Yesterday I posted about my new novel, which is out on April 11. The book is historical fiction set in the early half of the Fifth Century AD. This was a truly fascinating time: The Saxons began crossing the sea to Britain, the Roman Empire was on its last legs, struggling to survive against waves of barbarian invasions, the Huns came from the East. Legendary figures such as King Arthur or Saint Patrick, if they existed, lived through all this, as well as others like Atilla, Guðrún and Gunnar, Sigurd the dragon slayer and many others. Their adventures inspired Old Norse Sagas like Saga of the Völsungs, the medieval German epic The Nibelungenlied and modern works from the operas of Richard Wagner to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
Sword of the War God takes those legends and places them back into the historical context in which they happened.
Over the next few days I will post short introductions to the main characters, starting with the “Little Daddy” himself, Atilla the Hun.
Atilla
King of the Huns, Atilla grew up in a warrior culture where mercy was a sign of weakness and life was a brutal game of survival of the most ruthless, even when your rivals were your own flesh and blood. He and his brother were joint kings of the Huns, a restless people with an empire that was expanding as fast as their horses could ride. The Huns had two rulers so as to stop one king ever getting above himself and going mad with power. Employed by the Romans as mercenaries, the Huns are quick to see the decadent, rotting facade the Empire has become. All it would take are a few heavy blows to bring it to the ground. Atilla wants the world and when the Roman Emperor’s sister offers herself to him as his bride, he has the justification to take it.
Bleda, Atilla’s brother and fellow King of the Huns, disagrees. He thinks they should first milk the Empire dry, and after all he is the elder brother. Atilla is not the sort of man who would let that sort of thing get in the way, however. If he were sole king of the Huns he would not have to worry what Bleda thought…
Atilla’s name means “Little Daddy”, a clue perhaps to the sort of man he was, or what might have driven him in his endless quest to be king of the world or to have the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife. The Burgundar tribe possess a fabulous treasure, the Rhine Gold, said to be worth half the wealth of a kingdom. Atilla wants that too.
And then there is the Sword of the War God, the magical weapon that shows Devine approval of however bears it as king of the Huns. Atilla wants that more than everything. The only problem is, it disappeared, stolen during a Burgundar ambush of a previous king of the Huns on the banks of the Rhine.
Tomorrow I'll post about another character from the book.
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Atilla
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