The Long Ships

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 through the Straits of Gibraltar to Byzantium in all its fabled splendor. Bengtsson's hero, Red Orm, is a boy when he is abducted from his Swedish home by the Vikings and made to take his place at the oars of the dragon-prowed ships. He then has the misfortune to be captured by the Moors in Spain, where he is initiated into the pleasures of the senses. Escaping from captivity, Orm goes to Ireland, plays an ever more important part in the intrigues of the various Scandinavian kings and clans and dependencies, helps defeat the army of the king of England, and returns home an off-the-cuff Christian convert and a very rich man. Packed with pitched battles and blood feuds, founded in history and told with high good humor, Bengtsson's book is a fantastic adventure that features one of the most unexpectedly winning heroes in modern fiction.

Frans Gunnar Bengtsson (1894–1954) was a Swedish novelist, essayist, poet, and biographer, best known for The Long Ships. An English translation of his essays was published under the title A Walk to an Ant Hill and Other Essays.

Michael Meyer (1921–2000) was an English translator and biographer. His autobiography, Not Prince Hamlet, was published in 1989.

Michael Chabon is the author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and the children’s book, Summerland. He lives in Berkeley, California.