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Take one sassy, capricious City Girl. Add one broody, hard-working Country Boy. Throw in the world's most disgusting RV, a ragtag group of rescue animals, a reality TV star, and one disastrous fishing trip. What do you get?

A recipe for romance, of course!

Craving action and adventure? Join my Viking prince and his Celtic Lady for swashbuckling action set in Dark Ages Ireland.

When a Viking Prince is shipwrecked and stranded, a Celtic woman makes him an offer he cannot refuse.

Merry Christmas!

10 Fierce Women from Viking Lore

The culture of early Norse people is often associated with war, rape, and pillage. Like a pack of wild animals, flaxen-haired barbarians, destroyed, burned, and killed everything in their path. Surely, these savages took no thought of art, song, or storytelling. Yet, history says otherwise. Centuries of oral tradition passed down tales of kings and tinkers, Valkyries and dragons. From these tales, the Icelandic Sagas were recorded. Just as any modern novel reflects our world, these historical texts open a window into a much maligned people. Though they depict a society sharply divided along gender lines, the women of the Sagas are not all the shrinking violets and damsels-in-distress you may expect. (1)

10 Artifacts that Prove Vikings Weren't Savages

Pop culture perception of the Vikings is that of a savage people, unsophisticated and unusually violent, raping, pillaging, and razing their way across Europe. They were dirty, feral conquerors in horned helmets. Their only advantage was that of genetic size and strength. As they used it to destroy gentler, more sophisticated societies, the world was set back to the dark ages, shrouded in fear and haunted by lost civilization. Their history was written by their enemies. Their truth, recorded in Sagas and buried away in artifacts a thousand years old, tells a different tale.

Image Credit: National Museums Scotland

10. Balance Scales

Although Vikings may be best known for what they plundered, sets of early Scandinavian scales prove that they also paid for goods. Silver was the primary money of the day, although gold and other precious metals were also used in trade. Whether formed into coins, jewelry, or ingots, the metals were valued by weight, rather than demarcation. Large numbers of Islamic coins were brought into Scandinavian countries only to be melted into hack silver. So important was the weight of metals, that one merchant who lived his last days in Kiloran Bay on Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides chose to be buried with his scales. Weapons and ornaments from his homeland in Scandinavia surrounded his body, but cradled closest to him, between his knees and head, rest his splendid set of bronze scales along with seven engraved, lead weights. (1)

Prince Dead: A Historical Heroine

Just a reminder… Prince Dead is still on sale for $.99 on Amazon. As always, it is free to read for members of Kindle Unlimited.

Now that I had a character sketch for my hero, and had chosen the setting, I needed to draft an idea for my heroine. She was to be Irish, but beyond that I did not know.

There seems to me to be a dominate popularity in historical fiction for what I call, “bad ass warrior babes”. You know what I’m referencing. These are the heroines whose long hair flows in the breeze without ever getting caught on anything and whose gravity-defying breasts do not fall out of their anachronistically low-cut gowns as they meet their enemies in hand-to-hand combat. They are 5’2” tall and weigh 110 pounds but still boast the decadent curves of a Golden Era Hollywood siren, and they are so mighty that when sword-fighting the 6’5” warrior hero who was trained up for battle from the cradle, they send him straight onto his backside and steal his heart.

As you may have guessed, this heroine bores me.

My heroine would be a strong woman, one who was up for adventure, but not an utterly perfect goddess entirely lacking in self-doubt. She must be intelligent and cunning, I decided, but more empathetic than my hero.

I turned once more to my research. Ireland was in a transition phase during the period I meant to set my novel. The old Celtic ways had already been touched by Roman Imperialism and were now merging with newly adopted Catholic beliefs and culture.

I wanted to capture this cultural strain in my heroine. Ironically, most of the first-hand accounts of the Celts were written by their enemies, just as is the case for the Vikings. We do know that there were high-ranking women of power among the Celts and it seems certain that Celtic women held a better position in society than Roman women. Ammianus Marcellinus, describes meeting Celtic women in battle by stating they were “large as men with flashing eyes and teeth bared”. There is also a notion, first popularized by 18th and 19th century Romantic authors that the Celts were a strictly Matriarchal society, yet there is little direct evidence to support this. The Catholic influence in my setting would surely have put an end to much of this, but I wanted it’s echoes to still be heard in my novel.

My heroine would be a stand-in landlord for her father who left her in control when he went on a pilgrimage. Her younger brother would be coming of age, however, and have the full support of the local church in trying to grab power from his sister. The people they rule over are torn, some happy with the way she has managed things, others sure that their leader must be a man, others simply taking the opinion of their priest as fact. To further complicate it, they face encroachment and possible defeat by a neighboring warlord, one who has fully immersed himself in the old traditions and who has no interest in the culture of the Catholic church.

Thus, my heroine would teeter on the edge of losing all. She would try to balance the needs of her people with her own beliefs. She would barter, manipulate, compromise, and fight to do what she believes right.

