Theodore Brun

Theodore Brun is a British historical novelist whose work combines early medieval history with elements drawn from Germanic and Norse legend. He studied Dark Age archaeology at the University of Cambridge before working in international arbitration law in London, Moscow, Paris and Hong Kong. In 2010 he left his legal career and cycled more than 10,000 miles from Hong Kong back to Britain, where he began writing his first novel. His Danish family background and interest in Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Norse mythology and early Scandinavian history helped shape the fictional world he subsequently created.

Brun is best known for The Wanderer Chronicles, an historical-fantasy series set in eighth-century Scandinavia on the eve of the Viking Age. The sequence begins with A Mighty Dawn, followed by A Sacred Storm, A Burning Sea and A Savage Moon. The novels follow Erlan Aurvandil through a violent world of rival kings, warriors, feuds and shifting loyalties, while incorporating mythology and supernatural elements alongside the reconstructed historical setting. Brun therefore sits somewhat between conventional historical fiction and historical fantasy: the social and material world is based on early medieval Scandinavia, but the stories deliberately exploit the uncertain boundary between history, saga and myth.