"Dark Ages & Viking books? Somerled, etc" Topic

Visited Isle of Skye in Scotland, and that's got me interested in the Kingdom of the Isles and the wars of Dark Age Western Britain.

Anyone got some good books to recommend on the subject? I know there are a alot of Viking sagas, but am pretty ill-informed on them. I bought one good hard-history book on Somerled and the rise of the Kingdom of the Isles. More academic history, sagas and even excellent fiction would be nice.

Note: "Excellent" fiction here means Rosemary Sutcliffe, and not Bernard Corny-well.

This may be of tangential interest to you:

link

Not fiction "Orkneyinga Saga" link is worth the read.

x42

OG actually has a very nice range we call "Somerled".
Regards
Russ Dunaway

The Viking Art of War and The Complete Icelandic Sagas (might not be the exact titles) should give you a little to read to start with. Magnus Magnusson used to be one of the top authors on Vikings, though that may have changed in more recent years.

An excellent fiction novel is "King Hereafter" by Dorothy Dunnett
link
Nigel Tranter also wrote a few set in this era link

I too would suggest King Hereafter

Hey Russ, The books are for more inspiration to paint and field my Old Glory figs! Especially the Somerled and wounded Viking king vignettes!

Just in case anyone is interested, the following three Sutcliffe books seem relevent to the period:

Blood Feud, Sword Song, and The Shining Company

"King Hereafter" looks good – a nice catch!

And this is the book I got in Scotland:
Somerled: Hammer of the Norse by K. M. MacPhee

The Nigel Tranter books have one specifically about Somerled, and one about a later period in the isles, both sound good.

Go on Amazon and see if you can find a copy of "The Long Ships" by Frans G Bengtsson.

Or "King Hereafter" by Mary Dunnant (?)

"The Long Ships" by Frans G Bengtsson

WOW! 90 reviews and 5 stars! A must grab…

"The Long Ships" – I have it on the kindle.

I have enjoyed the book, thoroughly.

Michael Woods "In Search of the Dark Ages" link
Henry Treece's "Viking Trilogy", although written for young adults was a good read
link
H Rider Haggard's "The Wanderer's Necklace" & "Eric Brighteyes" link
Morgan Llewellyn's "Lion of Ireland" link
Ray Bryant's "Warriors of the Dragon Gold" link
Poul Anderson's "Hrolf Kraki's Saga" is a cracking read (set in Denmark) link

I haven't read it but "Harald Hardrada, The Warrior's Way" looks interesting, he was called the Last Viking and was said to be the greatest warrior of the age. link

Any of the sagas are a must read, my favourites are "Laxdaela Saga" and "Njal's Saga" but they are set mainly in Iceland & Norway. "Grettir's Saga" is an enjoyable read, and shorter than some.
link

"The Complete Sagas of Icelanders" is a beautiful set and worth the price if you really want to dig into them deeply. Best pricing is direct from the publisher at sagas.is/vara.php rather than going through Amazon or other resellers.

Chris

Nigel Tranter's "Lord of the Isles" is about Somerled. I enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed "The Long Ships" which I bought after reading this post – HIGHLY recommended, lots of fun and very flavorful.

Based upon my luck with the recommendations thus far, I have ordered Poul Anderson's book thru the library (hey, it's free, right??) and found one Treece book that doesn't match any of the titles but we'll see. Ditto on Dunnett's book.

Thanks to Hesse cassell for starting the thread, and for all the excellent replies, my 40mm Vikings by Sash & Saber are starting to feel "inspired". ;)

Poul Anderson's book arrived very tired and falling apart a bit but was a great read. Worth owning if you like this stuff.

"King of the Isles" by Nigil Tranter was pretty good for military history, with lots of plausible fighting tactics. However the characters were a bit flat and the plot wasn't much of a plot. You understood pretty quickly that Somerled is in this account a "hero without blemish" and that also makes him a bit flat. But a decent read.

"Orkneyinga Saga" was good, but not gripping. Still, there were plenty of great anecdotes and occasionally one of the characters were very appealing or engaging. Hazard of the genre, I suppose. I'm willing to try a couple of the others mentioned.

Local library system scored me this:
The saga of Gisli / translated by George Johnston -- The saga of Grettir -- The saga of Hord / translated by Anthony Faulkes.
Obviously next one to hit – request is in!

there ae a couple of good games to be got out of tranter's lord of the isles – so thats well worth getting (even if all his heroes are always without belmish)