Synopsis
In Irish history the Vikings are often seen merely as attackers, but this book gives an account of the wider picture - how the Vikings significantly influenced Irish art and trade and the growth of towns and cities.
The novel describes the vikings first landing as a raiding party, and their settlement and gradual merging with the Irish by intermarriage and trade, and also explores the customs and traditions, and the arts and crafts which have become part of the Irish way of life. Cameos of the lives of individual Vikings - some real, some fictitious - are used in the retelling of events, and the illustrations include photographs of excavations and artifacts.
Author
New York-born author Morgan Llywelyn is one of the world's leading popular chroniclers of Celtic culture and history. A prolific storyteller, she has written more than twenty books over the past two decades. Her fiction has received several awards and has sold more than 40 million copies, and she herself is recipient of the 1999 Exceptional Celtic Woman of the Year Award from Celtic Women International.
In the words of Judith A. Gifford of the reference publication Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, "Drawing on the history and lore that are part of her own heritage, the works of Morgan Llywelyn concern themselves with Celtic heroes and heroines, both real and mythical, bringing them and the times they inhabited to life with stunning clarity." Pauline Morgan, writing in the St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers, has explained, "[t]he majority of Morgan Llywelyn's books may be regarded as fictional biographies. Each book takes a person, often historical or legendary, and relates the story of their life. Most of the novels with a fantasy connection rely heavily on Celtic mythology, particularly that of the Irish.
Morgan Llywelyn now lives outside of Dublin, Ireland, and has become an Irish citizen.
