THE VIKING

by Edison Marshall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 1951

This is a great story for those to whom the sagas of the Norsemen still hold their magic. It is the story behind the story of the Chansons de Geste, of that Dane, Ogier Gyrfalcon, later known as Ogier the Dane, in his earlier incarnation, before Morgan le Fay took him off to seek Avalon. Ogier, first known as slave of Ragnar, condemned by him and rescued by the English Egbert, who sought to return as king to his own land, became a freeman when he saved his master's life. Free to pursue the Fate written out for him, slave to his own muddled faith in strange Norse gods and fear of the half-glimpsed Christian God. With his foster mother, Kitti, as counsellor and guide, with his enemy Hasting, youngest son of Ragnar as his rival, Ogier roamed far, taking his Danish followers, his captured slaves, to distant lands, Spain and Italy, and back again to Brittany and to England. Fantasy and adventure, history and legend, romance and poetry, this is a varied brew, much of it fascinating reading, though at times it grows involved and obscure in its symbolism. The appeal is perhaps more consistently masculine than with some of Marshall's romantic adventuring. These northland legends have caught the literary imagination this year, what with the four Leif Ericcson stories, and now this earlier Viking tale.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1951

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Young

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1951

Categories: FICTION