Vinland: The Beginning

The Viking Age is in its final century. The Viking gods are fading, as the old world shifts to a new belief, and their sights, to new lands in the west.

Thorfinn, a merchant ship owner, has invested heavily in an Atlantic crossing to Vinland, hoping to establish a permanent presence, there, to trade with the Nordic countries and the native inhabitants.

Adam of Bremen, the monk whose presence, Thorfinn is suffering at the behest of his king is seeking Ari Marrson, in the new world; a supplanted and tyrannical leader of an independent monastic order called the Culdees. Ari uses religious relics to control the native population and takes what, and who, he wants.

Thorfinn’s wife, Gudrid is returning to the land that took the life of her first husband, Thorvald—son of Eirik the Red. The band of explorers, allegiant to the Eirikssons is with her, ready, to begin where they left-off twenty years earlier, a grave site at Kjalarness.

Their separate quests converge, seeking an underground cavern that hides an ancient city of gold, using a recovered map.

Winner of the 2008, IPPY bronze medal.