Dark Viking (32 page)

The entertainment that night amazed one and all as Viking women and men alike line danced to “Achy Breaky Heart,” “Boot Scootin‟ Boogie,” and a new ribald song, “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy,” except the words were changed to “Save a Longship, Ride a Viking.”

Eight months later, a large babe with black hair and silver eyes came howling into the world.

Steven proclaimed at his birth, with tears in his Viking eyes, that he would be named Thorfinn, after his brother. And he added that mayhap his son would one day travel the world in his very own longship . . . mayhap even to America.

Dear Readers:

Well,
Dark Viking
is the seventh in my Viking Navy SEAL series. What did you think?

When writing series, even if they are loosely linked and can be read out of order, a writer eventually comes to a point where she asks: “Should there be more?”

There are many pros. When readers like a particular “world” that a writer creates, whether it be vampires, a small lakeside town, a family, or Viking Navy SEALs, they want to return to it again and again. Almost like a situation drama or comedy on TV:
Seinfeld
,
Two and a Half
Men
,
Bones
,
NCIS
. They don‟t want the same story over and over, but they want the familiar setting and secondary characters.

I have a particular affection for each of the SEALs featured so far: Torolf (
Wet and Wild
), Ragnor (
Hot and Heavy
), Ian (
Down and Dirty
), Pretty Boy (
Rough and Ready
), Thorfinn (
Viking Unchained
), and the female SEALs, or WEALS, Joy Nelson (
Viking Heat
) and Rita Sawyer (
Dark Viking
). Most, or all of which, are still available new.

On the other hand, story lines can become stale.

Even so, I think there is a place for more Viking Navy SEALs. For example, Cage, JAM, Sly, Britta‟s sister Angelique, even F.U., yearn to tell you their stories. And by the way, have you checked out Scary Larry‟s novella, “Tomorrow Is Another Day” in the
Ladies Prefer
Rogues
anthology?

What do you think?

Please visit my website a
t www.sandrahill.net
to get my latest news, learn more about my books, view book videos, see genealogy charts, enter contests, and obtain freebies.

I love to hear from readers. You can contact me a
t [email protected].

As always I wish you smiles in your reading.

Sandra Hill
 

Althing (or Thing)
—an assembly of free Viking men from a wide area that made laws and enacted justice, forerunners of a legislative body, usually a festive affair as well, giving families and friends an opportunity to get together and share news and fun
Asgard
—home of the Aesir gods

Braies
—slim pants worn by men, breeches

Brudr-hlaup
—the bride running, a wedding ritual in which the groom chases the bride from the ceremony site to the great hall

Brynja
—flexible chain mail shirt

Companaticum
—“that which goes with bread,” which usually meant whatever was in the stockpot of thick broth, usually with chunks of meat, always simmering in the huge kitchen cauldron, which was, unfortunately, not cleaned out for long periods of time
Drukkinn (various spellings)
—drunk in Old Norse

Ell
—a measure, usually of cloth, equaling forty-five inches
Fillet
—band worn around the head

Hand
—four inches

Hauberk
—a long defensive shirt or coat, usually made of chain links or leather
Hectares
—unit of land measure equal to 2.471 acres

Heiman flygia
—the bride-price consisted of three payments: from the groom would come the
mundr
and
morgen gifu
, while the bride‟s parents provided the
heiman fylgia
Hersir
—military commander

Hide
—a primitive measure of land that originally equaled the normal holding that would support a peasant and his family, roughly 120 arable acres, but could actually be as little as 40

Hird
—permanent troop that a chieftain or nobleman might have
Hirdsman
—one of the hird

Housecarls
—troops assigned to a king‟s or lord‟s household on a longtime, sometimes permanent basis

Knarr
—a Viking merchant vessel, wider and deeper than a regular longship
More danico
—practice of having more than one wife

Morgengifu
—the morning after gift a husband gave his wife to show he was pleased
Niflheim, or Hel
—a dark misty region for the dead, similar to hell, except there was ice, snow, and eternal darkness

Norsemandy
—tenth-century name for Normandy

Northumbria
—one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, bordered by the English kingdoms to the south and in the north and northwest by the Scots, Cumbrians, and Strathclyde Welsh
Sennight
—one week

Skald
—poet

Thrall
—slave

Tun
—252 gallons, as in ale

Valhalla
—hall of the slain, Odin‟s magnificent hall in Asgard
Valkyries
—female warriors who did Odin‟s will

Vapnatak (or weapon clatter)
—at an Althing, the men indicated their votes by banging swords against shields

Wergild (or wergeld)
—a man‟s worth