I like Vikings, specifically Viking fiction. I certainly have an interest in the history, and the sagas make for dense but fascinating reading, but my first love is pure, heart-pounding adventure. I remember first learning about Vikings back in grade school, when we briefly covered the Viking explorations of the New World, the discovery of Greenland, Vinland and Viking settlements on the Canadian east coast long before that Italian explorer came along and spoiled everything. Erik the Red and Leif Erikson sounded pretty bad-ass to me, sailing across from Iceland in small ships through all kinds of seas to step foot on our shores so long ago; surely such men were constructed of “spring steel and whalebone”!

As a teenager I read a lot of adventure fiction, and when I stumbled across any Viking-centric books, I snapped them up and devoured them. I remember buying the Haakon books by Eric Neilson back in the ‘80s when they were new in the book stores; I lost them all during those turbulent years, but have since found new ones to restock my shelves.

Henry Treece wrote quite a few Viking books geared for younger readers back in the day, and my school library had them all. These would likely be considered YA fiction today, but Treece never wrote down to his youthful readers and did not shy away from death, bloodshed and the harsh realities of a raider’s life. These books would be a hard sell to grade schools of the 21st century!

Robert E. Howard (my favorite writer) did not write a whole lot of Viking tales, and many (“Spears of Clontarf”, “Cairn on the Headland”) cast the Vikings as the antagonists. Wulfhere Skull-Splitter, Cormac Mac Art’s Danish pal, was one of the exceptions. I’m surprised Howard didn’t write more about these real-life barbarians, but I guess there was no denying the influence of his own Celtic blood.

Poul Anderson has written a great deal of Viking fiction, both fantastical and historical-adventure oriented. The Last Viking trilogy, telling the epic saga of Harald Hardrede, is a fantastic adventure tale based on the historical Viking King. It’s tragic that the greatest Viking of all time has been essentially reduced to a footnote of history, as his final heroic battle and defeat took place at Stamford Bridge on September 25th, 1066. The Battle of Hastings would overshadow everything on October 14th of that very same year. But for me a singular, legendary event of the earlier Viking battle at Stamford Bridge is burned into my imagination unlike anything else. It is said that a single, unnamed Norse warrior held off the English army at the choke point of the bridge, slaying up to 40 warriors single-handed with his axe. He was brought down by a spearman who snuck under the bridge and stabbed him from below. What an incredible sight that must have been! A lone, blood soaked giant, smiting left and right, cutting down men like ripe grain! All the while roaring out drinking songs and challenging the entire English army to step up and die. That’s stone-cold badass.

There are plenty of great Viking adventure books out there that you should read, both historically based and pure fiction with an emphasis on bloody action. The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson is a must, possibly the best Viking book of all time. Edison Marshall wrote The Viking, which would be the basis of the Kirk Douglas classic movie The Vikings. Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (The Thirteenth Warrior) mixes Beowulf into a Viking tale, good stuff. Also check out the two Viking trilogies by Giles Kristian - the best recent Viking fiction I have read thus far. I have not mentioned short fiction from the pulp magazine days, and there is a fair amount, but I simply haven’t had access to much of it (so far!). Also, there is a ton of Viking-oriented fantasy fiction to be found, but that is worthy of its own discussion on another day.

So if you crave swordsmen, wild sea battles, treasure and “the days of high adventure”, seek ye out some Viking fiction, old or new, and lose yourself in a different time and place for a few hours. It’ll do you good. Skol!