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Shield Walls & Longships: 15 Brutal Novels of the Viking Age
15
items Forget the horned helmets. The Viking Age was three hundred years of raids, shifting alliances and kingdoms built and lost in a single summer—and it gave us England. This collection follows that world from the shield wall to the mead hall to the last...
Sections
3
THE SHIELD WALL
SAGAS & NORTHERN MYTHS
1066 & THE END OF AN AGE
THE SHIELD WALL
This is where the fighting happens. Locked shields, the crush of bodies and the grim arithmetic of who is still standing at the end. These novels put you right in the front rank of Saxon and Viking warfare.
Book one of the Saxon Stories. Uhtred of Bebbanburg, raised by Danes, fighting for Alfred. The series that brought this period to a whole new generation. This is a signed UK first printing for the collectors. Destiny is all! And please go visit Benna...
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell (Signed First Edition)
A Swedish classic from the 1940s and the funniest book on this list, or so my swedish freind tells me. A Viking adventure told with a dry, saga-style wit.
The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
A young English boy is taken in by a Norse war band. Fast, violent and full of the sea.
Raven: Blood Eye by Giles Kristian
The Oathsworn sail from Scandinavia to the Russian rivers. Written by a former war correspondent—the combat feels real.
The Whale Road by Robert Low
Seventh-century Northumbria and a young warrior seeking vengeance. If you finish Cornwell and want more, Harffy is the answer.
The Serpent Sword by Matthew Harffy
SAGAS & NORTHERN MYTHS
The Norse told their history as sagas, and the line between fact and legend was always thin. These books lean into that: monsters in the dark, gods who play with mortals, and stories that feel like they should be read aloud in a hall.
Beowulf retold as a historical thriller through the eyes of a real 10th-century Arab traveller. Short and gripping—the film is ‘The 13th Warrior’.
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
Beowulf from the monster's point of view. Short, strange and surprisingly moving.
Grendel by John Gardner
A retelling of a genuine Danish legend about a warrior-king and his champions. Feels like a real saga, in the best way.
Hrolf Kraki's Saga by Poul Anderson
The early life of St Hilda of Whitby in seventh-century Britain. A world of kings, seers and survival through sharp wits.
Hild by Nicola Griffith
The rise of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, told by a family caught up in it. Rich in detail and family drama.
The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
1066 & THE END OF AN AGE
The Viking Age ended in one extraordinary year, with three armies, two invasions and a king killed on a hill near Hastings. This section covers the fall of Anglo-Saxon England and the history behind it all.
A Lincolnshire farmer resists the Normans, told in an invented ‘shadow’ Old English. Tricky for ten pages, then unforgettable.
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
The story of Harold Godwinson, England's last Anglo-Saxon king. Published in the UK as ‘Harold the King’.
I Am the Chosen King (Harold the King) by Helen Hollick
A survivor of Hastings walks across Europe telling the story of what really happened. Irreverent, bawdy and very funny.
The Last English King by Julian Rathbone
Short, readable history of the year that changed everything. The perfect companion to the novels in this section.
1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth
The definitive modern history of the Vikings. Written by an archaeologist, and it completely changes how you picture them.
Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price