Scotland's Last Viking - Tom Allan

This is a racy, graphic, personal account of the life of Svein Asleifsson, the Orkney and Caithness 12th century viking. The first-person narrative is written in a form of Scots which includes Norse-derived Orkney and Caithness dialects, giving authenticity to events and evoking a long-lost era. Asleifsson was the last of the great Viking pirates based in the north of Scotland. He was feared and admired throughout the British Isles. The story tells of his everyday life; his turbulent relations with the Earls of Orkney and Caithness and the Kings of Scotland; his shifting alliances and fortunes; and his viking raids around the coasts of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, culminating in his death in Dublin in 1171. We follow his career as murderer, outlaw, conspirator, and confidant of the great Norse Earls. The novel pays homage to the Icelandic 'Orkneyinga Saga', written around A.D.1200, but provides an original twist to it and takes it in a new direction.