What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Ok, I don't remember if this was a short story or a full length book. Basically it starts with 2 Vikings who were friends. Then for some reason they have a major falling out and start fighting each other. One or the other makes some kind of vow, and it leaves them and their men fighting eternally until one day a member of "the new religion" (i.e. Christianity) shall free them. At the end of the story--which is somewhere close to modern times (about 1960's or early 70's, I THINK is when I read it) they are finally freed when a modern man agrees to fight with one side, because only HE can kill them and have them stay dead. He finally succeeds in killing all the warriors--including the 2 leaders. When dawn finally breaks, the land no longer looks the same, and there are bits of weathered bones and rusted spears/swords or something like that sticking out here and there from the ground.

Ok, sending this back to the top of the list.

The more I think about it, the more I think that this was a short story in a collection of stories for YA, as I believe I read it in either late elementary school, JR. High or maybe even as late as 9th grade. I KNOW that it was something that several of my friends at that time had also read. I was really into mythology (Norse, Greek, Roman and Egyptian) and stories that were similar to the Eddas of Norway from 6th grade on up.

Oh--this MIGHT have been an English publication. My Dad was Navy and the schools that we attended when in Europe were all British. And it would have been mid-to late 60's up to about 71.

They came on viking ships by Jakie French
(this isn't it but it is a great book about vikings)

its about a girl named Hekja and her dog Snarf and vikings invade and she gets kidnapped and so does her dog....its pretty sad, and a bit gresome.

you should read it, its great

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Think a bit like the Flying Dutchman or something similar.

Unfortunately, with all the romance books featuring Vikings (with and without the paranormal twist), this one's proving hard to find. All the Viking stories I'm finding are racy ones!

This is also an old one. I believe I read it sometime in the mid to late 60's or early 70's. And the more I think about it, the more I believe it was a short story or maybe a novella, rather than a full length book. But again, I'm just not sure. It could have been what we are now calling "YA" which was not a category back when I read it. Just adult books and children's books then.

I'll look again this weekend!

The only short story that I can recall featuring Vikings and Christianity was Mickey Zucker Reichert's "Devil Drums", which published in the Vengeance Fantastic anthology (2002), but it doesn't match your details. Or timeframe.

This story had a group of Christian settlers trying to defend against Viking berserkers. The Christians are loosing badly, until one of their member sacrifices a captured Viking to Odin and the tide of battle favor turns.

No, that's definately not it. This story actually starts in Viking time, the 2 main characters start as friends and end as enemies. Then, for some reason, the 2 are cursed (along with their men) during a battle and they are required to re-fight the battle over and over and over--for centuries. The only way that the curse was broken was that a Christian guy in "modern times" had to kill the 2 leaders during the battle. There was a prophecy included with the curse that basically said that.
And I was a kid when I read it--so definately mid-60's to early 70's for that. I've been looking for the story off and on for years. I'll just go on bumping this up periodically.

No luck so far. I've only found the Norse saga this story was based on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B6r...

I'll keep looking periodically though!

oohhh--that IS the story. I wonder who wrote a "popular translation" of it. And I'm glad to know that I hadn't dreamed the story. :o) Sometimes with some of the books that I remember I get that frustrated feeling when no one else seems to have any knowledge of them. Examples of this are Twenty and Ten and Monty and the Tree House, both of which I'd looked for for many years before finally finding. The first book, I found again entirely by accident when on a business trip. I'd flown into Denver airport and went to my hotel, flipped on the tv to a PBS station--and they were doing a review of children's books--and just as I sat down getting ready to flip the channel they started talking about Twenty and Ten and about the true WWII story it was based on. The second book I'd looked for even LONGER than the first. I finally found it by checking in a number of other bulletin boards that did the same kind of thing as this GR group. Then I had to find copies of both books. The WWII story wasn't hard to find--and I even found a dvd version of the movie that was made about the real events. However finding the Monty and the Tree House book was a serious pain. Finally I found a copy on EBay, I believe it was, mixed in with a bunch of other children's books. So I learned to just keep plugging away, asking people if they'd ever heard of anything similar. :o)

Totally unrelated to your search, but, I had no idea they made a movie out of Twenty and Ten! This was one of my favorite books as a child. I'll have to track the movie down now; thanks, Ann!

Glad to help a little! And look, you helped Michelle. We're accomplishing something along the way!

Now where's that damn story...I'm so determined to find it!

