Book
Blood Feud
First published 1976
England, in the tenth century. Jestyn is captured by Northmen and carried into slavery, but his life becomes bound to the household of the young Viking Hakon rather than ending in simple servitude. An accidental killing draws both men into a blood feud whose demands follow them across the trading and raiding routes of the Viking world.
Their flight eventually leads through Rus territories to Constantinople, where Norse warriors serve the Byzantine emperor and rebellion threatens the capital’s authority. Jestyn encounters a society whose laws, faith and imperial scale challenge the assumptions of his earlier life. The novel contrasts the inherited obligation of vengeance with forms of loyalty chosen through friendship, service and the possibility of belonging to more than one culture.
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