West Oversea: A Norse Saga of Mystery, Adventure and Faith

In the year 1001, King Olaf Trygvesson is dead, but his sister's husband, Erling Skjalgsson, carries on his dream of a Christian Norway that preserves its traditional freedoms. Rather than do a dishonorable deed, Erling relinquishes his power and lands. He and his household board ships and sail west to find a new life with Leif Eriksson in Greenland. This voyage, though, will be longer and more dangerous than they ever imagined. It will take them to an unexplored country few Europeans have seen. Demonic forces will pursue them, but the greatest danger of all may be in a dark secret carried by Father Aillil, Erling's Irish priest.

About the Author :
Lars Walker is a native of Kenyon, Minnesota, and lives in Minneapolis. He has worked as a crabmeat packer in Alaska, a radio announcer, a church secretary and an administrative assistant, and is presently librarian and bookstore manager for the schools of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations in Plymouth, Minnesota. He is the author of four previously published novels, and is the editor of the journal of the Georg Sverdrup Society. Walker says, "I never believed that God gave me whatever gifts I have in order to entertain fellow Christians. I want to confront the world with the claims of Jesus Christ."

Review :
West Oversea is a gripping Viking saga. Lars Walker understands the unique Norse mindset at the time of the Vikings' conversion to Christianity, and he tells a tale of seafaring adventure and exploration of new worlds that will keep you on the edge of your chair - and make you think. -- Dr. John Eidsmoe, Colonel, Alabama State Defense Force Lars Walker knows not only his Norse history, but Viking society, manners and technology as well, making the book a painless education in the ancient world's ways of living and thinking. Viking means literally pirate hiding up a creek, and we are so used to thinking of the Vikings as one-dimensional rape-and-pillage merchants we often forget their other aspects, as great traders and explorers, with certain highly-developed arts...[All] that they scorned, as a term of insult, a straw death--that is, dying on bed rather than in battle. A Viking under a great debt to another man tells him: "You may ask anything of me. Anything at all, save my honour." That last qualification is of supreme importance. It would be their descendants, the steel-clad ranks of Norman ("Northman") and medieval chivalry who, in the following centuries, saved Europe by providing the backbone of the ranks of the Crusaders. Indeed, we may see here the crusaders' valour and chivalry in embryo. Lars Walker shows brilliance in taking us into the skulls and skins of those incredibly daring, but often cruel and treacherous, men and women of the ancient world, battling not only the elements and hostile natives, but all the manifold bogies of paganism with nothing but sinews, courage by the ship-load, a little dawning technological knowledge, and a partly understood Christianity, to which they cling--or some of them do--with a childlike, touching faith, in a world where supernatural terrors are embodied all about them. As one would expect with seafarers of such a time and place, there are touches of theological discussion, but these never become heavy or boring. -- Hal Colebatch, Perth Australia winner of the West Australian Premiera Literary Prize