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Brilliant comic novel about life in Viking Sweden. Those Vikings were real tough dudes.

My favorite bit is the sequence with Orm's first captain, who has a run of bad luck and ends up being captured and sold into slavery. The overseer knows he used to be a big guy and takes special delight in tormenting him, but the former captain waits for his chance. One day, while they're working in a shipyard, they're close to a barrel of boiling pitch; he picks up the hated overseer and dumps him in, head-first. He's immediately run through with three spears, but has time for some last words. He looks calmly around him and says:

Nu är min lycka bättre

My luck has finally improved.
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I have just finished re-reading this wonderful book; I have now read it three times. There is hardly any novel I know which is so simply enjoyable.

The author said that his modest goal was "to wrote a good story, like The Odyssey or The Three Musketeers". In my estimation, and that of many others, he succeeded; he has also been fortunate in having found a good translator, and the English edition, though not quite as fine as the Swedish original, does not fall far short. If you have not already done so, I recommend that you lose no more time in acquainting yourself with Orm Tostesson, Toke Grågulleson, the lord Almansur, the Jew Salaman, King Harald Blåtand, his beautiful daughter Ylva, and their many unforgettable adventures.