The Viking (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781967963386)

THE VIKING

The Viking" is an historice novel based upon the life of ancestors of John Studholme who lived in Dublin as Vikings in 902. In that year Dublin was captured by the Celts and John's ancestor Brun and his children escape with others by longboats to Cumbria. His wife is murdered by the Celts but Brun kills the assailants. His parents escape to Scotland. Brun eventually meets a Saxon girl Megan. They marry in Wigton, though he is pagan and is Norse and she is Christian. They have children but the settlement is attacked by other Viking raiders. The attack is repelled but there is always the danger of further attacks. They explore Cumbria as it was then with abandoned Roman forts, stone circles and iron age forts. The novel ends with the family settling down at Stedholme on the Wampool near Wigton with their Iberian slave family they have bought at the slave market in Carlisle. The next in the series will continue from there.