Book Review of the Oath of Bjorn by Tamara Goranson

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(Book 3 of the Vinland Viking Saga.)

(This review is based on a free review copy from the publisher via Net Galley UK.)

This is an historical novel about a clash of cultures between Norsemen (whose own culture was largely based around clashing with other cultures) and native American “Red Men” (who started without a concept of any culture which behaved in fundamentally different ways to their own). The two cultures had many things in common: family, clan and “tribe” meant pretty much the same things and whilst nationhood meant nothing to the Red Men, it didn’t really register on the Norse list of priorities either: the two Norse leaders (“helmsmen”) in the story may piously hope for some sort of reward from the King of Norway for claiming “Vinland” for him, but at no point does either behave as if the King might hold them accountable for their treacherous and violent conduct in pursuit of his favour. In this lies the explanation for why Norsemen ventured both far (Vinland) and near (Scotland) for people and lands to exploit and conquer: they were far too dangerous to each other to make remaining quietly at home a sustainable lifestyle choice.

The Red Men, though, having no previous experience of men with different measures of honour and, more especially, no respect for creation and straight dealing, suffer very badly for taking the Norsemen on trust in the expectation that they will act in good faith. (Although, part of the trouble is the Norse faith in an afterlife that rewards warriors more than hunters or fishermen.) Once the Red Men understand that they have been cheated and played for fools, their anger is great and so is their determination to punish the Norse, but Norse culture is based on the need to WIN the sort of conflict which Red Men can hardly believe is happening.

The Bjorn of this story has a Norse mother and has been brought up by a Red Man stepfather. This gives him a foot in both camps (there’s a remarkably expressive word in Afrikaans for this, which I decline to use here.) Bjorn spends most of the story attempting the impossible, which is to obey the honour codes of both cultures at the same time, and he’s also struggling against his own inadequacies in that not only is he dwarfed by the human factors which are in conflict: he’s also pretty inconsequential in the face of natural forces which the Red Men have to interact with for so much of their lives that they don’t have much to spare time in which to fight other men.

Only when everything goes wrong and all Bjorn can do is save his own life and that of his wife by doing a deal with the man he hates the most, does he realise that the forces in conflict between nature, Red Men and Norsemen are so great that living long enough to go somewhere else and try something else is not only the best that he can do: it’s the only salvation for any of the protagonists still alive at that point.

This is a good read, but it’s not a quick nor an easy read.

The Oath of Bjorn by Tamara Goranson was published by Harper Collins (One More Chapter) on the 1^st of December 2023.