The Long Ships

By Frans G. Bengtsson

Book Overview

A beloved Viking saga and masterpiece of historical fiction, The Long Ships is a high spirited adventure that stretches from Scandinavia to Spain, England, Ireland, and beyond. Frans Gunnar Bengtsson's The Long Ships resurrects the fantastic world of the tenth century AD when the Vikings roamed and rampaged from the northern fastnesses of Scandinavia down to the Mediterranean. Bengtsson's hero, Red Orm--canny, courageous, and above all lucky--is only a boy when he is abducted from his Danish home by the Vikings and made to take his place at the oars of their dragon-prowed ships. Orm is then captured by the Moors in Spain, where he is initiated into the pleasures of the senses and fights for the Caliph of Cordova. Escaping from captivity, Orm washes up in Ireland, where he marvels at those epicene creatures, the Christian monks, and from which he then moves on to play an ever more important part in the intrigues of the various Scandinavian kings and clans and dependencies. Eventually, Orm contributes to the Viking defeat of the army of the king of England and returns home an off-the-cuff Christian and a very rich man, though back on his native turf new trials and tribulations will test his cunning and determination. Packed with pitched battles and blood feuds and told throughout with wit and high spirits, Bengtsson's book is a splendid adventure that features one of the most unexpectedly winning heroes in modern fiction.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590173465
• ISBN13: 9781590173466
• Release Date: July 2010
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

It's true! Don't judge this book by its cover!!

Let's get this out first. The cover to this book is just plain awful. Normally I would pass this book by figuring if the publisher didn't care enough about it to pay for a decent artist how good could it be? Thankfully, some of the reviews here encouraged me to take a chance and I definately didn't regret it. I don't know if it's due to the translation or the author's style but the writing is absolutely superb in conveying the feeling of the time. You could just imagine this story being told in exactly the same way hundreds of years ago across a campfire or over a good cup of mead. A great story that takes place in a time and among a people who don't get many (good) books written about them. Check this one out!

Funny and historically accurate

This book is an eternal classic. Set in the height of Viking Age it tells us how Orm (Snake) is kidnapped by a band of marauding vikings. He then serves as a slave on a moorish ship, he is a mercenary among the muslims, he is marauder in England. He marries royally, settles, and goes on a treasure hunt for stolen gold in Russia. Bengtson uses the laconic language of the vikings to hilarious effects. The translator manages to keep it, which is great. The book is historically accurate with many historical events and persons interwoven in the narrative.

The ultimate story about the Vikings....

What can I say... I have read this book a lot of times, in swedish that is, it is easy to find here. What is so special with it is that the big things in the book is accurate historicaly, but well it is not a dry book about what actually happened. I have read the old stories or Sagas of the north, and in this book the same feeling is there, the dry humour, the witty remarks and the tradition. When Toke get in to see Orm finish his enemy in an "Envigg" they asked him what happened, he said "well he was hard but now he has finished peeing" thats nothing special just like the old sagas of the north... As far as I know no one have regretted reading this book. But I am Biased, I am scandinavian....