The Brand New Normal - For Sam.

So this is the brand new normal, a hole in my heart and soul.

I’m bereft since you left; disbelieving, that you suddenly had to go.

Where once I complained when you shouted, now I just miss your bark.

And that you’re no longer hogging the sofa, and claiming the comfy part.

You’re not there in the middle of the doorway, underfoot, refusing to budge.

Nor there when the fridge door opens, at mealtimes I don't feel your nudge.

You’re no longer leaning against my legs, with your head and ears to smooth.

No more are you insisting that you lick mine, sat on me so I can’t move.

Of course you knew all this made my life sweeter,

with just the touch of your cold wet nose.

So this is the brand new normal, I’ll get used to it, I suppose.

Bloodaxe (Erik Haraldsson Book 1) by C R May - A review

“Tell me about King Erik, Your Grace.”

The archbishop blew the froth from his ale and peered across the rim, chuckling softly as he took a sip. “Bloodaxe?”

Under Harald Fairhair Norway has been unified, but the question of succession casted a shadow over the great king’s twilight rule. He wants Erik to be his heir for high kingship, but Harald has fathered many sons, all kings in their own right, each eager for the spoils the great king’s death will bring.

I’ve always had a fascination with the character of Erik Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of an independent Northumbria, if only for his descriptive name. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting Jorvik Viking museum you may well have bought the T-Shirt or perhaps the mug, such as I have!

 

When I heard that C R May was embarking on telling his Erik’s saga I knew I would be in for a spectacular ride aboard a dragon prowed longship; and what a ride this is. Those familiar with Mr May’s (in my opinion) unrivalled word-craft in bringing this historical period to life, will have an inkling of what to expect, and for those new to his work, you will be in for a real treat and wonder why you haven’t read his work before. You can taste the salt tang of spray as you pull oar on Erik’s Skei, feel the fear and pride as your sea king disembarks first,  to lead his hird to a bloody and glorious victory, amid hoarse shouts of blóðøx.

It is the author’s great skill that he is able to put flesh on the bones of a few lines of Norse literature and create a wealth of believable characters, which the reader becomes utterly invested in.  Mr May invites his reader to suspend their disbelief in the fantastic with such subtlety that the presence of a lycanthropic monster, or the earthly manifestation of a god, is accepted without question. This is the heroic world where tales are told in the mead hall and monstrous shapes summoned by skalds in the shadows of flickering flames. Odin, the All-Father, does love his poetry, after all.

"When one-eyed wandering poets ask you to honour their wishes Erik, it's usually a good idea to do so... Particularly if they haven't aged a day in twenty winters."

 

 

 

Yet just when you think the tale is told, that a kingdom is won and Erik’s tapestry is woven, such is the fate of men that the three sisters of wyrd pick at loose threads, their shears poised to cut the warp and weft of heroes, and bring all crashing down in ruination and death in the world of Midgard. For, as Erik has concentrated on the Nor’way, foreign kings have conspired to weave patterns of their own.

But Erik has a destiny, told him by a warlock of the far north, and will snatch the threads of his life from the blades of the hags of fate, which fortunately for us means there will be an Erik Haraldsson Book 2. Form the shieldwall, raise the standard, Blóðøx! Blóðøx!

This is historical fiction as it’s meant to be written, absolutely top notch stuff from a writer at the peak of his craft.

 

Bloodaxe is available at Amazon

The Wolf Banner by Paula Lofting - a review

“1058. This year Alfgar, the earl, was banished; but he soon came in again, with violence, through Gruffudds' aid. And this year came a fleet from Norway: it is tedious to tell how all these matters went.”

 

So wrote a scribe, his opinion preserved for all these long ages since in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. “Tedious to tell”? Not at all, as we revisit C11th Horstede in Sussex and reacquaint ourselves with Wulfhere and his household, who we met in Sons of the Wolf.

Wulfhere is a man tormented by inner demons, suffering from combat stress, his relationship with his pregnant mistress putting implacable strain on his marriage to his wife, Ealdgytha. While his children squabble incessantly, the long running blood feud with his neighbour Helghi bubbles away, despite his lord Harold Godwinson ordering his two Sussex liege men to bury their hatchets, by way of marriage. The one bright ray of sunshine is the impending marriage of his eldest daughter to the Aemund son of his friend Leofnoth… as long as her dalliance with Helghi’s son hasn’t ruined her chances of a fortuitous union, that is.

Meanwhile in the strategically important earldom of Mercia, the elderly Earl Leofric is dying. His son Aelfgar should inherit the earldom but is tainted by his previous exile and subsequent ransacking of Hereford in the company of his ally, Gruffudd of Wales. Will Aelfgar’s hatred of the growing power and influence of the Godwinsons overpower his loyalty to King Edward? What of Aelfgar’s first born son Burgheard? He condemned his father over Hereford, where do his loyalties now lie?

Wolf Banner is a real page turner, through the eyes of the characters we can see the unfolding drama of the C11^th. It is extremely well researched as all the threads of the time begin to create the tapestry leading up to inevitable conflict and destruction of this world. The characters are fleshed out and flawed, not one is a perfect hero, each has their weaknesses or will take advantage of others in their pursuit their goals.

Having enjoyed Ms Lofting’s first book of this series it was a joy to return to the C11^th. Her storytelling goes from strength to strength. This is an author whose craft is becoming as sharply honed as the blades wielded in the battles she admirably describes.

Words of the time are skilfully entwined in the dialogue making the world all the more real. All life is here; love, desire, hope, distrust, betrayal, war, triumph and achingly painful loss. There is humour in Aemund’s battle with his wife’s aunt Gunhild, as a reader I thoroughly enjoyed the old battleaxe‘s humiliation - well deserved I think! The war of words between Burgheard and his adversary Ragnald in Wulfgar’s hall was coarsely realistic but absolutely enjoyable; I felt like I was there listening to the increasingly ill-tempered debate and trading of insults.

Surely you can tell an author’s worth if you feel emotionally invested in the characters, and you do in The Wolf Banner. I felt sorry for Burgheard, and sympathetic to his growing bitterness but it was good for him to have a storyline to be told, as he is a mere footnote, briefly mentioned in the writings of the time. Another character you feel for his Wulfhere’s youngest son, Tovi. Sacrificed in an attempt to heal the rift between his parents, his dreams trampled and abandoned, I feel he may yet be the one to save his father from his deep and crippling despair.

1058, tedious to tell? To the scribe perhaps but not for our characters in The Wolf Banner; their fates are set on their courses and their tales will continue in The Wolf’s Bane, there is the none-too-small matter of a blood price that requires payment; I can’t wait.

The Wolf Banner is available at Amazon