The Long Ships

by Frans G. Bengtsson

This book is probably worthy of a more detailed treatment, but I only have some scattered thoughts. First, how I heard of it: Michael Lewis was a guest on the Tim Ferris podcast, and TF asked him a great question: What books do you tend to give as gifts? This is better than asking, “What’s your favorite book?” or even, “What are you reading?” Michael Lewis listed a few, including The Long Ships and one called The Innocent Anthropologist (which I now have but haven’t read yet).

Orm is captured by Krok and his vikings as a young man; he is initially their slave, but deftly maneuvers into being a free member of the group. Here he meets his lifelong friend, Toke. Later, they are captured by soldiers of the Caliph, rowing his ships for years (always on the same side of the ship, so that their muscles become uneven, and eventually Orm finds it easier to fight left-handed!). Like Joseph or Daniel, Orm eventually goes from being a slave to a right-hand-man (or at least a trusted bodyguard). I won’t recount all the adventures from there on, but there are many, and although Orm always ends up on top, the stakes always seem real.

The book is so well-written that I expected it to make more of a point. The closest it comes is in a battle near the end (p. 498), when Orm is almost killed, and he is briefly euphoric at the thought that “his next night’s camp would be on heavenly ground.” When his assailant is killed from behind, “Orm fealt strangely weary… and stood there for a moment, looking about him.” It’s a brief moment, then back to the action.

But in this year of riots, looting, the coronavirus, and a polarizing Presidential election, this book was the perfect form of escapist literature for me. I don’t normally like escapism – at least, I think I don’t –, but getting caught up in the problems of fictional people a thousand years ago was a nice reprieve.