peritract's review against another edition
4.0
This is the tale of Orm Tostesson, later known as Red Orm, and his travels about the world. As a slave, a warrior, and eventually a chieftain, Orm journeys all across Europe, seeking fame, fortune, and wealth.
This is a saga, with a saga’s length and disregard for modern ideas of plotting. Orm’s life is told from its start to its near-enough end, and while it falls into several sections, there’s no standard plot arc. It’s a full life, well-lived, with occasional digressions when another viking tells their story.
The language of The Long Ships is simple. It reads like an old children’s story – simple sentences but with an expectation that you have a wide knowledge base and decent vocabulary. It’s partly because of its age – it is an old children’s story (first published in 1941) – and partly because it’s translated from the original Swedish, and has the careful quality you would associate with that.
The simple language though, applies to sentence structure and not to content – the simplicity masks a lot of complexity. You are lulled into a sense of false security by the tone, so that moments of intense violence and unexpectedly filthy jokes hit hard. Characters are layered and nuanced, with even the most overtly heroic revealing softer sides and minor characters still showing distinct personalities.
One of my favourite things in historical fiction is when the story touches the edges of history – when characters and places I already know about suddenly appear in a new context. It pins the story to the real world. This happens a lot in The Long Ships, but there are a lot of things I could tell were significant, but that I wasn’t familiar with. I need to read more about Norse history.
Viking morality is not modern morality, and the book makes no attempt to soften it. Terrible things happen to people who shrug them off, and minor things happen that are avenged as deadly insults. Half the time, if characters in modern novels did the things that the heroes in The Long Ships do, they’d end up as the villains. I found the moral system something of an adjustment – sometimes I ended up sad or content when I wasn’t supposed to be, but it’s rare to come across a book that presents another culture without excuses or attempts to make it more palatable.
By turns, The Long Ships is exciting, affecting, and darkly funny.It reads like Beowulf, or the old legends of Norse gods and mighty heroes, which makes sense because it is a story of mighty heroes. It’s very different to the norm, but it’s absolutely worth reading.
This is a saga, with a saga’s length and disregard for modern ideas of plotting. Orm’s life is told from its start to its near-enough end, and while it falls into several sections, there’s no standard plot arc. It’s a full life, well-lived, with occasional digressions when another viking tells their story.
The language of The Long Ships is simple. It reads like an old children’s story – simple sentences but with an expectation that you have a wide knowledge base and decent vocabulary. It’s partly because of its age – it is an old children’s story (first published in 1941) – and partly because it’s translated from the original Swedish, and has the careful quality you would associate with that.
The simple language though, applies to sentence structure and not to content – the simplicity masks a lot of complexity. You are lulled into a sense of false security by the tone, so that moments of intense violence and unexpectedly filthy jokes hit hard. Characters are layered and nuanced, with even the most overtly heroic revealing softer sides and minor characters still showing distinct personalities.
One of my favourite things in historical fiction is when the story touches the edges of history – when characters and places I already know about suddenly appear in a new context. It pins the story to the real world. This happens a lot in The Long Ships, but there are a lot of things I could tell were significant, but that I wasn’t familiar with. I need to read more about Norse history.
Viking morality is not modern morality, and the book makes no attempt to soften it. Terrible things happen to people who shrug them off, and minor things happen that are avenged as deadly insults. Half the time, if characters in modern novels did the things that the heroes in The Long Ships do, they’d end up as the villains. I found the moral system something of an adjustment – sometimes I ended up sad or content when I wasn’t supposed to be, but it’s rare to come across a book that presents another culture without excuses or attempts to make it more palatable.
By turns, The Long Ships is exciting, affecting, and darkly funny.It reads like Beowulf, or the old legends of Norse gods and mighty heroes, which makes sense because it is a story of mighty heroes. It’s very different to the norm, but it’s absolutely worth reading.
marcosgr95's review
4.0
This is an interesting and history-rich book, but a bit sluggish and archaic for my liking.
liseylou's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
kiwi_fruit's review against another edition
5.0
A classic of the historical fiction genre and a fun read.
