High Kings and Vikings [Paperback]

Nigel G. Tranter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1998

As Christendom approached the first Millennium, conflict and war prevailed throughout a troubled Scotland. The population remained under constant threat from bloodthirsty Viking raids, and the High Kings of Scots came and went, their brief reigns usually coming to a violent end. In 995, young Cormac mac Farquhar, newly succeeding his father as Thane of Glamis, was to find himself reluctantly caught up in the misfortunes of the ruling monarch, Kenneth the Second, and the ensuing national chaos. But little did Cormac know that out of his legacy of hatred, he would find unexpected happiness.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

One of Scotland's best-loved authors, Nigel Tranter wrote over ninety novels on Scottish history. He died at the age of ninety on 9 January 2000.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340696699
• ISBN-13: 978-0340696699
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,934,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Good Historical Novel by Tranter, March 4, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: High Kings and Vikings (Paperback)

After reading Tranter's Kenneth (an excellent book about Kenneth Mac Alpin, uniter of Scotland and Pictland, in the 9th century), I wanted to have the story continued. This is Nigel Tranter's next book, chronologically. It begins about 150 years later, with Scotland challenged internally (with mormaors vying to be High King, assassinations, and battles with Viking marauders). Tranter (who was about 90 when he wrote this historical novel) tells the story in a compelling way. It is hard to put the book down, with warfare (both on land and at sea), romance, and intrigue present on almost every page.

Cormac (Thane of Glamis) and his love, Fenella (niece of the Mormaor of Angus) are the central characters, but famous present and future Scottish kings play a large role in the book as well: There is MacBeth (meaning Son of Life), who is the Mormaor of Moray and Ross at this point; Constantine (the noble High King, who is killed by a mormaor); and the memorable Malcolm the Destroyer (yet another High King of Scotland). There also is the half-Scottish, half-Norse Thorfinn Raven-Feeder, who is another fascinating character. Their battles and negotiations with each other, and with the norsemen and the Angles are interesting indeed.

I liked Tranter's accounts of the Viking raids, and the horrible consequences for the common people along the coasts of Scotland, as well as the capturing of their longships by Cormac and his men, and their use by the Scots against their various enemies. Some minor criticisms: I wished that Tranter had devised at least one storm for the Scots to go through in their new vessels, but there was nothing worse than some rain; there also was no mention of what happened to the longship that Ian the Wright of Usan, Scotland built; there was no mention of what happened to the Mormaor of Mar, after he supported the vanquished High King, Kenneth III, immediately after Kenneth's defeat (he apparently emerged later as a great supporter of the new High King, Malcolm).

All in all, however, I enjoyed this book very much, and look forward to reading more of Nigel Tranter's works.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read, April 30, 2000

By 

steven moss - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Kings and Vikings (Paperback)

Nigel Tranter does an excellent job in bringing Scotland circa 1000 A.D. to life. Seen from the viewpoint of Cormac, Thane of Glamis, Tranter writes an enjoyable story of a young man coming into his own, both as a politician and as a fighter of vikings. I didn't give it five stars for the sole reason that the main character was too "modern" in his outlook, but not irritatingly so. I highly recommend it.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Low kings and pokings, March 4, 2002

By 

Suetonius (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Kings and Vikings (Paperback)

"O'er the wires the electric message came: he is no better, he is much the same."

It would be unkind to lump Tranter with his fellow Scot, the poetaster McGonagall; although an author who, straight-faced, can come up with a title such as the one that graces this novel has only himself to blame. It's true that some of Tranter's vast output can be mildly diverting, if you don't mind historical and literary tone-deafness. His characters, whatever their names and titles, are unfortunately always the same: a small cast of modern people with modern attitudes, transported back five or ten centuries and endowed with an irritating repertoire of cod Olde English. (What of this of Master Tranter? Gey gordon it is, and, and, not so ill, just, all agreeing ...) I recall in one of his books an embassy to the court of Henry VII taking offence at being called Scotch instead of Scots. This would have been meaningless much before the twentieth century. It's a kind of unhistorical political correctness. Scott and Burns both called themselves Scotch; and Scotsmen unaffected by genteel Edinburgh preciosity still do. Other times he makes a big thing about how the Scots were more salt-of-the-earth than the English because they didn't call their kings 'Majesty'. Neither did the English, until Henry VIII picked it up from the French.

I like historical novels. There are some good ones among the dross, and a few very good ones. The best you can say for this book is that it isn't one of the worst. If you really like it - if you think it's something more than a written-by-numbers Cook's tour of the Scottish Dark Ages - there's no more to be said. Actually, Tranter wrote only one historical novel: "Balefire", set in the sixteenth-century Borders. I remember liking that when I read it aged thirteen. All the rest is repetition. Meanwhile, novelists with real historical feeling and originality, like Robert Neill or Henry Treece (you might like them if you could read them), are long out of print.