Raven’s Wind

by Victor Canning

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3.6(11)

Justus, a young man from the Dorset marshlands, is captured by Danish raiders and carried into slavery. Separated from Riada and from his own community, he survives by learning the specialised craft of shipbuilding. The knowledge gained in captivity eventually allows him to construct a vessel, escape and return to an England threatened by continuing Viking attack.

Justus enters the service of Alfred of Wessex and applies Scandinavian shipbuilding methods to the king’s attempt to defend his realm by sea as well as on land. The novel combines a long-separated love story with raids, enslavement, naval development and the consolidation of Alfred’s authority. Although its central craftsman is fictional, the setting draws on the late ninth-century struggle between Wessex and Danish forces and on the practical exchange of technology created by war, migration and captivity.