The Long Ships
Ratings6
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.8
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 this 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.
Featured Series
1 primary bookRöde Orm is a 0-book series first released in 1941 with contributions by Frans G. Bengtsson and Michael Meyer.
Reviews with the most likes.
An enjoyable read but, for me, it outstayed its welcome a little.
Orm is a viking, doing his viking things. He gets captured by slavers, goes to battles, finds treasures, founds a village, goes to viking meetings... I know it sounds extremely simple like that and I find that's the beauty of this book; being an old-fashioned, fun adventure that gives you good feelings. Sure, now some of you will go “but... viking were violent and horrible, what the heck are you talking about???”. To which I say yes... and no.
There is violence in this, sure. But also there is a lot of friendship and Orm being a witty person who tries to solve his issues in the smartest way possible. Of course 2017 is all about being offended and triggered, but if you are still able to just let go and read a book that is like a fun old tale about heroes doing their thing, I think you will like this one.
What really surprised me about this was the humour. While vikings went around with axes and plundering ships, they still got on each other's asses with rude little poems and sharp little comments and I kept having good laughs at that. Something felt really free about it, like these people were just having a good time and and even when some of them died they were still fulfilled and went thought everything with the best possible outlook on life. That is mostly what I mean when I say this book made me happy.
I especially loved vikings and their relationships with Christianity. Many of them (Orm too) became Christians through the influence of priests going to the Nordic region, but as with everything they had their own ideas about Christianity, namely how God definitely wants to heal you so you could drink and sleep with hot women. Or that it could potentially be a good idea to get people drunk and then turn them Christian when they are unconscious. You tried.
I've read this in English, so I can't really talk about the original Swedish version, but I have to point out that the prose was old-timey. Not everyone is going to love it, for sure, it was a risk on the part f the author to just go with it, but it was executed great. Somehow the characters, the prose, the story structure, the relationships, the jokes, everything felt cohesive and that is something many new authors now could learn from.
I absolutely understand why this is a Swedish classic and even people outside Sweden should really give it a go, because it's truly an experience of its own.
Some books (even ones rightly held as important works from the point of view of art history) don't age well and lose their connection to people as time passes, making them into a pain in the ass to read. This ISN'T so. It managed to hold its charm and the excitement it gives to the reader.
Honestly, I wholeheartedly recommend this to everyone, because it is one of my new favourites.
Have a nice day and get this shipped to you if you can't find it locally! (Yes, I went there.)
This was a ripping good adventure tale, set mostly in 10th century Denmark and Sweden, but also containing voyages to Islamic Spain and to Kiev. Red Orm, the hero, is charming and the story is full of Viking battles, romance, and deadpan humor. I enjoyed every page and sighed with satisfaction at the end.
