As I attempt to finish up this little series of posts on American themes in my Viking novels, it would make sense to try to trace some direct lines between Erling Skjalgsson’s career and the birth of the American republic. This might seem far-fetched, but the Norse are not aliens to us. The Vikings aren’t just the ancestors of Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes. They established permanent enclaves in a number of European countries, notably (for the purposes of this discussion) Scotland and England.

I’m rather surprised, in looking through my personal library, to find very little written about the permanent cultural influence of the Vikings in these places. But I do find hints.

Arthur Herman’s book How the Scots Invented the Modern World* highlights how the Scottish Enlightenment informed the thinking of the men who made the American Revolution. Is it pure coincidence that much of Scotland—especially the Northern Isles and the Highlands—was heavily settled by freedom-loving Norse, with a tradition of representative democracy? Continue reading By the dawn's Erling light, Part 3 →

Erling Skjalgsson (hero of my novels, The Year Of the Warrior and West Oversea to date) has held an ambivalent position in Norwegian historical memory. As a deadly opponent of King Olaf Haraldsson (who became St. Olaf, Norway’s patron saint) he landed on the wrong side of history. More than one historian has baldly called him a traitor.

And yet he never came under the kind of opprobrium that fell on his kinsman Thore Hund (Thore the Hound), who was one of Olaf’s killers. The Erling we meet in Heimskringla, a history which held a place next to the Bible in Norwegian homes, was just too attractive. To put it bluntly, St. Olaf looks rather shoddy next to Erling in Snorri Sturlusson’s account. Erling is tall, handsome, a liberator of slaves, and famously heroic. Olaf is short, fat, stubborn, proud, and rather vicious.

There’s sometimes a hint in the sagas (less in Heimskringla than in some others) that Olaf’s conflict with Erling and his kinsmen and allies was about the Christian faith. Doubtless that was how Olaf saw it too, since he was the kind of man who believed himself to be ordained by God, and that his enemies were God’s enemies.

But that wasn’t true. It was about government. It was about liberty, personal and regional rights, and a republican form of government.

It was a very American conflict, centuries in advance. Continue reading By the dawn's Erling light, Part 2 →

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. Continue reading George Washington on Unity of Government and Need for Morality →

. . . in times of war and peace, thank you. We owe you deep gratitude for our unique liberty.

Photo: PowerPee/Flikr

Whether you fought the bad guys or kept watch on our borders, thank you for your service.

Photo: soyboy7/Flickr

Phil has suggested that I write about the American political themes in my Erling Skjalgsson novels. This had never occurred to me, but it’s an excellent idea, because I have indeed had our American republic much in mind as I wrote.

There’s a scene in my novel The Year of the Warrior, where the missionary king Olaf Trygvesson is talking to some Norwegian farmers, trying to persuade them to convert to Christianity. One of the reasons he gives for converting is the glory and wealth of the Christian countries. He speaks of the great cathedrals and palaces in England and France, beside which the low wooden halls of the Norse were unimpressive.

This is emblematic, I think, of a political difference that runs through history, a problem that’s been solved in various ways. How do men live together in a society? Will there be freedom (which can become anarchy), or will one central authority control everything (which can become tyranny)?

In the days of the Romans, and later in the early Middle Ages, there was a division between the Latin cultures—those descended from the Roman empire—and the Germanic cultures, which were generally democratic in nature. I might symbolize them by the Roman palace or basilica, and the Norwegian hall. Continue reading By the dawn's Erling light, Part 1 →

WORLD Magazine reports that Mosab Hassan Yousef has been granted asylum in the United States. The son of a Hamas founder, he turned against terrorism, spied for Israel, and embraced Christianity. Youself had been threatened with deportation for his past terrorist associations. That would certainly have resulted in his murder.

In his book, Yousef describes growing up admiring Hamas and hating Israel. He said he bought machine guns and a handgun in 1996, but the guns didn’t work and he was arrested by Israeli forces before he killed anyone.

Yousef says he started working with Shin Bet after witnessing Hamas brutalities in prison that left him disillusioned. He gravitated toward Christianity after his release in 1997, joining a study group after a chance encounter with a British tourist at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.

Thank God. Thank God.

DISCOVER Magazine reports on scientists who are studying a unique form of sign language, developed by deaf schoolchildren in Nicaragua. The researchers are discovering new things about the power of language, and the very real effects it has on how we think about our world (or don’t).

This is a fascinating result, especially since the first group of adults were older and had been signing for a longer time. It’s clear evidence that our spatial reasoning skills depend, to an extent, on consistent spatial language. If we lack the right words, our mental abilities are limited in a way that extra life experience can’t fully compensate for. Even 30 years of navigating through the world won’t do the trick.

Tip: Mirabilis.