Embedded Files
Henry Treece
After being a bit disappointed with The Road to Miklagard I thought this was brilliant. It is almost two books in one, the first a story of revenge and the second of jealousy. The conceit of the book is that actual history often moves in advance of recorded history and that Harald could have discovered Iceland and Greenland in advance of their recorded dicoveries. Treece was prompted to write about this when an American boy told him of the prow of a longship found in one of their great lakes. I love the idea of telling the origin story of this book to a class before going on to get them to write from objects which tell stories.
Both of the stories in this book have interesting character psychology at their hearts. In the first we consider how far people are willing to go for revenge and where that revenge might take them. There are some brilliant descriptions of the harshness of nature in this section, perhaps parallelling the harshness of the Vikings consumed by a need for revenge. There are also parallels to Viking's Dawn: a potential for mutiny, debates about whether to leave an enemy to drown and two blood brothers in charge of the ship.
The second part is even more interesting, it uses a norse myth and jealously from a disabled brother to set up something that reminded me a lot of Othello. At many points the Vikings are caught in a trap of their own honour and tension ramps up beautifully. In it the Vikings encounter Native Americans, this seems a somewhat outlandish setting but it works well. They discover things in common and share burdans with the Beothuk, after a nervy start, this feels like a bit of evolution for the Vikings - they are more experiences and less likely to start a war when peace is an option. The whole story is very well done and genuinely moving. Some of the deaths are very cinematic and the use of humour as a bulwark against fear is often present. I love the picture to the left which shows Harald feeling a great sadness at those he has lost, the weight almost physically bearing him down. Some of the writing about death and the nature of the berserk, chapter 23 is particularly brilliant although I can't say much more without spoiling the plot.
The depiction of Native Americans generally feels middling, it does at times tend towards the mystic and stereotypical but recognises the strength and diversity of different groups, the Vikings see them as having cultures as valid as their own. However for information on more accurate, and often Own Voices depictions of Native Americans please visite Debbie Reese's excellent site with lots of recommendations and critique of portrayals of Native Americans in children's fiction.
I would have liked Harald to more concretely remember the Vikings from his youth in the third book. The featuring of familiar names would, I think, have strengthened the feeling of a single connected narrative.
I would certainly recommend the series although I think, as with many books,it requires conversations to contextualise thing such as the lack of female representation and some of the depiction of Native Americans.
Written by Jack.
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