Now, to make things just a little harder on my heroine, I would send in the Viking invasion…

Prince Dead: The Setting

Just a reminder… Prince Dead is still on sale for $.99 on Amazon. As always, it is free to read for members of Kindle Unlimited.

Once I had a character outline for my hero, I knew I needed to decide on the setting of the novel. My Viking would be invading… somewhere… sometime. I just needed to know where and when. I turned once again to my copy of The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, on June 8, 793 AD, “the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God’s church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter”. Subsequent raids in England between the late 8th century and the first half of the 9th century were sporadic and seemingly unorganized. After that, however, the attacks intensified until in 869, the Vikings killed King Edmund and conquered East Angles.

I wanted to set the novel within this time frame, when the Viking were known and feared in the British aisles, but before they gained a true stronghold. I was not sure, however, that I wanted the novel set in England. That story, it seemed to me, had been told.

Between 795 AD and 824 AD the Vikings attacked Rechru, Innis Patraic, Do Chonna, Inishmurray, Roscam, Ulaid, Clew Bay, Howth, Cork, Skellig, and Etgal. They plundered, killed, razed monasteries and villages, and kidnapped women for hostages and slaves. From thence forward, the attacks in Ireland only intensified, just as they had done in England.

I personally never knew much about this and I suppose it is because, in an ironic turn of events, American students are generally given English history almost as their own prior to Christopher Columbus arriving in North America. We focus on English history, I suppose, for the simple reason that we can read it. So, while I was vaguely aware that the Vikings had raided throughout the British Aisles, Ireland was not the first place that jumped to my imagination when I thought of Viking invasions.

For this reason, I decided to set the novel in Ireland. It fit just enough with people’s preconceived notions (Americans’ at least), but would offer a bit of a fresh take. So, half my characters and my hero were to be Vikings. Now, I decided the heroine and the other half of the characters were to be Irish.

Prince Dead: The Inspiration for a Viking

In honor of the $.99 promotion I am currently running on Amazon for my Viking adventure novel Prince Dead, I would like to share a little bit about my inspiration for it.

I had known for some time that I wanted to write something set in the Viking era, though I did not know what. So, I had tinkered around with some research to understand the Viking age and the customs of it's people. I knew that the pop culture image of horned-helmet wearing, blood swilling, culture-lacking barbarians was not based in reality. Not even the name we call them, The Vikings, is accurate. Vikingr described the raiders, adventurers, and conquerors who traveled the seas and rivers in pursuit of fame and fortune. To call all Nordic people of this period Vikings is like calling all Europeans in the 18th century pirates.

When I wrote the novel, I knew I wanted to portray a more accurate, rounded image of these people and their cultures, though much of their history is shrouded in mystery. I also knew I would probably write about a raider, a true Vikingr for the simple reason that, like most people, they captured my imagination. The trouble was, I had no idea for a general plot line.

Authors get their ideas in myriad ways and this one came to me in the form of a single picture. I was never a fan of HBO's True Blood. I think I watched half an episode once. One day, however, I happened upon an image of Alexander Skarsgard as vampire / Viking Eric and, for whatever reason, a character started to form in my head.

The character I wanted to write was born to his bloody profession. He did not choose it. He was a quiet man who led a hard life, full of loss and misery. His fate seemed to him to be predestined. He felt he was living on borrowed time.

Further research helped me better sketch the character. The Nordic countries in the Viking age were generally politically turbulent, ruled by clans rather than kings, and plagued with blood feuds and invasions. There were, however, some united kingdoms, and a few great kings. To write about a common man would not provide that feeling of fate to the character, but to write about a noble king or a prince seemed too tediously cliche.

Yngvarr would be the son a a great king, but the disposable son. Nowhere close to being in direct line for the throne, he would be the black sheep of the family, the one they sent to lead the troops into battle when they could not surrender but knew there was no hope of victory. He was raised to serve his family and did so with pride and single-minded determination. The brutality of his era, his military training, and his unwavering loyalty made him ruthless, uncaring, and wary in many ways. He would be a bit of a dark hero, a man whom very few knew well.

At last I had a general sketch for my hero. Now, I needed my setting and my heroine.

Historical Hair Care, Part Two, The Vikings

Depending on your sources, you can formulate two very different pictures of Viking hygiene. The two most famous written sources state as follows:

"(The Danes) …caused much trouble to the natives of the land; for they were wont, after the fashion of their country, to comb their hair every day, to bathe every Saturday, to change their garments often, and set off their persons by many frivolous devices. In this matter they laid siege to the virtue of the married woman, and persuaded the daughters even of the noble to be their concubines”.
-- John of Wallingford 

John of Wallingford was an English monk and chronicler who recorded the above in 1002, just after the massacre of St. Brice's Day.

Review of Vikings

I want to start out this review by noting that, like all television series, the intent of The History Channel’s Vikings is purely entertainment. It is not a documentary, and therefore perfect fact and accuracy should not expected of it. Therefore, as I note anachronisms below, I am in no way saying that they ruin the show. I do, however, think there is an interesting discussion to be had on the subject and that is all this is meant to be.

