When Miami Vice began back in the ‘80s, the ‘elevator pitch’ given to investors was ‘MTV Cops!’ The elevator pitch for this story is ‘Time Traveling Vikings!’ It came about from the History Channel series Vikings. I’m a sucker for period pieces, especially ones involving mayhem and mishap. The series was about the story of Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and was horrendously inaccurate. (He led the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 and the Siege of Paris in 845 - 53 years later? His brother, Rollo, becomes the first Duke of Normandy, but that particular Rollo wasn’t born until 870. Etc, etc, etc!)
Still, as I said, I’m a sucker for historical pieces and I put this one on my Record list on the DVR. So, I had to wonder, what would happen if some of Ragnar’s buddies showed up via a time warp or something? Here’s my version. I hope you like it!
One of the most difficult and challenging parts of this story was combining three different languages, Old Norse, English, and American. For Old Norse I was able to find some online translators and dictionaries, and occasionally faked it with some Icelandic. Sorry if you actually read Old Norse and find my mistakes. I don’t plan to rewrite it. As for English versus American, both George Bernard Shaw and Henry Higgins had much to say about the differences in the languages. I had some Englishmen edit that, and they pointed out some errors and I changed them. As for those who find the different languages distracting, just as many have found it interesting and informative. Too late to change now.
For those curious, my standard publishing schedule is Tuesday and Friday.
Enjoy!