Book picks similar to
Bloodaxe by C.R. May


historical-fiction
vikings
abandoned
ethnic-fiction

Templar Steel


K.M. Ashman - 2018
    Reports of Saracen patrols devastating towns and villages cause panic throughout the Outremer, and Baldwin, the teenage king beset with leprosy, tries desperately to counter the threat. But nobody knows where the enemy forces are and the Christian forces are stretched thinly.With the king’s army campaigning in the north and the feared Templar knights defending the border far to the south, only one man has even the slightest chance of finding out Saladin’s true intentions, a Templar Sergeant named Thomas Cronin. With time running out and the odds stacked heavily against him, Cronin needs to find the Saracen army and relay the information back to the leper king in time to prevent the fall of Jerusalem, and indeed, the Holy Land itself!

Viking Slave


Griff Hosker - 2013
    Thanks to an old one armed warrior he finds his true destiny. He wins his freedom and becomes a Viking himself. Forced to sail the seas for a new home they have to fight to establish their own kingdom on the Isle of Man. A tale full of battles set in the early years of the ninth century.

The Landing


Colin Taber - 2013
    There, after tests, adventures and challenges, he will leave a legacy that will grow to become the strongest nation the world has ever seen.The Landing is the first book in The United States of Vinland series and is an alternate history that begins the saga with the establishment of the first Markland halls.Welcome to Norse America.

God's Daughter


Heather Day Gilbert - 2013
    One God. One legendary journey to the New World.In the tenth century, when pagan holy women rule the Viking lands, Gudrid turns her back on her training as a seeress to embrace Christianity. Clinging to her faith, she joins her husband, Finn, on a voyage to North America.But even as Gudrid faces down murderous crewmen, raging sickness, and hostile natives, she realizes her greatest enemy is herself--and the secrets she hides might just tear her marriage apart.Almost five centuries before Columbus, Viking women sailed to North America with their husbands. God's Daughter, Book One in the Vikings of the New World Saga, offers an expansive yet intimate look into the world of Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir--daughter-in-law of Eirik the Red, and the first documented European woman to have a child in North America.This novel is based heavily on the Icelandic Sagas.

Viking Blood and Blade


Peter Gibbons - 2021
    865 AD. The fierce Vikings stormed onto Saxon soil hungry for spoils, conquest, and vengeance for the death of Ragnar Lothbrok.Hundr, a Northman with a dog's name... a crew of battle hardened warriors... and Ivar the Boneless. Amidst the invasion of Saxon England by the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, Hundr joins a crew of Viking warriors under the command of Einar the Brawler. Hundr fights to forge a warriors reputation under the glare of Ivar and his equally fearsome brothers, but to do that he must battle the Saxons and treachery from within the Viking army itself...Hundr must navigate the invasion, survive brutal attacks, and find his place in the vicious world of the Vikings in this fast paced adventure with memorable characters.

The Hangman's Daughter


Oliver Pötzsch - 2008
    And her father’s wisdom and empathy are as unusual as his despised profession. It is 1659, the Thirty Years’ War has finally ended, and there hasn’t been a witchcraft mania in decades. But now, a drowning and gruesomely injured boy, tattooed with the mark of a witch, is pulled from a river and the villagers suspect the local midwife, Martha Stechlin.Jakob Kuisl is charged with extracting a confession from her and torturing her until he gets one. Convinced she is innocent, he, Magdalena, and her would-be suitor race against the clock to find the true killer. Approaching Walpurgisnacht, when witches are believed to dance in the forest and mate with the devil, another tattooed orphan is found dead and the town becomes frenzied. More than one person has spotted what looks like the devil—a man with a hand made only of bones. The hangman, his daughter, and the doctor’s son face a terrifying and very real enemy.Page Numbers Source ISBN: 054774501X

Of the Ring of Earls


Juliet Dymoke - 2016
     For Waltheof of Huntington and his fellow survivors of the Battle of Hastings, there is a simple choice: submit to this new foreign king, or die at the gallows. Follow the heart; or follow the head. As the country bows under the Norman yoke and Waltheof struggles to come to terms with his decision, a new Saxon hope emerges. A last challenge to the Norman might, a final chance for glory, a decisive test of old allegiances and new loyalties. Of the Ring of Earls, the first in Juliet Dymoke’s epic Conqueror Trilogy, charts the fate of Waltheof of Huntington: a knight whose true story embodies the turmoil that followed the last successful invasion of Britain.

