"late Dark Age reads?" Topic

My favourite Dark Ages novels are –

Robert Low's 'Oathsworn' series.

Tim Severin's 'Odinn's Child' trilogy. He has two Saxon books, which I have but haven't read yet.

Joan Clark, 'Eiriksdottir', about Freydis in Vinland.

Margaret Elphinstone, 'The Sea Road', another Vinland novel.

Nancy Marie Brown, 'The Saga of Gudrid the Far Traveler' – a recent YA novel about -- Vinland.

Why yes, I'm interested in Vinland.

Everything Mexican Jack Squint recommended is good. I particularly enjoyed Low's works. Severin's trilogy was more a 'spot the episodes culled from sagas' work for me.

Other works that might appeal:
Thomas Holt 'Meadowland'
Giles Kristian 'Raven: Blood Eye', 'Sons of Thunder' and 'Odin's Wolves' (Raven is a little uneven, but the subsequent books in the series are much better)
James Aitcheson 'Sworn Sword', 'The Splintered Kingdom' (I struggled to get into 'Sworn Sword' because of the extended introductory fight sequence but once through that the novels really took off)
Erik Linklater 'The Men of Ness'
Frans Bengtsson 'The Long Ships'
Justin Hill 'Shieldwall'

If you are interested in manga, Makoto Yukimura's 'Vinland Saga' is very good.

I really like Justin Hill, 'Shieldwall' link

You can't go wrong with many of the books previously mentioned – especially Low and Kristian. Lots of Viking dark age fiction out there, and some other settings often get overlooked –

'The Lady for Ransom' by Alfred Duggan, follows a band of Norman mercenaries in the Byzantine Empire post-Manzikert. Read all Duggan books you can find, by the way.

Same time period and setting, The Strategos trilogy by Gordon Doherty.

Several of my favourites are:-
Ray Bryant's "Warriors of the Dragon Gold" (Early-mid 11th Century England)
Evan John "Ride Home Tomorrow" (3rd & 4th Crusade)
Dorothy Dunnett "King Hereafter" (Macbeth)

Anything by Alfred Duggan, Cecilia Holland, Morgan Llywelyn, George Shipway, & Graham Shelby.

Edith Pargeter also wrote the excellent "Marriage of Megotta" & (a bit late but) "A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury", as well as the Cadfael novels (set during the Anarchy) as Ellis Peters.

Try some of the fine Icelandic sagas such as the Laxdaela Saga or Njal's Saga".

Gail van Asten "Charlemagne's Champion" & "The Dark Sword's Lover"
Rosemary Sutcliffe's "The Shield Ring"
Gillian Bradshaw The Bearkeeper's Daughter" & "The Colour of Power"
Patricia Finney "The Crow Goddess" & "A Shadow of Gulls"
Joan Clark "Eiriksdottir"
Jane Smiley "The Greenlanders"
Juliet Dymoke "Of the Ring of Earls"
Evan Rhodes "An Army of Children"
Michael Crichton "Eaters of the Dead"
Thomas Costain "Below the Salt"
Julian Rathbone "The Last English King"
Sharon Penman "Lionheart"
Jay Margrave "The Gawaine Quest"
Karen Maitland "Company of Liars" et al
Robert Lyndon "Hawk Quest"
Hope Muntz "The Golden Warrior"
Georgette Heyer "The Conqueror"
H Rider haggard "The Wanderer's Necklace"
Helen Hollick "Harold the King"
Ariana Franklin "Mistress of the Art of Death"
Richard Blake "Aelric series"
Zoe Oldenbourg "The Heirs of the Kingdom" et al
Scott Oden "Lion of Cairo"
Poul Anderson "Hrolf Kraki's Saga"
Valerie Annand "The Proud Villeins"
Paul Murray Kendall "My Brother Chilperic"
James Wilde "Hereward" series
Bernard Knight "The Crowner John Mysteries"
Michael Jecks "Medieval West Country Mysteries"
Peter Tremayne "Sister Fidelma mysteries"

Don't forget Y Gododdin, and it's fictional adaptations:
'The Shining Company' by Rosemary Sutcliffe and
'Men Went to Cattraeth' by Jon James
Also Rosemary Sutcliffe's 'Sword at Sunset' (dark age Arthurian)part of 'The Lantern Bearers' series

And the entire canon of Old English literature to help you get into character. 'Dream of the Rood' is fantastic, 'Beowulf' is epic, and the Exeter Book includes some great dirty jokes.