Okay, I am finding a lot of references to "Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales" by Eirikr Magnusson and William Morris. Apparently this was a popular children's book.

The full text is here.

Ann, I'm unclear about your post. Did you find the exact book you were searching for? If so, please put it in the solved folder, or I'm happy to do that if you ask. Thanks.

No, just the Norse mythology her story is based on. This one's a toughie!

Thanks, Michelle. That's what I thought. I just didn't want the thread to get lost in the sea of threads. Staying where it is!

Michelle, the name of the movie is Miracle at Moreaux and stars Loretta Swit from MASH. Its on DVD, I think I got my copy from www.deepdiscount.com .

I loved that movie!!! I think it was made for tv. I didn't know that it was on DVD!

The movie seems to blend the real-life happenings with the book happenings. So its not quite the book, not quite real life.

And I too think it was made-for-TV. I only got it because of the tie in with Twenty and Ten

bumping this to see if anyone can come up with another idea for where to look

Bumping this up a bit

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Ann, I glanced at the Wikipedia article and guessed which characters might be the ones in the story you read (Hedinn and Hogni), did a google books search (books.google.com) on their names, and immediately found something by William Morris, who apparently translated/rewrote it in the 1890s or so. I don't think this what you're looking for, because it's not a retelling, but looking for updates of the Morris story gave me a ton of hits, so you might try a search on "Heddin Hogni modern version" or something like that?

Also, there's an Alan Garner YA novel from 1960s that deals with Norse mythology (_The Weirdstone of Brisingamen_) which I'm sure is not it, but maybe he wrote some short stories too?

Cera--I have a lot of Garner's YA novels. And I hadn't thought to do the search for modern versions using the main characters names. I don't think that the Morris story is what I'm looking for. Books written in the 1800s are not like "modern" books in tone and outlook and I definately remember this is having a fairly "modern" tone with the "Christian" man who broke the curse. I don't remember WHY I have this impression, just that I thought it was definately sat some time around when I read it--so possibly as early as the late 40's but more probably in the 60's or 70's.

I think I've read this book! Someone suggested it when I was looking for a DIFFERENT vaguely remembered children's book (which turned out to be Elidor by Alan Garner). However, I believe it is The Wind Eye, but Robert Westall.

CAthy--no that's not it. There are no children in the story that I remember. However, I have GOT to find a copy of this book, since it does sound interesting. I don't believe that St. Cuthbert (or any other saint) was involved in my story. Sorry--but at least I can say thanks for recommending a new book for me to track down. :o) Also this is probably too late for me to have read as a kid since the publishing date listed is 1977. I read this either in the mid to late 60's or very early 70's(like no later than 1973)

Oh, too bad! It's a neat book, though.

Ann, some more poking around has turned up a book by John D. Stuart called 'Twenty-Six Viking Stories' from 1926 -- I can't find out much more information about it, but since you said you might have read it in a collection I thought I'd mention it.

Sigh, well I can't even find this book listed on Amazon or Goodreads. But I'll keep searching for it.

No idea if this is it or not. But I have it in my head (probably wrongly) that the book was set around the time of either WWI or WWII, and I have NO Idea why I have that idea--that the Christian who saved them was a sailor from an Allied ship. Sigh, well, will just keep looking and hoping, right?

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They have some free Kindle versions on Amazon of Norse mythology that might help. http://www.amazon.com/Saemund-Sigfuss...

I have that book. But this was, as I said in my op, an updated version of the edda/story.

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bump (in honour of Halloween coming up)

Bump again since Halloween is only a few days away

Ann, On Sept 2, 2011, you mentioned that you were unable to find the book by John Stuart. I located one copy at the following site: http://www.antiqbook.co.uk/boox/vct/5...
Wish you luck in your search

Ann, if you want to try the knowledge of a different audience, you might ask this question over at TomatoNation.com. Their readers have had success finding books based on a few remembered details, like this: http://tomatonation.com/vine/the-vine...

Email your question to bunting at tomatonation dot com.

Mary--sent off an email--will see if I get any reply or not.

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After all this time I'm wondering if I actually read this story in a school collection. However, we have the added difficulty of--I went to 14 different schools in 12 years--yay for the U.S. Navy. And some of those weren't in the U.S. But the non-U.S. ones were British Foreign Services schools that were established back in the day when England had a major presence in a most of the world.

Bump--ah the eternal optimist. :o)

Bump again--sooner or later someone WILL remember this anthology.

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