In Henry Treece's introduction, and it is an introduction that makes me feel more children's books should have them, he writes about the struggle to make significant change. He refers to a painting of a young Walter Raleigh, probably this one by Millais, listening intently to tales of an older sailor and learning from his experience. This idea of, as Newton said, 'Standing on the shoulders of giants' is one Treece is keen to explore in the book, to value the striving as much as the attainment. The voyage in Viking's Dawn exemplifies this early striving, I loved the choices of words to describe the building of the ship: 'harsh fibres', 'ice-cold', 'roughly-cut' providing a vivid picture of the harsh nature of Norse life and a clear motivation for travel. The two images below provide a clear contrast for the boy whose first voyage this is, his old life a passive onlooker - forced to see his family starve and his new at the centre of things - full of excitement, danger and possibility. Harald's newness to the sea and being a Viking, the book notes Vikings as those who went to sea as opposed to the Norse - a more encompassing term, allows us to see through his eyes and get his insights into Viking life. This is a life rich with stories where names all carry their own stories, promisses or burdans. Many of the individual characters have stories tied up in their names linked to their pasts or their futures.