Plot of The Shield Ring

In a broad historical context, the novel The Shield Ring deals with the last stronghold of the Vikings in Britain, at the end of the eleventh century. At that point in history, the Normans (of the Norman Conquest) had established their power and control over all of Britain, except for a small area still controlled by Viking chieftains called the Lake Land where for many years the Northmen had remained free. In this area, the Vikings practiced a culture very different from that of the Normans, their actual descendants in Normandy (France), who had become "refined" and "civilized."

The clash of the two cultures, one "refined," the other "barbaric", is part of what makes this novel dramatic, through the use of conflict. The main characters are Frytha, a Saxon child whose home the Normans burned to the ground, and Bjorn, a Viking boy without parents, whose adventures among the two cultures see their way to the final contest between the Vikings and the Normans for control of the area the Northmen possess.

This civil war is somewhat tragic, because it represents what we know to be the last stand of an adventurous and proud people against the forces of superior technology (

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captors' wishes. This, despite all that we learn about the Normans' gentility, does not fit in with the concept of Normans as modern, in any sense. In fact, they are as brutal, if not more so, than the Vikings, and this is what makes us hate them in the novel. The Vikings live in the mountains near the sea, their ancestral home. The Normans, on the other hand, are at the medieval stage where they enjoy castles and have brought the feudal system to Britain with them (pp. 149-150). They will, if possible, conquer the Vikings and if any survive will turn them into feudal serfs as well. The Saxons have lost the battle against William the Conqueror, and only the Northmen are left to be enslaved. The Vikings are pictured here as hard drinkers, preferring ale to wine, and one suspects that the closer they are to extinction, the more they want to drink and forget that soon they will join Odin in Valhalla (pp. 106-107). Their camaraderie is here evident, and their warrior tendencies make them come together in celebration of great deeds and mighty battles once fought. They have not forgotten their seafaring adventures, here remembered in detail. Not a literate people, they tell stories by mouth, in the oral tradition of any hu
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Meschin Norman, Viking Jarl, Valkyries Valhalla, Vikings Norman, American Civil, Saxons Vikings, Normans Arthurian, Odin Valhalla, Modern English, Norman King, viking jarl, social cultural institutions, shield ring, win day, social cultural, cultural institutions, northmen left, clash cultures, viking culture, novel britain, home normans,
Approximate Word count = 1602
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)