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166 pages

English

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An epic battle where heroes fight and die to protect a Kingdom from Viking invasion...

991AD
King Aethelred the Unready's Kingdom of the English is threatened. Olaf Tryggvason and his fleet of Viking warships snap at the coastal edges like ravenous wolves, and Sweyn Forkbeard, King of the Danes, has landed in East Anglia with an army of battle-hardened warriors.

Ealdorman Byrhtnoth of Essex must stand against them faced with overwhelming odds, forging his legend in the blood of his deadly enemies.

By his side, his Thegn, Beornoth, a brutal warrior and savage Saxon fighter is torn between his need to protect his loved ones, and his duty to fight for his Lord.

As the Vikings raid and slaughter, Beornoth is forced to fight for the survival of his oath sworn brothers, his Lord, and the Kingdom itself when all roads lead to the fateful Battle of Maldon.

Can Beornoth protect his people and survive one of the most famous battles of the Viking Age?

A thrilling story, packed with war, vengeance and visceral combat. If you like Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden, and David Gemmell you will love this epic Saxon adventure.

Praise for Peter Gibbons:

'Epic, brutal action, a flawed hero defending his people while fighting his own demons, implacable ruthless invaders, treacherous nobles, Warrior and Protector has them all'- Matthew Harffy

'Bloody and brutal, everything you want from a novel about 10th century England. Peter's vivid writing really brings the story to life.' - Donovan Cook

'A superbly atmospheric tale of redemption that pitches the English against Viking raiders and resounds with the fierceness of battle-hardened warriors' - MJ Porter

'Thunderously atmospheric! Gibbons once again proves himself a master of Viking & Dark Age lore.' - Gordon Doherty

'Absolutely cracking. The best Viking saga I've read in years. A joy to pick up again.' - Ross Greenwood

'Another masterpiece I truly love reading his books that are as engaging and captivating as Bernard Cornwells. Thoroughly recommend his books and I cannot wait for more!' - Reader Review

'This series is brilliant. I’ve enjoyed reading the latest adventures of Beornoth and learning yet more history. The author really does bring it all to life with his wonderful story-telling.' - Reader Review

'What a book of excellent storytelling. I could not put the book down. Carry on with this theme and you will not be disapointed' - Reader Review

Sujets

Mashups

Historical Fiction

Historical

Reino Unido

Ancient history

United Kingdom

British Isles

Dark Ages

Great Britain

Ancient

War

Viking

Royaume-Uni

Informations

Publié par	Boldwood Books
Date de parution	02 août 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781804834749
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0850€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

BROTHERS OF THE SWORD
BOOK 3 IN THE SAXON WARRIOR SERIES

PETER GIBBONS
For Mary and Peter, for everything.
Hēt þā hyssa hwæne hors forlǣtan,
feor āfȳsan and forð gangan,
hicgan tō handum and tō hiġe gōdum.
Then he commanded each of his men to release their horses,
drive them away, and go forth,

to think on the work at hand and their firm resolve.
AN EXCERPT FROM ‘THE BATTLE OF MALDON’, AN ANGLO-SAXON POEM WRITTEN TO CELEBRATE THE BATTLE FOUGHT AT MALDON IN 991AD.
CONTENTS

Glossary

Map

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Historical Note

More From Peter Gibbons

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Peter Gibbons

Warrior Chronicles

About Boldwood Books
GLOSSARY

Aesc spear – A large two-handed, long-bladed spear.

Burh – A fortification designed by Alfred the Great to protect against Viking incursions.

Byrnie – Saxon word for a coat of chain mail.

Danelaw – The part of England ruled by the Vikings from 865ad .

Drakkar – A type of Viking warship.

Ealdorman – The leader of a shire of the English kingdom, second in rank only to the king.

Einherjar – Vikings who have died in battle and have ascended to Valhalla.

Euton – A supernatural being, like a troll or a giant.

Gafol – The Danegeld, or tax raised to pay tribute to Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged.

Heriot – The weapons, land and trappings of a thegn or other noble person, granted to him by his lord and which becomes his will or inheritance.

Hide – An area of land large enough to support one family. A measure used for assessing areas of land.

Holmgang – A ritualised duel common amongst Viking peoples.

Jomsvikings – Viking mercenaries based at their stronghold at Jomsburg who followed a strict warriors code.

Nástrǫnd. – The afterlife for those guilty of crimes such as oath-breaking, adultery, or murder. It is the corpse-shore, with a great hall built from the backs of snakes, where the serpent Ni gnaws upon the corpses of the dead.

Níðhöggr. – A serpent or monster who gnaws at the roots of the great tree Yggdrasil, and also gnaws upon the corpses of the dead at Nástrǫnd.

Nithing – A coward, villain, or oathbreaker, not worthy of the glorious afterlife.

Njorth – The Viking sea god.

Norns – Norse goddesses of fate. Three sisters who live beneath the world tree Yggdrasil and weave the tapestry of fate.

Odin – The father of the Viking gods.

Ragnarök – The end-of-days battle where the Viking gods will battle Loki and his monster brood.

Reeve – Administer of justice ranking below a thegn.

Seax – A short, single-edged sword with the blade angled towards the point.

Seiðr – A type of Norse magic.

Thegn – Owner of five hides of land, a church and kitchen, a bell house and a castle gate, who is obligated to fight for his lord when called upon.

Thor – The Viking thunder god.

Thruthvang – Thor’s realm in the afterlife, where he gathers his forces for the day of Ragnarök. Similar to Valhalla.

Týr – The Viking war god.

Valhalla – Odin’s great hall where he gathers dead warriors to fight for him at Ragnarök.

Vik – Part of Viking Age Norway.

Whale Road – The sea.

