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The Long Ships

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The Long Ships

By: Frans G. Bengtsson, Michael Meyer, Michael Chabon
Narrated by: Michael Page
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About this listen

Bengtsson's hero, Red Orm-canny - courageous and above all lucky - is only a boy when he is abducted from his Danish home by the Vikings and made to take his place at the oars of their dragon-prowed ships. Orm is then captured by the Moors in Spain, where he is initiated into the pleasures of the senses and fights for the Caliph of Cordova. Escaping from captivity, Orm washes up in Ireland, where he marvels at those epicene creatures, the Christian monks, and from which he then moves on to play an ever more important part in the intrigues of the various Scandinavian kings and clans and dependencies. Eventually, Orm contributes to the Viking defeat of the army of the king of England and returns home an off-the-cuff Christian and a very rich man, though back on his native turf new trials and tribulations will test his cunning and determination.

Packed with pitched battles and blood feuds, and told throughout with wit and high spirits, Bengtsson's book is a splendid adventure that features one of the most unexpectedly winning heroes in modern fiction.

©1954, 2010 Frans G. Bengtsson; translation copyright 1954 by Michael Meyer; Introduction copyright 2010 by Michael Chabon (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Sea Adventures Adventure King Royalty Viking Vikings Historical Fiction

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Found the book a bit slow and boring to start but the enjoyment started, really enjoyed it because it was a little different to all he other Viking books I've listened to

Lucky Orm

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This book in my honest opinion is the father of all other Viking books whether it be The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell or Odinn's Child series by Tim Severin.This has everything Vikings,Gods,Saxons, and Muslims layered together to bring the 10/11th centuries back to life.

Amazing.A joy and a pleasure to listen to.

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The cheerful bloodthirstiness is very beguiling and the the characters are unexpected for a heroic epic, the main character being a hypochondriac Viking. I gave up listening to the book called "The Vikings" which I'd got hoping to learn a bit of Norse history and so I was especially happy to get a feel of the Viking world from "The Long Boats", which was never dull .

This is fun

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Written in the 1940s and translated from Swedish, the book reads as an epic adventure, but has the pace and plot of a modern best-seller.

An epic adventure.

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I read that this was voted the 3rd best novel ever written in the 1900’s in Sweden, where the author and History Professor Frans G Bengtsson was from. It did not disappoint, a true classic!
Strongly recommended to anyone who is interested in Vikings or a vivid account of what life was like in Northern Europe at that time.

A timeless Viking classic

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I found the way that some of the words were pronounced was quite distracting - for example in UK English plait is generally pronounced 'platt', and the reader pronounced portage in the French manner, with a soft 'g'. Confusing!

Marvellous story, pronunciations a bit strange

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I wish I had known of this book yrs ago as it is older than I. 5days after purchasing, by coincidence bbc2 showed the 1964 film version and as Hollywood's want, did it no justice, narrated as if listening to an old friend I found I could listen into the early hrs as if listening to his experience, such is the writing so good to create a piece of extraordinary literature

an epic saga

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I first read The Long Ships many years ago after discovering it on a library shelf. It was a joy to read and this wonderful narration only adds to the enjoyment of the story.

An excellent book. Highly recommended.

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Simply the best Viking sagas I have heard a must for anyone who’s interest has been spiked by the many great stories told about this era.
I cannot praise this story high enough because unlike this author I have not got the words.

There needs to be more stars for this book

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great story and I enjoyed as much the third time as the first. Well worth the read and the price.

Red Orm

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