This is a work of historical fiction. The story is based upon facts drawn from KING HARALD'S SAGA and from various chronicles of the age. Most of the historical data is sketchy and highly suspect, as only the educated elite of the Church could read and write, and so the documentary field belonged to them. Who can resist the lure of the enduring romance of the Viking Age in Europe? Who can resist digging among the fragments of truth and the inflated stereotypes to unearth the real human beings who created this dynamic era of human history? Who were they? What did they want? What did they hope for? And what impact did they have upon the course of Western civilization? Have no doubt about it, the Viking Age profoundly changed the course of History and affects us to this very day. The bare facts are that huge bands of homeless, rootless men erupted from Scandinavia in the eighth and ninth centuries. They were fearless, hardy adventurers. While many were given to piracy, many more were interested in finding homes and new lives for themselves. They settled in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, and Russia. They ventured into the heart of Byzantium. They discovered new worlds undreamed of by settled Europeans. They were like a gust of wild storm wind, taking their adventuring souls and free spirits with them. NORTHWIND is a study of the clash of two cultures, the free-spirited, pagan, wild and reckless viking way of life and the proper, peace-loving, highly civilized world of Catholic Celtic Ireland. NORTHWIND is set in the early Ninth Century. It follows the Ivarsson House and its fortunes throughout the world and back home to Norway. Eirik Ivarsson is the youngest son of Ivar, a Norwegian nobleman. His half-brother, Harald, is the son of Ivar and his second wife, a Welsh woman. The two brothers are inseparable, until an unfortunate series of events causes them to go their own ways. Eirik sails to Ireland and steals Moira from her homelan