The Long Ships

De: Frans G. Bengtsson, Michael Meyer, Michael Chabon

Narrado por: Michael Page

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.

©1954, 2010 Frans G. Bengtsson; translation copyright 1954 by Michael Meyer; Introduction copyright 2010 by Michael Chabon (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Doesn’t get any better

This is a Scandinavian Saga modified so the occupants of this century can ride along. Both story and voice talent are peerless. A treasure. But a note of caution: should you reach the final page do not expect to be the same person that turned page one much earlier.

this book is a gem

This book is a gem. The reader does an excellent job bringing the story to life.

A Perfect Historical Novel

This book is the best historical novel that you have never heard of. Written in the 1940s before the History Channel got everyone interested in Vikings, this book is a gem for its narrative style alone. It is told like a saga and unlike modern novels where the author drags you through torturously long battle scenes and adds fluff to get extra pages, this story only offers the meat, no filler in a story that you will want to go on forever. The narration is first rate. It is hard to believe that this book is as obscure as it is given that it is an absolute masterpiece of story telling.

Wonderful story

Fighting, Vikings, woman, intrigue,Buried treasure, this book has it all. The translation from Norwegian it good and the reader wasn’t bad either. If you like Viking sagas like myself just go ahead and use the credit.

At Last

Finally an audio version of a book I have greatly enjoyed over the years since I read it for the first time.