“The Lord of Vik-Lo” – Another Viking Adventure in Ireland!

I have previously reviewed the first two books of The Norsemen Saga by nautical fiction and history writer James L. Nelson. Now, he presents us with a somewhat less complex story in the third book, The Lord of Vik-Lo. I found it to be probably the best of the three, perhaps due to the author deciding to limit the scope of the work somewhat compared with the first two.

The volume opens by introducing a new set of characters and a new place – still set mostly on the Eastern Coast of 9th Century Ireland. The Danish, or Dubh Gall, Norsemen of Vik-lo are heading home from raiding the Fearna Monastery for a rich haul. Being well upriver from the coast, this particular place had not been previously raided; the Dubh Gall under Jarl Grimarr Giant worked their dragon ships far up river to surprise the monks and work their usual destruction and pillage. On the way home, Grimarr’s ship has been delayed for emergency repairs and he is hurrying to catch his fellow “Lord of Vik-lo” Fasti Magnusson, into whose ship has been placed all the spoils of the raid. What Grimarr finds instead is Fasti’s ship under attack by several Irish curraghs under the command of minor Irish king Lorcan, who rules the lands around Vik-lo and desires to rule much, much more. Lorcan knows about the treasure and plans to have it.

Grimarr arrives in time to drive away Lorcan’s men – but not to save Fasti or his crew. The only survivor is a young Irish woman who had been captured as a slave on the raid. Even worse, the treasure is nowhere to be found.

Few things are more fun than a dragonship!

As usual with Thorgrim, the gods have other ideas and a violent storm soon finds the Fin-gall forced to seek shelter in Vik-lo (Thorgrim has sworn to never return to Dubh-lin) where they find a suspicious but ultimately welcoming Grimarr. Thorgrim and his crew will be allowed to stay long enough to repair Fair Voyager. Grimarr remains in mourning for his two dead sons with only less favored Sandarr still living. Sandarr has schemes of his own.

Thorgrim and company soon find themselves involved in a struggle to retrieve the treasure, the location of which is known to the Irish girl to whom only Harald can communicate. Lorcan also hasn’t forgotten and plots his own scheme. Then, changing everything, Grimarr discovers a dark secret about Thorgrim’s longship and the story behind his sons’ deaths. Thorgrim and crew will soon be fighting for survival against two sets of enemies.

If you, like I, enjoy a rousing adventure involving Vikings and Irishmen, and strongly drawn characters, both admirable and despicable, you will love The Lord of Vik-lo.

I would add – since Joseph’s blog leans toward works that involve fantasy and the supernatural to a certain extent – that Thorgrim is not called “Night Wolf” for purely symbolic reasons. Whenever things seem to get really desperate – something happens.

Note: Vik-lo is now a county and town on the Irish east coast known as Wicklow, south of Dublin.