Synopses & Reviews
High in the mountains of the Lake District is a secret valley where the Vikings have their last stronghold--their Shield Ring. The Normans seek to crush this group of Northmen and to bring all of England under their control. They build a castle in Carlisle and send an army north. Meanwhile, the Northmen lamb and harvest as though life were normal, but Ari Knudson sharpens Wave-flame and the Jarl prepares his War Host. Two youths of the village--Frytha, a Saxon girl who fled to the valley when the Normans burned her home, and Bjorn, the foster-son of the old harper--make ready, too. As the Norman's approach the secret valley, the Northmen recruit able bodies, and Bjorn volunteers to enter the Norman camp as a spy. Frytha knows Bjorn's deepest fear: that if he is captured, he will fall to Norman torture and reveal the location of the Shield Ring.
Synopsis
As the Saxons ready themselves for the Norman attack, Bjorn, a Norman living with a Saxon foster family, takes part in a dangerous mission of espionage to help his adopted people, well aware of the harsh consequences he will face if he is captured, in this adventurous tale set in England shortly after the Norman Conquest. Reprint.
About the Author
Rosemary Sutcliff wrote over fifty books, for which she received the Carnegie Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and a Hans Christian Andersen Highly Commended Author Award. She is the author of The Mark of the Horse Lord and was granted the title Commander of the British Empire for her body of work.