This tenth century saga retells the adventures of Orm Tosteson (Red Orm) and his Norse merry men, going a’viking abroad, converting to Christianity and eventually settling down in the border lands with his wife Ylva. The stories are many and varied and the reader will enjoy learning about the ancient ways of the Vikings, the fighting skills, the cunning, the luck and even the wisdom required in settling disputes at the Thing. They are all written in a tongue in cheek fashion.
Relations with the Smalanders continued to be peaceful, and there were no local incidents worth mentioning, apart from the usual murders at feasts and weddings, and a few men burned in their houses as the result of neighbourly disputes. At Gröning, life proceeded tranquilly.
Some things never change, here some of Orm’s advice for marital bliss:
It was a strange peculiarity of Orm’s that he never birched his wife; even when a great anger came over him, he restrained his temper, so that nothing more came of it than an overturned table or a broken door. In time he perceived a curious thing: namely, that all their quarrels always ended in the same way; he had to mend the things he had broken, and the matter about which they had quarreled was always settled the way Ylva wanted it, though she never upturned a table or broke a door, but merely threw an occasional dish-clout in his face or smashed a plate on the floor at his feet. Having discovered this, he thought it unrewarding to have any further quarrels with her, and a whole year would sometimes pass without their harmony being threatened by hard words.
Wonderfully entertaining, informative and historically accurate Viking caper. Highly recommended.
4.5 stars.
This tenth century saga retells the adventures of Orm Tosteson (Red Orm) and his Norse merry men, going a’viking abroad, converting to Christianity and eventually settling down in the border lands with his wife Ylva. The stories are many and varied and the reader will enjoy learning about the ancient ways of the Vikings, the fighting skills, the cunning, the luck and even the wisdom required in settling disputes at the Thing. They are all written in a tongue in cheek fashion.
Relations with the Smalanders continued to be peaceful, and there were no local incidents worth mentioning, apart from the usual murders at feasts and weddings, and a few men burned in their houses as the result of neighbourly disputes. At Gröning, life proceeded tranquilly.
Some things never change, here some of Orm’s advice for marital bliss:
It was a strange peculiarity of Orm’s that he never birched his wife; even when a great anger came over him, he restrained his temper, so that nothing more came of it than an overturned table or a broken door. In time he perceived a curious thing: namely, that all their quarrels always ended in the same way; he had to mend the things he had broken, and the matter about which they had quarreled was always settled the way Ylva wanted it, though she never upturned a table or broke a door, but merely threw an occasional dish-clout in his face or smashed a plate on the floor at his feet. Having discovered this, he thought it unrewarding to have any further quarrels with her, and a whole year would sometimes pass without their harmony being threatened by hard words.
Wonderfully entertaining, informative and historically accurate Viking caper. Highly recommended.
4.5 stars.
speesh's review
4.0
Basically, at it’s heart, this is about the end of the Viking world as they knew it. And as with a lot of books, novels, about the Vikings, Christianity is the culprit.
As the title proudly states, 'The Long Ships,' has been 'in print since the 1940s.’ It reads a little that was as well, though that’s absolutely no criticism of the writing style at all. It is a refreshingly open and inviting style, full of interesting observations and comments, with a ‘glint in the eye’ as we say over here in Denmark.
The story concerns the life of one Red Orm. Who, as a young man in Denmark, is captured (kind of) by Vikings and taken off as an oarsman on their ship bound westward and headed for adventure. The whole ethos presented here, is that people we out to enjoy themselves, capture a whole load of money on the way and therefore have enough money to enjoy themselves some more. If you’ve seen any of the film ‘The Long Ships’ with Sydney Poitier and Richard Widmark (amongst others) you’ll know some of the plot. Though the film, to my recollection concentrates (wisely) on what is in essence, the first third of the book. Which is very good. The Vikings, with Orm becoming a fully fledged member and later leader of the group, sail south, maraud (as the book cover says) through Viking Europe and into trouble. They are captured and forced into service by the Muslim rulers of what nowadays is Spain. After many years service, they leave/escape and find their way home to Scandinavia. There, the surviving members of the group go their separate ways, though the story follows Orm’s life from there on as well.
