laceyvail, I had never heard of this series, nor for that matter any novels that deal with the Vikings alone, so checked it on Amazon uk and noticed there were many favourable comments.

I think there are a lot of historical novels about Vikings, but many (most?)are quite bad. I do know of several others besides the Oathsworn that are quite good.

Hi, laceyvail. I don't know if you remember me, but I remember you. :-)

I'm not much for reading series, but I like anything about Vikings. Can you recommend a good single-volume novel?

Not about Vikings (that I know of), but I recall you mentioning Bryher's novels, a couple of which I read back in the 1960s and liked. You put me on the trail to find them again plus another I hadn't read: This January Tale, Roman Wall and Ruan. What else would you suggest re fine historical novels?

Friedag, I could write a long list, but let me give you just a few this morning and maybe add more later.

The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson--single volume Viking and very good.

Also single and Viking are The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley (last years of the colony), and Saga by Jeff Janoda.

Re The Oathsworn--each one is a single story with a resolution, though the characters go on to other adventures, so you could try the first in the series.

King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett--a fine novel, Dunnett's take on Macbeth, but also some Viking since Orkney was under Scandinavian hegemony in that period. If you don't know Dunnett, she demands a LOT of her readers.

Also an author I love is Rosemary Sufcliff. Most of her books are YA, but they are so very well done that I still reread them. She also has some written for adults, but they are hard to find--also very good. Most of her work, though not all, is set in late Roman or post Roman Britain.

Pretty much any of Zoe Oldenbourg's novels, especially The World is Not Enough, 12th Century France.

Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breen. Britain, then Gaul in the closing years of Rome. Set in the legions, and written by a military man. I am haunted by this novel.

A God Strolling in the Cool of the Evening by Mario De Carvalho. Translated from the Portuguese, set in Iberia in late Roman Empire. Christianity appears in this fine novel in a way you've never seen before.

Many of Cecilia Holland's novels, though by no means all of them. Great Maria is perhaps her best, I think, but also very fine are Rakossy, The Kings in Winter, and The Firedrake.

Spartacus by Lewis Grassic Gibbon is a powerful version of the story. It's been a while since I read it, but I remember thinking that it was a very unusual take on it, very spare and unsentimental, especially for 1933 when it was written.

The Corn KIng and the Spring Queen by Naomi Mitchison is quite good. But my favorite of hers is The Conquered, a noble Gaul taken into slavery by Caesar's armies. I don't think it's been reprinted, so it may be hard to find.

I also like what I've read by Barry Unsworth, Nicole Holland, and Nicola Griffith (no bodice rippers here). Edith Pargeter's The Brothers of Gwynnedd quartet--Wales in the times of the Plantagenets, is also worth a read, though it's massive.

I haven't mentioned any from later times, but certainly could if you're interested.

laceyvail, many thanks for the great list! Lots to explore. I've actually read a few of them, but so long ago that rereading them would be almost like a new experience.

I read all six of The Lymond Chronicles, each at the time it came out. But I got bogged down with The House of Niccolo series, I think because I tried to read them back to back.

I recall Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth which I liked very much and have reread it several times. I'm not sure if I read any of her other books.

Like you, I am haunted by Breem's story of General Paulinus Maximus (Eagle in the Snow).

I've read Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger and Morality Play but not any of his others, I think.

I know of Edith Pargeter, but mostly as Ellis Peters.

I will take a look at the first book in the Oathsworn series, now that I know it is self-contained.

laceyvail, I'm always interested in historical novels. I'm not especially particular about the time or place settings, although I admit that I'm a bit burnt-out on the Tudors and their, in my opinion, over-represented time period. Any further recommendations that you want to make, I'll surely consider them!

Oh, I remember you mentioning a book that featured Hereward the Wake. I don't think it was the Kingsley book of that title but rather a more recently written one. Do you recall that?

I love Rosemary Sutcliff'sSword at Sunset in which she presents King Arthur as a war lord, and I have the Pargeter book. Looked for Breem in my library's catalog, but they don't have it. That is such an interesting list that I am copying it to my book recommendations list, too.

Friedag, the only work I have on Hereward is Peter Rex's Hereward: The Last Englishman. It's history rather than fiction, and (it's been a while since I read it) demolishes the legend that "the Wake" means the 'Watchful" or something like that. Wake or Wac was apparently a family name.

As for other historical novels, here are some without organizing them much in time:

The Ivory Mischief by Arthur Meeker. Two aristocratic sisters in 17th cen. France. Not my period or place, but so exceedingly well done I've read it several times. Everything in it is from diaries of the period, and not a single event is invented. Quite fine.

The Trees. The Fields. The Town. A trilogy by Conrad Richter about the settling of the American Midwest.

Sweet Will. The Cleopatra Boy. A House of Women. by Eric Malpass. A fine trilogy about Shakespeare.

Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles. A southern woman, not rich, during the American Civil War. She's written several others, good, but this one really stayed with me.

