The Long Ships
Authors: Frans G. Bengtsson
FRANS G. BENGTSSON
(1894–1954) was born and raised in the southern Swedish province of Skåne, the son of an estate manager. His early writings, including a doctoral thesis on Geoffrey Chaucer and two volumes of poetry written in what were considered antiquated verse forms, revealed a career-long interest in historical literary modes and themes. Bengtsson was a prolific translator (of
Paradise Lost, The Song of Roland
, and
Walden
), essayist (he published five collections of his writings, mostly on literary and military topics), and biographer (his two-volume biography of Charles XII won the Swedish Academy’s annual prize in 1938). In 1941 he published
Roede Orm, sjoefarare i vaesterled
(Red Orm on the Western Way), followed, in 1945, by
Roede Orm, hemma i oesterled
(Red Orm at Home and on the Eastern Way). The two books were published in a single volume in the United States and England in 1955 as
The Long Ships
. During the Second World War, Bengtsson was outspoken in his opposition to the Nazis, refusing to allow for a Norwegian translation of
The Long Ships
while the country was still under German occupation. He died in 1954 after a long illness.
MICHAEL MEYER
(1921–2000) was a translator, novelist, biographer, and playwright, best known for his translations of the works of Ibsen and Strindberg. His biography of Ibsen won the Whitbread Prize for Biography in 1971.
MICHAEL CHABON
is the author of ten books, including
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, The Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Klay, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
, and
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son
. He lives in Berkeley, California.
THE LONG SHIPS
FRANS G. BENGTSSON
Translated from the Swedish by
MICHAEL MEYER
Introduction by
MICHAEL CHABON
NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS
New York
P
ROLOGUE
.
How the shaven men fared in Skania in King Harald Bluetooth’s time
I
Concerning Thane Toste and his household
II
Concerning Krok’s expedition, and how Orm set forth on his first voyage
III
How they sailed southwards, and how they found themselves a good guide
IV
How Krok’s men came to Ramiro’s kingdom, and how they paid a rewarding visit
V
How Krok’s luck changed twice, and how Orm became left-handed
VI
Concerning the Jew Solomon and the Lady Subaida, and how Orm got his sword Blue-Tongue
VII
How Orm served Almansur, and how he sailed with St. James’ bell
IX
How King Harald Bluetooth celebrated Yule
XI
Concerning the wrath of Brother Willibald, and how Orm tried his hand at wooing
XII
How Orm came home from his long voyage
P
ART
T
WO
: IN KING ETHELRED’S KINGDOM
I
Concerning the battle that was fought at Maldon, and what came after it
III
Concerning marriage and baptism, and King Ethelred’s silver
IV
How Brother Willibald taught King Sven a maxim from the Scriptures
P
ART
T
HREE
: IN THE BORDER COUNTRY
I
How Orm built his house and church and how they named his red-haired daughters
II
How they planned a christening feast for King Harald’s grandson
III
Concerning the strangers that came with salt, and how King Sven lost a head
IV
How Orm preached to the salt-peddler
V
Concerning the great christening feast, and how the first Smalanders came to be baptized
VI
Concerning four strange beggars, and how the Erin Masters came to Father Willibald’s assistance
VII
Concerning the King of Sweden’s sword-bearer, and the magister from Aachen and his sins
VIII
Concerning the sinful magister’s second sin and the penance to which he was condemned for it
IX
How the magister searched for heifers and sat in a cherry tree
X
Concerning the women’s doings at the Kraka Stone, and how Blue-Tongue’s edge became dented
XII
Concerning the Thing at the Kraka Stone
I
Concerning the end of the world, and how Orm’s children grew up
II
Concerning the man from the East
III
Concerning the story of the Bulgar gold
IV
How they planned to get the gold
V
How they sailed to the Gotland Vi
VI
How they rowed to the Dnieper
VII
Concerning what happened at the weirs
IX
Concerning their journey home, and how Olof Summerbird vowed to become a Christian
X
How they settled accounts with the crazy magister
XI
Concerning the great hounds’ chase
Copyright and More Information
IN MY CAREER as a reader I have encountered only three people who knew
The Long Ships
, and all of them, like me, loved it immoderately. Four for four: from this tiny but irrefutable sample I dare to extrapolate that this novel, first published in Sweden during the Second World War, stands ready, given the chance, to bring lasting pleasure to every single human being on the face of the earth.
The record of a series of three imaginary but plausible voyages (inter rupted by a singularly eventful interlude of hanging around the house) undertaken by a crafty, resourceful, unsentimental, and mildly hypochondriacal Norseman named “Red Orm” Tosteson,
The Long Ships
is itself a kind of novelistic
Argos
aboard which, like the heroes of a great age, all the strategies deployed by European novelists over the course of the preceding century are united—if not for the first, then perhaps for the very last time. The Dioscuri of nineteenth-century realism, factual precision and mundane detail, set sail on
The Long Ships
with nationalism, medievalism, and exoticism for shipmates, brandishing a banner of nineteenth-century romance; but among the heroic crew mustered by Frans Bengtsson in his only work of fiction is an irony as harsh and forgiving as anything in Dickens, a wit and skepticism worthy of Stendhal, an epic Tolstoyan sense of the anti-epic, and the Herculean narrative drive, mighty and nimble, of Alexandre Dumas. Like half the great European novels,
The Long Ships
is big, bloody, and far-ranging, concerned with war and treasure and the grand deeds of men and kings; like the other half, it is intimate and domestic, centered firmly around the seasons and pursuits of village and farm, around weddings and births, around the hearths of women who see only too keenly through the grand pretensions of men and bloody kings.