CHRONICLES OF ANGELCYNN
Leah Kelley
Medieval Outsiders
> Saxon women, kidnapped and enslaved by Vikings
> The son of such a woman, half Viking, half Saxon
> Other bastards, usually the children of noblemen and slavewomen
Kate (KB - Kate Burns) asked me if I'd been reading anything suitable for Med Mysts cos she wanted me to write another review and I said I'd been reading this book, Chronicles of Angelcynn, and it was suitable in a way. It's set in the time of King Alfred the Great and the Danes and the Vikings, but on the other hand perhaps it's not suitable because it's marked as adult reading. She poo-poo'd that, so here goes - again!
It is in three parts - three Books, like The Last Mermaid - and the first Book is about Megan and Erik. Megan is the bastard daughter of a Saxon nobleman and because her half-brother Torin likes her she is brought up as one of the family. But before Torin spoke out for her she had known life as a slave - until she was ten, I think.
Torin is a man. Me, I like men who are men. I also like men who are not men, but I wouldn't marry one. Of course, in those days a girl married who she was told to marry, but that's another question, and later (when Torin is off fighting Vikings), King Alfred and her father arrange a marriage for her which is important to them but the man she is to wed is half-Viking and a pagan and has a horrible reputation.
Megan runs away. She is hoping to find Torin, and that he will save her, but what chance does a girl have without a strong-armed protector?
Down by the docks she is captured and sold as a slave. She comes into the hands of a Viking chieftain, Erik, and - silly girl, but who can blame her? - falls in love with him. What will happen to her now? She is a woman in the ultimate man's world so nothing good (apart from some good sex) is likely to happen to her unless she is very, very lucky.
Later in the book we read about her brother Torin and his love, Juliana. I liked Juliana, she's more like me in some ways than Megan, and she gets into even more trouble. Torin, as we already know, is a big hard man and Juliana has a painful time of it if she is cheeky or disobedient but this is no doubt how things were and it's no use pretending the Saxons and Vikings were politically correct, is it? Anyway, thinking about it, it seems to me that what's PC in one century won't be at all PC in another century, or even in another place. Erik even has to pretend to thrash Megan at one point when he doesn't want to but is supposed to do so and if he doesn't there will be trouble from the other men - and women!
There are no graphic descriptions of sex [as there are in many of the books on this site which are NOT marked as adult reading by their publishers - KB] but there are graphic descriptions of Megan and Juliana and others getting their bottoms spanked. If you don't like that, don't read this book. Personally, I enjoyed it very much.
BE
