Along the coast the people lived together in villages, partly to be sure of food, that they might not depend entirely on the luck of their own catch, and partly for greater security; for ships rounding the Skanian peninsula often sent marauding parties ashore, both in the spring, to replenish cheaply their stock of fresh meat for the westward voyage, and in the winter, if they were returning empty-handed from unsuccessful wars.
An edition of The long ships
(1943)
The Long Ships
printing (4)
by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson
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Frans Gunnar Bengtsson’s The Long Ships resurrects the fantastic world of the tenth century AD when the Vikings roamed and rampaged from the northern fastnesses of Scandinavia down to the Mediterranean. Bengtsson’s hero, Red Orm—canny, courageous, and above all lucky—is only a boy when he is abducted from his Danish home by the Vikings and made to take his place at the oars of their dragon-prowed ships.
Orm is then captured by the Moors in Spain, where he is initiated into the pleasures of the senses and fights for the Caliph of Cordova. Escaping from captivity, Orm washes up in Ireland, where he marvels at those epicene creatures, the Christian monks, and from which he then moves on to play an ever more important part in the intrigues of the various Scandinavian kings and clans and dependencies.
Eventually, Orm contributes to the Viking defeat of the army of the king of England and returns home an off-the-cuff Christian and a very rich man, though back on his native turf new trials and tribulations will test his cunning and determination. Packed with pitched battles and blood feuds and told throughout with wit and high spirits, Bengtsson’s book is a splendid adventure that features one of the most unexpectedly winning heroes in modern fiction.
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The Long Ships: A Saga of the Viking Age
2014, Harper
Paperback
in English
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0007560702 9780007560707
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The Long Ships
2010, New York Review Books
Paperback
in English
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1590173465 9781590173466
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The Long Ships
2010, New York Review Books
Paperback
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- 1st printing
1590173465 9781590173466
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The Long Ships: a saga of the Viking Age
1977-05, Fontana/Collins
Mass Market Paperback
in English
- Fourth impression
000612609X 9780006126096
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Med en stor portion humor och en berättarglädje som knappast har något motstycke i den svenska litteraturen är Röde Orm en av våra få verkligt levande klassiker som har fängslat generationer av läsare.
Orms äventyr börjar när han som yngling av en slump hamnar på ett vikingaskepp. Hans fortsatta öden berättas i dråpliga episoder om hans tid som galärslav och livvakt hos kalifens visir Almansur i Hispanien, om julgillet hos danernas kung Harald Blåtand, om engelske kung Ethelreds silver och utfärden österut efter bulgarguldet. Hans resor kantas av möten med judiska silversmeder, irländska munkar, isländska skalder, vilda patzinaker och med sig har han ständige följeslagaren Toke.
Röde Orm har kallats en sällsynt lyckad förening av fornnordisk och österländsk saga och utspelar sig kring år 1000, när vikingarna härjade längs Europas kuster och i de ryska flodsystemen, men också tog intryck av de folk och kulturer de mötte.
Boken utkom ursprungligen i två delar, Sjöfarare i västerled (1941) och Hemma och i österled (1945). Boken blev en försäljningssuccé i Sverige från första stund och första delen gavs redan under Andra världskriget ut i våra grannländer såväl som i Tyskland och USA, och har totalt översatts till ett tjugotal språk.
Denna utgåva inleds av ett nyskrivet förord av Erik Andersson, författare till bland annat romanen Den larmande hopens dal och uppmärksammad översättare till Tolkiens Ringarnas herre och Joyces Odysses.
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| July 21, 2023 | Edited by Lisa | Merge works |
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