Meet My Protagonists....Sold to the Viking Warrior by Michelle Styles

SOLD TO THE VIKING WARRIOR Is my 25^th Harlequin/ Mills & Boon Historical and is officially published on 1 February. It is rare in the publishing world to have published over 25 books (I had a couple of things by other publishers prior to being published by Harlequin).

A small departure for me is that although it is a Viking, it is set in the Western Isles of Scotland. I became interested in the area and its history when my youngest son spent a summer volunteering with the RSPB on Oronsay, a tidal island off Collinsay. When he returned , he was full of tales of how the Vikings had based their fleet on Collinsay and there were a number of Viking burials on Oronsay. My husband and I then spent a holiday on the magically beautiful island of Islay which also boasted a large Viking population and the idea for SOLD TO THE VIKING WARRIOR was born.

Unfortunately not much is really known about the exact history of Islay during that time period. Most histories start with Somerled, the semi-legendary founder of the MacDonald clan and who was himself half Celtic and half Norse. The name Somerled is a corruption of the Old Norse for Summer  Warrior.  Islay under Viking rule was most likely controlled by the Viking ruler of the Isle of Manx. We do know at this time, that ruler was Ketil who is mentioned in the Laxdaela saga. His overlord was Harald Finehair, the first king of Norway.

The heroine is Eilidith,  a lady of the cennell Fergusa on Islay. Cennell is the early Gaellic term for clan. At this point, mac simply meant son of, rather than the more formal naming of a clan. When Liddy was young, her home was invaded by Vikings. Her father, the chieftain or king of the cennell paid tribute to the Viking warlord and was able to keep his lands as long as he continues to provide tribute. Liddy married a Gaelic king, Brandon of the cennell Connall, one of the lone holdouts against the Vikings. Islay was not completely controlled by the Vikings, the Celts did manage to cling on and thrive in places. 

However, the marriage was not a success. He only wanted to marry her for her dowry and he had a narcissistic personality disorder. He made Liddy feel insignificant and ugly. Their twins were lost in a tragic boating accident which Liddy took the blame for. Brandon was trying to force her into a convent when he drowned.

When she was little, her grandmother used to say the butterfly mark below her lip marked her out as someone who do great things for the family.  When her father and brother are being at the Viking stronghold, Liddy decides to take her father’s ring, the one given to him by the Viking warlord to free them.

My inspiration for Sigurd

The Hero is Sigurd Sigmundson, a sell-sword Viking. He is the bastard of a Viking warlord and his Celtic princess slave girl and was more favoured by his father than his legitimate half-brother.  His life of relative luxury came to an abrupt end when his father died and his father’s wife was able to enact her brutal revenge. Sigurd barely escaped with his life.

He has spent years rebuilding his life and trying to get revenge against his half-brother. Using the skill of his arm and his natural leadership ability, he is now poised to realise his dreams. The Viking king has ordered him to bring the Viking war lord of Islay to justice after he refused to pay the tribute required. That warlord happens to be Sigurd’s half-brother.

You can read the first chapter on overdrive.com .

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance in a wide variety of time periods for Harlequin Historical. Her latest SOLD TO THE VIKING WARRIOR has just been published. You can visit www.michellestyles.co.uk for more information about Michelle and her books.

My Characters Lived in Viking controlled Scotland

By Michelle Styles

My characters (or rather my current set of characters) live in the Viking controlled Hebrides during the mid-9^th century. This is when the expansion of the Vikings really took hold. It is when Norway, in particular, became unified, pushing many warriors out of their homelands. It is when the Vikings went and settled in Britain, and France as well as colonising Iceland. Because they did not use the Latin alphabet and were not as literate as the monks they were terrorising, we tend to a skewed view of the Vikings.

The Hebrides from wikicommons

The Western Isles which includes Islay were part of the Dal Riata confederation and closely allied to Ireland at this point.  To make things really confusing – the word Scot in this time period means someone from the Western Isles and Northern Ireland.  Until Kenneth McAlpine kills most of the Pict hierarchy at supper, and founds Alba, there isn’t really a Scotland. It isn’t until his grandsons become king that the word Scotland is used in the modern context.

Islay

While Kenneth McAlpin was causing turmoil on the mainland, the Vikings as they so often did in this period took full advantage and captured territory – namely Shetland, Orkney, and the Western Isles or Hebrides as well as the Isle of Man and parts of the west which are now referred to Galloway. Galloway means the foreign Gaels.  The area around Man and the Hebrides is often referred to as the Kingdom of the Isles. The kingdom of the Isles dates roughly from the mid-ninth century until it is broken up in the 13^th century. It is sometimes referred to as the Southern Isles as the Northern Isles of Shetland Orkney were often under different rulers.

We know under the Vikings the Hebrides were ruled from the Isle of Man. The overlord of the King of Mann varied quite a bit. Sometimes it was Norway, others it was England, the Orkneys, Ireland or Scotland.  But go to Islay or Jura today and little besides place-names remain from that time. The Islay museum has only a few relics.

The references are often very shadowy as with much of Viking history. Because most of their structures were wood, little remains. Some archaeology has been done but because sites often had multiple uses over the period sometimes it can be very inconclusive. It is assumed that the buildings were similar in style to those found in Norway and Iceland. They were built around the idea of a great hall with other smaller buildings and workshops supporting the great hall.

The paps of Jura

It was a clash of two cultures in many ways. The Gaels had been Christian since St Columba in the fifth century. They had their own traditions such as the Celtic stone crosses and artwork. The Vikings were raiders and merchants. They were pagans and their traditions were markedly different.  However the Vikings were mainly men and they did tend to intermarry with the Gaels. These foreign Gaels or Gall-Ghaeil  tended to be Christian and follow the traditions of their mothers. But they also followed the profession of their fathers and became great seafarers and warriors.

A Celtic cross

To understand this time, you need to think in terms of sea roads and trade, rather than land travel. It wasn’t horses on roads so much as ships. Summer was the season for warfare. A farm planted his crop in the spring, and left his wife and slaves to tend it while he went to war during the summer. He would then return in time for the harvest and would over-winter on his land. In fact the 12^th century warrior Somerlad, who is credited with driving the Vkings out of the Western Isles and founding the Clan Donald is a corruption of a Norse name meaning summer warrior or Viking. He was not some Gaellic hero but the product of the Norse-Gael ruling culture. He simply was able to wrest control of the Isles from the King of Man and became the self-styled Lord of the Isles. In short the Vikings did not leave the Western Isles but became part of the fabric of the society. They settled and adapted to their new homeland.

So my characters lived in a time of flux. When a man could carve a kingdom with the point of his sword and his sons could lose it just as quickly. They would have recognised the mountains and hills of Islay and Jura but little else.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances. SHe is currently revising her next Viking set romance which is set in Islay.  Her most recent Viking Summer of the Viking was published in the US and England in June 2015. It will also be published in Norway and Sweden in June 2016 and France. You can learn more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk