The Viking Trilogy is a

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

of juvenile historical novels by Henry Treece. They are ''Viking's Dawn'', ''The Road to Miklagard'' and ''Viking's Sunset''. Treece wrote several juvenile historical novels, some set during the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, and this trilogy is regarded as among his best.Collectingbooksandmagazines.com
/ref> The three novels describe the adventures of Harald Sigurdson, a Norwegian Viking. He goes on three voyages, which between them are representative of the various voyages which were made by the Vikings, and which take place at different stages in his life.

''Viking's Dawn''

Harald is an adolescent who sails on a raid to Scotland. They come to grief on an island in the

Hebrides The Hebrides ( ; , ; ) are the largest archipelago in the United Kingdom, off the west coast of the Scotland, Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Ou ...

''The Road to Miklagard''

Harald is now a young man whose father has died. He has a complicated series of adventures which takes him to a giant's treasure cave in Ireland, then Jebel Tarik (

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

), then to Miklagard (the Norse name for

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

) where he joins the famous

Varangian Guard The Varangian Guard () was an elite unit of the Byzantine army from the tenth to the fourteenth century who served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors. The Varangian Guard was known for being primarily composed of recruits from Nort ...

. Eventually Harald returns home to Norway via the land of the Khazars and the great ship-portage on the

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

''Viking's Sunset''

Harald is now a mature man who enjoys a peaceful life of farming with his wife and sons. When his village is attacked, he forms a crew of soldiers and pursues the raiders. The chase leads him across the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

to the east coast of America. He and his crew encounter

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

and then Native Americans. Harald's final fight takes place among the native tribes. In a great battle, it is revealed that he is a

berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers () were Scandinavian warriors who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English adjective ''wikt:berserk#Adjective, berserk'' . Berserkers ...

. Significant scenes include the death of one of the raiders, Havlock Ingolfsson, whom Harald abandons to die on a

skerry A skerry ( ) is a small rocky island, or islet, usually too small for human habitation. It may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low stack (geology), sea stack. A skerry may have vegetative life such as moss and small, ...

, and Harald's death at the hands of Heome, the mad handless brother of heroic Wawasha. The brothers have similarities with

Loki Loki is a Æsir, god in Norse mythology. He is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mythology), Laufey (a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to the goddess Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi (son of Lo ...

and Balder respectively. This novel has obvious parallels with the Norse

Vinland Vinland, Vineland, or Winland () was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. The name appears in the V ...

saga.

References

External links

* * * https://archive.org/details/roadtomiklagard00tree British children's novels Children's historical novels Literary trilogies Novels set in the Viking Age Children's books set in Scotland Children's books set in Ireland Children's books set in Norway Children's books set in North America {{child-hist-novel-stub