Sword of the War God

Name: Sword of the War God
Rating: 4.44 (767 reviews)

by Tim Hodkinson

First published 2024

Amazon

4.4(767)

Europe, beginning in AD 436. Roman forces allied with the Huns destroy the Burgundian kingdom, kill its ruler and scatter its people. A legendary treasure disappears in the destruction, including a sword believed to make its bearer unbeatable.

Years later Attila seeks the weapon while Rome struggles to resist his expanding power. Flavius Aetius turns to an enigmatic one-eyed warlord and a band whose stories echo later Germanic and Norse legend. Their pursuit of the sword moves towards the confrontation on the Catalaunian Plains, blending the political collapse of the western empire with traditions that would become part of the Nibelung and Odin cycles.

The historical framework joins late Roman politics with traditions later preserved in heroic legend. Aetius really relied on Hunnic and Germanic allies before becoming Attila’s principal Roman opponent, while the destruction of the Burgundian kingdom contributed to stories that entered the Nibelung tradition. The novel deliberately works in the uncertain space where fifth-century events and later myth begin to overlap.