The Wineland Sagas Book Three The Last Viking in Wineland: The Lost Viking Colonies of North America - Couverture souple

Franson, Milton Norman

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1536809837 ISBN 13 : 9781536809831

Editeur : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

Synopsis

It's been more than 250 years since Leif "The Lucky" first set foot somewhere on the North American coast. Now, in this final chapter of "The Wineland Sagas" Leif's descendants are in a life and death struggle to survive. The "lost" Viking colony is isolated and all but abandoned by their fellow Norse in Greenland and Iceland. Contact with the old Scandinavian kingdoms has been lost; their kings are locked in their own struggles for survival. A combination of overwhelming forces threaten the lost Viking colony. They are a small group of settlers amidst a sea of Native Americans, tribes that sometimes turn hostile to the Norse outsiders. Worse, Mother Nature has sent the "Little Ice Age" into the Northern Hemisphere and frozen the sea lanes between North America and Northern Europe. The colony's lifeline is being choked off. Ships carrying iron tools and weapons can no longer supply the westernmost Norse with these absolute necessities. Even Greenland and Iceland are threatened with isolation. How can Leif's struggling descendants survive in their beautiful but dangerous Wineland the Good? Can they maintain their European culture and identity or must they merge with the Native culture to survive. Just when it seems all is lost, a succession of strong-willed women and their tough-minded men rise to confront the obstacles thrown in their path. The old "Viking Spirit" seems to be revived and promises to rescue the lost colony. A fragile chain is forged to link them to the old motherland across the sea. The one lure that would attract European kings and turn their attention to the Winelanders is gold. But there is no gold in Wineland. Or is there something more valuable? It turns out the Wineland colony is home to the greatest concentration of piscatorial "gold" in the New World; cod, the Holy Fish of a hungry Catholic Europe. Once the word gets out, the great fishing nations of Western Europe scramble to grab the prize for themselves. Will the sea lanes thaw in time for Leif's old colony to be rescued by the Nordic kingdoms? Or will some other European power gain the upper hand? I turns out there is an even more dangerous threat to not only Leif's old colony, but also to the European kingdoms themselves. It arrives in the form of a small stowaway in the hold of a Venetian merchant ship. In the end, it is the Fates who decide the destiny of the last Vikings in Wineland.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

I was inspired to write my "Wineland Sagas" trilogy after reading the 13th century Icelandic sagas that record Leif Eiriksson's historic discovery and exploration of an area on the New England-Canadian Atlantic coast he named "Wineland the Good. What intrigued me was the part that was glaringly missing. We all know Leif came and looked around in 1000-1015. But then what? The old Icelandic sagas end there. After Leif, nothing. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to know that there was more to the story. So I researched the following centuries for clues that Vikings kept visiting North America. There wasn't much conclusive evidence; only a few clues. I decided to write an historical fiction novel based on what I imagined might have happened if Leif's descendants had built a colony, or at least a trading post and kept contact with Wineland the Good for several generations. Many of the characters are fictional; some are historical figures in fictional settings. Being a second/third generation Scandinavian-American, I've drawn on family relatives and cultural stereotypes for my "Viking spirit" characters. It's been great fun to imagine how these characters might have played their roles on my imagined Wineland stage. My writing career spans 30 plus years from a photo-journalist stint in the US Navy to copy writing and art directing in the advertising business. I live in beautiful upstate New York, between the Finger Lakes, Catskills and the Adirondacks where I enjoy hiking, biking, canoeing and generally appreciating this fabulous part of Leif's old Wineland the Good. When not enjoying our outdoor wonders with my wife, daughters and a Shi-Tzu named Rowan, I turn my imagination to the next alternative history story that I'm working on.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Date d'édition: 2016
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1536809837
• ISBN 13: 9781536809831
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 306
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.fr/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxembourg