site, and return many times.
My first video blogs are
now available for viewing - quick introductions to Viking knives, spears, helmets
and shields. They were shot at the Amble Sea Fayre in July, with the whole
Viking camp set round about. It was a very blustery day and you can make out
raindrops on the camera lens, but that just makes it all the more authentic!
More video will appear in the months ahead.
There's a new blog
entry about an appalling piece of journalism
in which the Mail on Sunday have, if you ask me, managed to break through the
bottom of the barrel and scraped up something much lower and more fetid. And
in the process they've managed to be incredibly insensitive, inaccurate an
downright sloppy. Forgive me if I go off on one.
Meanwhile, I'm just back from Amble where I made some video blogs, which will
appear on the website in due course. And I'm preparing for the Lanark Medieval
Festival on August 16-17, which gets bigger and better every year. If you see
me there please do come over and say hello.
I am pleased to announce that, after The White Raven, there will
be two more books for HarperCollins – but only one will be directly concerned
with Orm and the Oathsworn, though both are still all about my first love,
the Vikings. Book Four will be called The Prow Beast - and more information will
follow in the coming months.
Meantime, there's an interview with me on Writer Unboxed www.writerunboxed.com which
offer a little more insight into how I do what I do, and why. Back here I've
added a new blog and more of your comments on the bulletin board (links bottom
left).
There's an interesting addition to the bulletin board page - some fascinating points made this time round. Thanks! Also a brief blog, even though I don't seem to have anything better to do than a long one...
By way of background to the second Oathsworn book, I've made
this Q&A out of the most interesting questions I've received. Keep your emails
coming - robert@robert-low.com
How life has changed - Orm talks of never having seen so many boats or so
many people before. What do you think we've lost in being used to crowds of
100,000 or more at rock concerts and so on?
A sense of wonder. Modern travel means more people can
reach more places and we are used to crowds – in some cases, we live
in crowds permanently. In the Dark Ages population was much more sparse,
and in countries such as Norway or Sweden, the rough terrain and paucity
of arable land meant small, self-sufficient communities – extended
farms, no more – were spread across a host
of islands and areas of mainland reachable only by water. A person could live
their entire life not knowing more than 30 people and never having gone
more than 20 miles from their birthplace.
Do you think there was more respect for people or just more suspicion in the Viking era? Here in Scotland what do you think are the pros and cons of having lost the clan system?
There was more respect for the clan system – the ‘aett’ in
Norse – since your own kin were the only ones you could trust. Beyond
that, everyone was a potential enemy – hence the need for Orm’s
band to swear binding oaths to each other, providing the necessary god-enforced
trust. We have lost the clan system and gained the law and, marginally, that
is an improvement – at least it has stopped the vicious family feuds
which makes Neighbours From Hell seem like a study in politeness.
I'm no expert but the discussions of the ships and shipwrighting seem to be accurate and researched. How did you go about that?
From folk who know. The techniques of ‘real’ shipbuilding are
not dead and the Scandinavians, in particular, are great reverse engineers.
For instance, they took archaeological finds of boats at Roskilde and elsewhere
and created the Sea Stallion, currently sailing back to Norway from Dublin
this year. As a result of that, references in sagas and other sources, we know
a lot about how Viking ships worked. Even the Bayeux Tapestry is a help – William
of Normandy’s invasion fleet in 1066 is built more or less along the
same lines as his ancestral Vikings would have built their warships.
Do you find the urge to put in everything you've learned about a topic or do you find it easy to control? I assume it helps to have Orm writing as if he's speaking to someone who doesn't know much about vikings?
I won’t use a reference unless it turns up in a plot. I hate books where
there is a sudden digression into lengthy explanation – Umberto Eco does
this all the time and, much as I love the man, he infuriates me with it. Name
Of The Rose is the only film which I reckon actually captures the book perfectly – because
that isn’t just the essence of his plot, it IS his plot; most of the
rest of that thick tome is Umberto whizzing off at tangents. Some of them are
great, too, don’t get me wrong – but after 20 pages of dissertation
on the nature of Christianity, I have, literally, lost the plot.
