A Burning Blade

by J. C. Duncan Book 5 in the The Light of the North Saga series.

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In the alternate year 1121, Denmark and Norway have submitted to the crusaders, while resistance survives only in the forests and hills of central Sweden. Gjaldir, once a slave and now a war leader, regains the star-forged sword known as the Light of the North. With kings dead and formal armies scattered, he must turn ordinary people and isolated warbands into a force capable of challenging foreign rule.

Gjaldir's possession of the sword gives the resistance a symbol, but a symbol cannot replace food, recruits or political unity. With royal authority broken, he must persuade scattered communities to cooperate against occupiers who already control the strongest centres. The novel treats insurgency as a problem of rebuilding trust after defeat, where preserving a cause depends upon ordinary survivors accepting new risks.