Wyrd – Anglo Saxon concept of fate or destiny.

Yggdrasil – A giant ash tree which supports the universe, the nine worlds including our world Midgard.

PROLOGUE
991AD, FOLKESTONE

The Ormrinn Langi , the Long Serpent, was a beautiful ship. A drakkar warship built in the east, far from where she sat now in the fish-stinking harbour at Folkestone on England’s south coast. Skilled shipwrights had cut her keel from a single piece of oak, and each of her clinker-overlaying planks was carved from wood sourced in the same dark, ancient forests along the banks of Lake Ladoga and the great river which led Vikings south through treacherous waters to far Novgorod and Kiev. She held thirty oars, and it had taken four women an entire year to weave her heavy woollen sail. Olaf Tryggvason stood in her prow and he ran a hand along her smooth sheer strake, the topmost plank from which his picked champions would hang their shields of linden wood when the ship sailed to war. Olaf smiled as the sea lapped at her hull in gentle waves and he looked eastwards, beyond Folkestone’s harbour and out to where the grey-green water met the pale blue sky. White-tipped waves rose and fell, and gulls cawed overhead as Olaf remembered the glorious day on the banks of a gleaming river Volkhov when Vladimir the Great of Kiev had gifted him the ship in thanks for his service, back when Olaf was the captain of Vladimir’s army. That was in the days when Olaf’s star rose, when the Norns cackled at his dreams from the base of the great tree Yggdrasil, whose branches held the realms of gods, dwarves, nithing-wraiths and men. Those three terrible sisters twisted the threads of men’s fates together like so much twine, and they had spun a shining thread for Olaf to raise him up from nothing into a great and powerful warlord.
‘Why are you smiling, lord?’ asked Kjetilmund, the burly shipmaster of the Ormrinn Langi.
‘Because spring has come,’ said Olaf, tearing his mind away from memories of glorious Kiev, Novgorod and the years he had spent there in Vladimir’s service. ‘Which means we can leave this place and get back to sea.’
‘What is our heading, lord?’ asked Kjetilmund, and then raised his gnarled hands in apology, hands that had hefted ship’s ropes for twenty years or more. ‘I only ask so that I can relay the orders to your captains. We have fifty ships, lord, and our heading must be clear so that we do not lose any. It is spring, but Njorth can still surprise us with a fierce storm to blow us out to sea. Before we know it, it will push stragglers to Frankia and we will lose both ships and men.’
Olaf nodded. He continued to pass his hand along the smooth wood, along where the sheer strake turned upwards into the prow, its curve as smooth as a woman’s hip. That prow reared up and snarled out towards the Whale Road, a great spitting serpent with fangs and a forked tongue, with furious eyes to fear. It was Viking custom to remove the beast heads from their warships close to land, so as not to frighten the spirits there, but the ship faced out to sea and, where Olaf was heading, he wanted men frightened.
‘We head north around the coast, and we stay in England for the summer,’ said Olaf. He had decided that over the long winter, holed up inside a poor hall in Folkestone’s town, huddled in fleeces beside the fire. His hall in Kiev had been magnificent, with enough feasting benches to hold one hundred men, luxurious furs for warmth and a hearth fire to warm Valhalla itself. He had debated the merits of leaving England with the captains of his famed Jomsviking warriors, and with his Norse jarls, the powerful earls of Norway and Denmark who had brought their ships to join with Olaf’s battle luck and build their reputation and wealth.
‘I will pass on the message, lord,’ said Kjetilmund, before weaving his way along the deck, ducking beneath seal-hide rigging and around shuffling warriors who brought aboard their sea chests, which doubled up as rowing benches. Beyond the Ormrinn Langi , smaller drakkar warships crammed into the harbour, with so many masts that it looked like a great winter forest stripped of leaves. Captains bellowed at each other to keep their distance, using oar shafts to keep the precious hulls from clashing into one another as they prepared to depart from Folkestone. Hull timbers creaked, men bawled orders and protests at one another as they loaded barrels of dried fish, freshly brewed ale, oats and smoked meat aboard the fleet to keep the warriors fed.
‘Are you sure you want to stay here?’ said a voice with the harsh twang of the Svear men from north of the Rus coast.
Olaf shrugged. ‘We have unfinished work here, Burzlief. I am not done with the Saxons yet.’
‘We could push north, get you back to Norway, and fight for your title?’ said Burzlief. He was a stocky, slab-faced captain of the Jomsvikings, a brotherhood of warriors trained to fight from the time they could walk within the walls of Jomsburg, a walled town in the cold north where warriors lived by drengskapr , the way of the warrior.
‘There will be time to go north. But we cannot leave Palnatoki unavenged. And we need more men and more silver if I am to become king of Viken like my father, or king of all Norway like my great-grandfather Harald Fairhair.’ Palnatoki had been the leader of the Jomsviking order of warriors, a man who had been as a father to Olaf until the Saxons had cut him down.
‘I miss Palnatoki as much as you and I hate that big Saxon bastard who killed him. But he died like a warrior and waits for us in Valhalla, in Odin’s hall, drinking ale from curved horns beneath its roof made from the mightiest of shields. The Saxons paid us all they could scrape together last year. Their gentle king listened to his black-robed Christ crows and paid us not to fight. So, let’s get our silver somewhere else. I don’t trust the wyrd of this place. There is ill luck in their nailed god, and we have likely bled the place dry of silver already,’ said Burzlief.
Olaf laughed, but part of him believed what men said of the power of the nailed god. He was not a god for warriors, not like Odin, Thor or Týr. He was a god who demanded service, who taught his worshippers of peace and forgiveness. But he also brought the Saxons victory, which spoke of his strength. Olaf shivered with rage as he recalled ho