Can you try to equate what Orm would be if he was living today? Something like a pop star or a sportsman?
He would be the equivalent of a dodgy mercenary, the sort that makes the Sunday papers by trying to land in some African airport with a cargo of weapons and crowd of equally dodgy ‘passengers’.
Do you think Vikings genuinely gave as much credit to oaths and loyalty as
is talked about here, or is that mainly because the main source of information
is the sagas, which by nature will go on about that stuff?
Not only did they gave credence to such oaths, but everyone
who knew them at all considered them a byword for oath-sworn loyalty. That’s
why the Emperors of Byzantium ended up with the Varangian Guard, since these
Norse axe-wielders were the only ones who could be relied upon, having sworn
to the task, to stick by the Emperor when all the other troops rose in revolt.
Do you think there's any risk in writing about Muslims who kill children in the current climate?
There’s a risk in writing about Muslims at all, but only
from those whose minds are so narrow their thoughts have to squeeze sideways.
I am writing about the 10th century, a time of violence everywhere – and
I also write about the Norsemen themselves committing atrocities. After all – are
Vikings not a byword for rape and pillage? The worst historical fiction is
that which envelopes ancient heroes in 21st century moral
values. A Viking warrior can, perhaps, agonise about killing if he is a freshly-devout
convert to Christianity (the dichotomy of ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ with
exhortations to slaughter pagans, for example) but a kindly Norse pillager
sparing young girls or children from slavery is laughable.
Are all Sighvat's stores about animals based on Viking lore?
Not all – some of them are from other, similarly ‘primitive’ cultures – Saxon,
Finn, Lapp, even North American Indian and Inuit.
Does the book reflect a fair analysis of how much impact Christianity was having in the Viking world, or is it more of a plot device to suggest the Oathsworn's time was passing?
I hope it's the former, although the latter is also true. This
was the transitional period when the loose collection of states (jarldoms)
of Scandinavia were being formed into ever-larger kingdoms, eventually coalescing
into the countries we know as Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Christianity was
the single most effective binding factor for this. First come the priests,
then the agreements of kings, and within a hundred years we have almost all
of Europe following the same system – feudal
and Christian. In this brave new world, pagan bands such as the Oathsworn,
remnants of the old Beowulf-tradition warrior cult – had no place.
The wait is almost over: the Oathsworn are about to set sail on The Wolf Sea on March 3.
And all those who were worried that I was running
out of crew can rest easy; there are more than enough new recruits falling
over themselves to take the oath for the promise of all the silver in the world.
(By the way, I dispute the suggestion I kill off beloved characters faster
than the Black Death, as one Amazon reviewer commented...)
This second episode takes Orm and the crew into previously uncharted waters for
them, but not for the Norse generally - the Middle East was getting used
to blond men with faces like slapped arses in the Dark Ages. It was just one
more country the Vikings decided to have a look at. I'm convinced
this is because all the maps of the time were focused on the east (hence the
word 'oriented') rather than north, as now; and Jerusalem was at the centre of
every chart.
Not that they followed maps much. Rather, a good Viking would quickly realise that anywhere taken so seriously by monkish mapmakers was bound to have lots of stuff to plunder.
Hope you all enjoy this trip - and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Happy new year! My second book, The Wolf Sea, is set for publication in March - so the wait's nearly over for everyone who's been waiting to see what happens to Orm and the rest of the Oathsworn. Look out for a sneak preview coming to the website soon.
Meanwhile, in response to your meany requests, I've written a Norse Glossary for the site - follow the link on the left, and let me know if you'd like to see any additions.
There's also a new blog and I've added a few more readers' comments to the forum. Again, links on the left.
It's been a long wait to see Book II published. I can't wait to hear what you think of it!