This series follows the adventures of Ragnar (Travis Fimmel), his wife Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), and his brother Rollo (Clive Standen). The cast is, in order, Australian, Canadian, and English, so the first hurdle to overcome is the varying accents. Fimmel tries out a pseudo-Scandinavian accent while Winnick sounds trans-Atlantic and Standen just speaks in RP English. I have to admit that this distracted me for the entire first episode even though it’s really not that big of a deal. This show is produced for an English speaking audience, so writing it in one of the Old Germanic languages or even one of the modern ones would be entirely pointless. It does take getting used to, though.

Vikings reflects very little of what is known of the real culture of its subjects. In general, Vikings lived and operated in hirds, large family groups rather like clans, not in nuclear family units as portrayed. The villain in the series is Lord Haroldson, portrayed by Gabriel Byrne. Most countries had either no hierarchy or a very loose one, as Scandinavians operated under the ideal that all men but slaves were equals. Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule. Denmark, for example, was probably the most organized country with very powerful kings dating back almost 100 years before the setting of this series. The title of Earl and the power the character wields both seem unlikely and out of place in this setting, however.

It is not clear in the program how much territory Haroldson controls, but within that territory, all of the free men make an oath of their loyalty to him as soon as they reach maturity. Haroldson controls how the men train, where they raid, what their spoils are, and what he keeps. He oversees all legal issues and his judgments are given as law. Most disputes in this age were settled between families. The punishment for murder was almost always a fine, not death, as portrayed here. Theft and rape were considered much more serious offenses and I believe that the way Haroldson keeps his men’s plunder would have been considered theft by the Vikings.

So far, there are only two women characters on the show, Lagertha and Haroldson’s wife Siggy. I have to say that the portrayal of the female characters is rather disappointing as they occupy the usual cliché sphere of either warrior babe or damsel in distress. A Viking woman’s place in society was far more interesting than that and I think that this show is missing a huge opportunity in that regard.

 I don’t want to go too in depth here, because this post is getting long already, but Viking women were treated differently from most European women of the era. Violence against women was not tolerated. For a man to strike his wife was an abominable offense, and in one of the sagas it actually leads to the husband’s death. Women could easily obtain a divorce, ran the household’s finances, and were usually involved in all major decisions. Rape was punishable by death and even unwanted touching procured an enormous fine. Widows could own land and businesses and, though a father could force his daughter into her first marriage, it was generally frowned upon. Women in the sagas are revered for their power, wisdom, and influence, with beauty being almost secondary.

Now, Siggy’s character is, I think, moving in the direction of the shrewd, political woman, so I am looking forward to that. Lagertha hasn’t really shown much personality yet. She is a former “shield maiden” (entirely made-up concept as far as I can tell) and so fights with the boys and goes on raids. She’s crazy about her husband, but little else. I just don’t think the writers are sure of where they’re going yet. Siggy and Haroldson’s daughter was just introduced, married off, and widowed within about five minutes of screen time, so she may be another leading lady. We have yet to see.

As for the male characters, Ragnar is a curious explorer and feared warrior. Sometimes his pride veers into arrogance, particularly when he deals with his brother. He is gentle at home and brutal during raids. I think his character has merit, but the acting at this point is a little stale. Rollo vacillates between villain and hero with jealousy being his guiding characteristic. I think he’s another example of the writers being unsure of where they are going. If he is to be based on Rollo the Ganger, as some people are guessing, he has a long way to go. Gabriel Byrne is not only the most famous, but definitely the best actor in the series which is all I can say about him without giving spoilers.

The costumes, hair, and makeup are truly atrocious at this point and, as this show is reinventing itself episode by episode, I hope they get a major overhaul. There is really no excuse for how horrible and weird all of these impossibly gorgeous actors look. All of the costumes up until last night’s episode seemed to be some shade of grey, but it could just be mud. Vikings were actually known to wash their faces twice a day and to bathe twice a week, but obviously mud just makes things look cool. Plus, eyeliner. Lots and lots and lots of black eyeliner. An entire Wet N’ Wild pencil applied generally in the direction of woman’s eyes looks amazing. Not.

Quick historical facts: it was illegal for a woman to show her arms or for a man to wear a cloak that dragged the ground, French braiding was not invented yet, tattoos were blue, men plucked their eyebrows, married women wore their husband’s family’s coronet, Vikings didn’t knit, and there was no true black dye. Nevertheless, I would settle for any anachronisms as long as everyone stopped looking like walking petri dishes containing a thick stew of myriad infectious diseases.

The show is filmed in Ireland  and the cinematography is stunning. The ships are too small and would not have had sails in this year, but they are otherwise impressive and fairly authentic looking.

Overall, I think this series is fun. It is only in the middle of its first series and is still getting on its feet. I’m definitely looking forward to more and I may even post more about it later.