Two Ravens

by Cecelia Holland

Set in Iceland in 1100, this is an effort to capture the tone and mood of the great sagas. The hero is a pagan, striving to maintain his values in a Christian world.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Medieval, Fantasy

199 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Pen name used by Elizabeth Eliot Carter.

Cecelia Holland is one of the world's most highly acclaimed and respected historical novelists, ranked by many alongside other giants in that field such as Mary Renault and Larry McMurtry. Over the span of her thirty year career, she's written almost thirty historical novels, including The Firedrake, Rakessy, Two Ravens, Ghost on the Steppe, Death of Attila, Hammer For Princes, The King's Road, Pillar of the Sky, The Lords of Vaumartin, Pacific Street, Sea Beggars, The Earl, The King in Winter, The Belt of Gold, The Serpent Dreamer, The High City, Kings of the North, and a series of fantasy novels, including The Soul Thief, The Witches Kitchen, The Serpent Dreamer, and Varanger. She also wrote the well-known science fiction novel Floating Worlds, which was nominated for a Locus Award in 1975. Her most recent book is a new fantasy novel, Dragon Heart.

Reviews

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a brief while, back in the mid-'60s, Cecilia Holland was a brilliant new voice doing historical fiction. "Until the Sun Falls", "Rakossy", "Antichrist", "Kings In Winter"--- all brilliant. "Two Ravens" is the last of her novels I found readable, alas. But it is a small gem--- a tragic and subtle account of a stiill-pagan Icelander trying to find a place for himself and deal with his fraught and violent relationship to his father. Holland takes her hero from Iceland to Henry I's Norman England and back, and has a good, ironic take on late-Viking life. Find this book, read it. It's not "Until The Sun Falls"--- her masterpiece ---but it's well done.

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A taut tragedy of a saga.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Great Maria, I loved Two Ravens. Different style of writing, stark, basic even brutal at times but a story I'll long remember. 5+ Stars!

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holland has written more than thirty novels in the past forty-plus years, and while all of them have been (to my mind) at least above average, her style has changed somewhat over time. This one is from her “early period,” which means short declarative sentences, a straightforward and unadorned narrative style, and a tendency to under-explain, to let the reader draw his own conclusions as to the characters’ motivations and inner mental workings. I think I could pick up a loose page from any of these early books, read it, and know immediately that it was her work, just from the words she chooses and the way she threads them together. The setting this time is the late 11th century, beginning in Iceland. Bjarni is a young man in what we would today call an abusive and dysfunctional family -- though, to judge by the sagas of the time, the sort of interrelationships he has to deal with were not uncommon there and then. He’s the eldest, with three younger half-brothers and a step-brother, the son of Hiyke, his father’s much younger third wife. In fact, she’s only a couple of years older than Bjarni himself, and he definitely has the hots for her. Except that she’s a practicing Christian and neither Bjarni nor his father, Hoskuld, have abandoned the old beliefs (even though everyone in Iceland now is, by law, an official Christian), which complicates everything. Hoskuld farms and fishes and when Bjarni finally decides he’s had enough, he decides to steal his father’s fishing boat and run off to the Hebrides in search of adventure, and he talks his brothers into going along. Which isn’t difficult, as they all hate the old man as much as he does. Only, when they get there, nothing is as they expected. When they decide to press on to another location, Bjarni’s brother, Ulf, who can’t keep his breeches buttoned, insists on kidnapping one of their bloody-minded host’s daughters -- and then Bjarni gets caught and his brothers flee back home with the boat and the girl. From there, Bjarni finds his way to England and further adventures, including meeting the king, William Rufus, and becoming involved with a delinquent (and pregnant) adolescent Saxon girl who attaches herself to him. Eventually, he will make his way home again to Iceland, where things will mostly sort themselves out, one way or another, but where there are no happy endings. This is not what many readers would consider an “exciting” book, being rather dark and dour and anti-romantic, and even Bjarni is not always the sort of protagonist one can like. Nor is it even an especially lengthy novel, at just under two hundred pages, though it feels like the right length for the story it tells. But it’s a satisfying and very convincing read for all that.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tough, subtle, ultimately tragic tale of Bjarni, an Icelandic viking who hates his father but loves his stepmother. Leaving Iceland gives him no respite, and though he returns to his home too late to confront his father, he is not too soon to replace him. More of Holland's brilliant, hard-boiled early historical fiction.

[L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd, rambling, purposeless story about the most dysfunctional family in Iceland. They're trying to kill each other. Then they're trying to kill each other. The Prodigal Son returns. They're trying to kill each other until finally in the end they're trying to kill each other.

[Kathrin Passig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die kompakte Erzählweise fand ich schön: "Bjarni fingered a black pawn. On the beach the wind stirred the racks of drying fish like silver leaves. A boy was running up the slope toward the chessplayers. Bjarni looked down at the chesspiece in his hand. The boy reached them, out of breath: Kristjan, Hoskuld’s stepson, Hiyke’s son." Die Handlung mäanderte etwas lahm vor sich hin (was aber bei den Original-Isländersagas auch passiert). Unvernünftige Frauen werden zu oft als Plot-Element eingesetzt (was bei den Original-Isländersagas nicht in diesem Ausmaß passiert).

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd book and I kind of agree with another reviewer that the story didn't seem to have any point, I definitely felt that when it finished. What I did like was it gave you an insight into 12th Centry Icelandic life and values (someone else said disfunctional family, but god what a lot of dinamics made up that family). I also found the visit to Norman England interesting. The back drop and characters made this story for me and I give it a 4* review, but it is just over 3.5* really and if it had been any longer without more depth then the review would have been lower.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 star brilliancy . . . this was a short book, wish there was more!

[Maria]

Read a short story The King of Norway at Clarkesworld whch ended up being unexpectedly fun.