The Homesman by Glendon Swarthout. (who also wrote The Shootist, made into John Wayne's last movie). I stumbled across this book, and it is quite good--grim, but good. Set in the American Midwest in early days of settlement of the prairie. I'll look for others by him.

Pretty much anything by Mari Sandoz--Indians mostly (Crazy Horse is my favorite, one based on her father, Old Jules.)

A.B. Guthrie series (all independent) on the settlement of the west. The Big Sky. The Way West. These Thousand Hills.

Anything by Alan Furst--you probably know these--astonishingly well done novels set just before or during WW II--lesser people caught up in the war--nobody famous. I have limited shelf space, but I keep all of his.

Flanders by Patricia Anthony. I don't know how or why this astonishing novel of WWI fell so fast into obscurity, but everyone I've recommended it to has been knocked out. And hard to imagine it is written by a woman. WW I has never really called to me, but this novel is deeply powerful.

Maurice Druon's series on 13/14th cen. French kings, called Les Rois Maudit. The Accursed Kings, the first being The Iron King. It's being reissued in paperback after long being unavailable. George R.R. Martin (The Game of Thrones author) has said it was always his inspiration. Druon bends the facts slightly--going for the historically unaccepted, like the curse of the Templars--but it's very good reading. Nasty people, but good reading.

And another Viking-- Meadowland by Thomas Holt, a tale within a tale--Varangian guard in Byzantine Empire, and the story told of Leif Erikson's settlement in NA.

No need to mention Mary Renault, I'm sure. The queen of fiction of Ancient Greece.

Awen by Susan Mayse, early medieval Wales. Good, but again has fallen into obscurity.

And for those who really like American history, Allan W. Eckert some years ago wrote a series on the settlement America, beginning with The Frontiersman. Eckert says he has invented nothing, not even dialog, that everything comes from memoirs and diaries of the periods. There are copious footnotes, but they read like novels.

And most people know of Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth. Peder Victorious. Their Father's God. What's unique about these books on the Norwegian settlement of the Great Plains is that Rolvaag wrote them in Norwegian and then they were translated into English. The first is the best known, and perhaps the best of the three.

If I think of more that I've omitted, I'll post. Happy reading everyone!

laceyveil, I used to love Rosemary Sutcliff and your post reminded me that I have Knight's Fee which I received in 1960 for a birthday present (just checked it out and blew the dust off it). Better late than never, as it must be time I read it; so will take it into the garden . .. the sun is shining . . .and sit me down and make a start. We have a walled-garden so I can hide away in a corner and hope no-one notices me as I always claim to be weeding.
Sutcliff's autobio' Blue Remembered Hills is interesting. As a child she suffered from Still's Disease an infantile type of rheumatism. In those days the 'treatment' for fingers that 'curled' was to break and re-set the bones, several times, over the years. She was more-or-less wheel-chair bound and suffered endless pain. Despite little schooling she had a vivid imagination which led to a prize-winning life as an author.

laceyveil, I had to read "Giants in the Earth" by Rolvaag in high school. I kept my copy and have re-read it many times over. It is such a powerful narrative and the ending has stayed with me. I have recommended it frequently, only to find that most Americans have never heard of it. I will have to look for the other two.

I can also recommend Cather's "My Antonia", as an exceptional novel about immigrants in the American West.

Thanks for posting your list; we seem to have similar reading tastes.

Another great list to mine! Happy reading indeed. Thank you again, laceyvail.

Giants in the Earth was required reading in my northern Iowa high school, and Peder Victorious and Their Father's God could be read for extra credit, which I did. I, like many of my classmates, had Norwegian ancestors who pioneered the Dakota Territory. My great-grandmother, a Norwegian immigrant of few words, owned a copy of Giants, but when I asked her what she thought about it, she replied, "Have not read it." I wanted to know why, of course, and she said, "I lived it. I do not have to read it." She also owned the three volumes of Kristin Lavransdatter, but she had not read those either. I don't recall the reason she gave. She had a hard life, so perhaps she just never had the time.

So pleased to have so many positive comments from old friends! And of course, My Antonia would make my list.

I'm still working my way through R. Sutcliff's adult novels; the only one I've read so far is The Flowers of Adonis, about Alkibiades. As good as anything Mary Renault wrote. I simply can't understand why it isn't better known.

Rosemary Sutcliff also wrote a slim volume called A Little Dog Like You. It's a book for a sophisticated child, and I simply adore it. I feel as if this is a fictionalization of something that actually happened in her own life. Dog lovers will really appreciated it. I've also read, though I have no idea where, that Sutcliff hinted that she believed in reincarnation and that Late Roman/Dark Age Britain was very "familiar" to her.

Friedag, I meant to say earlier when you first mentioned it, that Eagle of the Ninth is sort of part of a series. A carved dolphin ring that the protagonist finds again and that had belonged to his father appears in passing through the Dark Age novels that Sutcliff wrote.

Laceyveil. I'm about halfway through
Knight's Fee and was checking some facts about Rosemary Sutcliff when I came across this blog dedicated to her work. Some interesting stuff.

Rosemary Sutcliff