Styrbiorn the Strong

Drawing on the medieval Norse sagas he studied all his life, Eddison retells the story of Styrbiorn, the proud young prince cheated of the Swedish throne by his uncle Eric the Victorious. Cast out from his birthright, Styrbiorn wins fame among the fierce Jomsviking warriors, takes a fleet north, and drives toward the reckoning that awaits him on the field of Fyrisvellir. Written in the stark, ringing, deliberately old-fashioned prose Eddison loved, the novel captures the fatalism and hard glory of the tenth-century sea kings, where honor is everything and every man knows his doom. Readers who came to Eddison through The Worm Ouroboros will recognize his grand heroic manner here in a historical key. Available as a free PDF and EPUB edition.