The Dark lands series from Polygon has been generally excellent, this entry to the series more than meets the high bar it's set to date. Greig beautifully captures the rhythm and grandeur of the viking sagas and great Anglo Saxon epics. He brings humour, empathy, and an understanding of the complexity of human relationships with it. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

A superbly polished and economical realisation of the Viking violence of the 9th century meeting early Christianity in this remote island setting. Restrained and thoughtful, with engaging characters.

This is another novella in The Darkland Tales - a series of six short books written by different, contemporary, bestselling Scottish authors, who each re-imagine stories from Scottish history, myth and legend. I tracked this down having read and enjoyed three of the six ... and you know what?This is absolutely as good as the others. David Greig is a well-known Scottish dramatist, playwright and theatre director who, after eight years as Artistic Director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, stepped down in October 2024 to focus on “writing, directing and other literary projects”. This story starts on the beach of Iona in 825 AD. On Iona there are a number of peasants, and a rich monastery of monks guarding and celebrating their relic, a bone from Saint Columba, who came to Iona from Ireland some 200 years earlier. On this lovely spring morning a sail is sighted from the beach, far too close, and it’s a red sail. Red sails belong to the Vikings from Shetland, and their sail means only one thing: a raid. All too quickly these raiders overwhelm the island, dealing out robbery, rape and murder. The men of the island are slain; the women captured as slaves; and the monks put to torture to reveal the whereabouts of the relic in its silver case. They monks all refuse, and so all are killed. And one old Viking who has been killed is buried in shallow grave on Iona while the rest of the raiding party leave disgruntled, having been deprived of the silver. After these astonishingly brutal first 20-pages the book changes tone. The only people to have survived the raid are the woman who had been making mead and a young monk who had hidden in the outhouse pit … as well as the Viking, who turns out to be not dead. Over the following gentle summer months, the three manage to rub along, and gradually the Viking comes to see that there could be more to life than pillage, rape and murder. There’s a gentle woman; there are bees, the heather and the mead; and although he searches half-heartedly for the relic, he doesn’t find it. Autumn comes, and the red sail is sighted again, and with it the prospect of more blood-curdling brutality. How the three survive and the raiders defeated I will not reveal. Let’s just say that it’s both poignant and darkly funny. My verdict This is a great little book, beautifully written, almost lyrical. The switch from the early brutality to the later idyllic summer is shockingly abrupt, but very clever. And the dread when the sail is again sighted is felt both by the three on the island and the reader. I really enjoyed this and give it 5 Stars. Review by: Freyja, Oundle Crime

4.5 stars Fantastic. At first I thought this was another greek retelling book until I realised the cover was a viking ship. Filled with violence and yet moments of calm, filled with vulgarity and yet moments of poetry and thoughtfulness, filled with drama and yet with friendship and love. It has everything you need from genuine heartwarming moments to tense scenes of action, my only gripe is that it is so short and ended so soon. Very tempted to read more of this ‘series’ especially with the quality of this one. Also hoping the author writes more! Loved Grimur and his blossoming relationship with the mead wife and brother martin. Truly fantastic