The Shield Ring

About this book

High in the mountains of the Lake District is a secret valley where the Vikings have their last stronghold--their Shield Ring. The Normans seek to crush this group of Northmen and to bring all of England under their control. They build a castle in Carlisle and send an army north. Meanwhile the Northmen lamb and harvest as though life were normal but Ari Knudson sharpens Wave-flame and the Jarl prepares his War Host. Two youths of the village--Frytha a Saxon girl who fled to the valley when the Normans burned her home and Bjorn the foster-son of the old harper--make ready too. As the Normans approach the secret valley the Northmen recruit able bodies and Bjorn volunteers to enter the Norman camp as a spy. Frytha knows Bjorns deepest fear: that if he is captured he will fall to Norman torture and reveal the location of the Shield Ring.