The Handfasted Wife


Carol McGrath - 2013
    She is set aside for a political marriage when Harold becomes king in 1066. Determined to protect her children's destinies and control her economic future, she is taken to William's camp when her estate is sacked on the eve of the Battle of Hastings. She later identifies Harold's body on the battlefield and her youngest son becomes a Norman hostage. Elditha avoids an arranged marriage with a Breton knight by which her son might or might not be given into his care. She makes her own choice and sets out through strife-torn England to seek help from her sons in Dublin. However, events again overtake her. Harold's mother, Gytha, holds up in her city of Exeter with other aristocratic women, including Elditha's eldest daughter. The girl is at risk, drawing Elditha back to Exeter and resistance. Initially supported by Exeter's burghers the women withstand William's siege. However, after three horrific weeks they negotiate exile and the removal of their treasure. Elditha takes sanctuary in a convent where eventually she is reunited with her hostage son. This is an adventure story of love, loss, survival and reconciliation.

Njal's Saga


Unknown
    It is populated by memorable and complex characters like Gunnar of Hlidarendi, a powerful warrior with an aversion to killing, and the not-so-villainous Mord Valgardsson. Full of dreams, strange prophecies, violent power struggles, and fragile peace agreements, Njal's Saga tells the compelling story of a fifty-year blood feud that, despite its distance from us in time and place, is driven by passions familiar to us all. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction, chronology, index of characters, plot summary, explanatory notes, maps, and suggestions for further reading.

Meadowland: A Novel of the Viking Discovery of America


Tom Holt - 2005
    His only companions are a detachment of the Empire's elite Guard, recruited from Viking Scandinavia. When the wagon sheds a wheel, he passes the time talking with two veterans, who have a remarkable story to tell—the Viking discovery of America.

Viking Warrior


Judson Roberts - 2006
    Now he is becoming a man and it is time for him to meet his destiny. Though raised a slave who could only dream of freedom, young Halfdan's fate may be about to change. If freed, he may train as a Viking warrior, and come to know the glories of true brotherhood and the horrors of unspeakable evil. In the world of Vikings, a warrior's destiny is forged in the heat of battle. If the fates decree it, Hafdan may emerge as a new hero . . . a new myth . . . and perhaps a new legend.

The Last Light of the Sun


Guy Gavriel Kay - 2004
    The lives of men and women are as challenging as the climate and lands in which they dwell. For generations, the Erlings of Vinmark have taken their dragon-prowed ships across the seas, raiding the lands of the Cyngael and Anglcyn peoples, leaving fire and death behind. But times change, even in the north, and in a tale woven with consummate artistry, people of all three cultures find the threads of their lives unexpectedly brought together...Bern Thorkellson, punished for his father's sins, commits an act of vengeance and desperation that brings him face-to-face, across the sea, with a past he's been trying to leave behind.In the Anglcyn lands of King Aeldred, the shrewd king, battling inner demons all the while, shores up his defenses with alliances and diplomacy-and with swords and arrows-while his exceptional, unpredictable sons and daughters pursue their own desires when battle comes and darkness falls in the woods.And in the valleys and shrouded hills of the Cyngael, whose voices carry music even as they feud and raid amongst each other, violence and love become deeply interwoven when the dragon ships come and Alun ab Owyn, chasing an enemy in the night, glimpses strange lights gleaming above forest pools.Making brilliant use of saga, song and chronicle, Kay brings to life an unforgettable world balanced on the knife-edge of change in The Last Light of the Sun.

Celtic Blood


James John Loftus - 2011
    The son of the murdered Earl of Ross, is a fugitive when his family, rival claimants for Scotland's crown, are declared traitors. Influenced by MacBeth and the writting of Nigel Tranter it is a tale of high drama and suspense.

I Am the Chosen King


Helen Hollick - 2000
    After the political turmoil and battles leading up to 1066, we all know William the Conquerer takes England. But Helen Hollick will have readers at the edge of their seats, hoping that just this once, for Harold, the story will have a different ending.

The Norse Queen


Johanna Wittenberg - 2020
    A woman could seize power, if she was bold enough. Daughter of a Norse king, fifteen-year-old Åsa dreams of becoming a shield-maiden. When she spurns a powerful warlord, he rains hellfire on her family, slaughtering her father and brother and taking her captive. To protect her people, Åsa must wed her father’s killer. To take vengeance, she must become his queen.