The book was clearly written with an agenda of some sort in mind. But I can’t really make up my mind what it was. Apart from highlighting the death of the Vikings at the hands of Jesus Christ. The writer, seems very pro-Christianity coming to the frozen north (as my mother once described Denmark, where I live) and I partly thing it was a way of bolstering Christianity in Sweden, Scandinavia at the time. Not having been in Sweden or Scandinavia at the time, I don’t know. But it is clear that the writer thought he had a purpose to telling the tale. From the point where Orm and the survivors reach Denmark and ‘Jellinge' (you can tell it’s been translated from the Swedish, by someone who has never actually been to Jelling, in Denmark), to the point of Orm and the others setting about their final mission, the story does sag tremendously. And you can see why, as far as I can remember, the film version stuck, wisely, to the first sections. It is a collection of visitors popping up, telling their fable-like tales, though some characters have a bearing on later events. The stories are a look at Viking characters, history, morals and traditions and surely, by a modern author, would have been welded into a better story than just having 'one day, two people turned up at the house…’ kind of thing. The book is about Christianity worming its way into Viking society (‘Orm’ means ‘worm' in Danish after all), but interestingly, the author has the majority go his converting Vikings doing so for the perfectly sensible reason of being a Christian increasing their all-important ‘luck.’ I suppose the middle section does highlight the Vikings love of words, word-play and their oral story-telling traditions, but whilst it can be heavy going, you’ll be fully rewarded if you keep going, because the final section is one of the best you’ll come across.
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As the title proudly states, 'The Long Ships,' has been 'in print since the 1940s.’ It reads a little that was as well, though that’s absolutely no criticism of the writing style at all. It is a refreshingly open and inviting style, full of interesting observations and comments, with a ‘glint in the eye’ as we say over here in Denmark.
The story concerns the life of one Red Orm. Who, as a young man in Denmark, is captured (kind of) by Vikings and taken off as an oarsman on their ship bound westward and headed for adventure. The whole ethos presented here, is that people we out to enjoy themselves, capture a whole load of money on the way and therefore have enough money to enjoy themselves some more. If you’ve seen any of the film ‘The Long Ships’ with Sydney Poitier and Richard Widmark (amongst others) you’ll know some of the plot. Though the film, to my recollection concentrates (wisely) on what is in essence, the first third of the book. Which is very good. The Vikings, with Orm becoming a fully fledged member and later leader of the group, sail south, maraud (as the book cover says) through Viking Europe and into trouble. They are captured and forced into service by the Muslim rulers of what nowadays is Spain. After many years service, they leave/escape and find their way home to Scandinavia. There, the surviving members of the group go their separate ways, though the story follows Orm’s life from there on as well.
The book was clearly written with an agenda of some sort in mind. But I can’t really make up my mind what it was. Apart from highlighting the death of the Vikings at the hands of Jesus Christ. The writer, seems very pro-Christianity coming to the frozen north (as my mother once described Denmark, where I live) and I partly thing it was a way of bolstering Christianity in Sweden, Scandinavia at the time. Not having been in Sweden or Scandinavia at the time, I don’t know. But it is clear that the writer thought he had a purpose to telling the tale. From the point where Orm and the survivors reach Denmark and ‘Jellinge' (you can tell it’s been translated from the Swedish, by someone who has never actually been to Jelling, in Denmark), to the point of Orm and the others setting about their final mission, the story does sag tremendously. And you can see why, as far as I can remember, the film version stuck, wisely, to the first sections. It is a collection of visitors popping up, telling their fable-like tales, though some characters have a bearing on later events. The stories are a look at Viking characters, history, morals and traditions and surely, by a modern author, would have been welded into a better story than just having 'one day, two people turned up at the house…’ kind of thing. The book is about Christianity worming its way into Viking society (‘Orm’ means ‘worm' in Danish after all), but interestingly, the author has the majority go his converting Vikings doing so for the perfectly sensible reason of being a Christian increasing their all-important ‘luck.’ I suppose the middle section does highlight the Vikings love of words, word-play and their oral story-telling traditions, but whilst it can be heavy going, you’ll be fully rewarded if you keep going, because the final section is one of the best you’ll come across.
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tma29b66's review against another edition
4.0
Ranging adventure saga, a pleasurable escape to read.
Recommended by Michael Lewis
Recommended by Michael Lewis
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