The cross and the hammer: a tale of the days of the vikings

by H. Bedford-Jones

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104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

Henry James O'Brien Bedford-Jones (1887–1949) was a Canadian historical, adventure fantasy, science fiction, crime and Western writer who became a naturalized United States citizen in 1908. After being encouraged to try writing by his friend, writer William Wallace Cook, Bedford-Jones began writing dime novels and pulp magazine stories. Bedford-Jones was an enormously prolific writer; the pulp editor Harold Hersey once recalled meeting Bedford-Jones in Paris, where he was working on two novels simultaneously, each story on its own separate typewriter. Bedford-Jones cited Alexandre Dumas as his main influence, and wrote a sequel to Dumas' The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan (1928). He wrote over 100 novels, earning the nickname "King of the Pulps". His works appeared in a number of pulp magazines. Bedford-Jones' main publisher was Blue Book magazine; he also appeared in Adventure, All-Story Weekly, Argosy, Short Stories, Top-Notch Magazine, The Magic Carpet, Golden Fleece, Ace-High Magazine, People's Story Magazine, Hutchinson's Adventure-Story Magazine, Detective Fiction Weekly, Western Story Magazine, and Weird Tales.

In addition to writing fiction, Bedford-Jones also worked as a journalist for the Boston Globe, and wrote poetry. Bedford-Jones was a friend of Erle Stanley Gardner and Vincent Starrett.

Reviews

[David Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a standard pulp adventure, set in the time of King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway. It's focused around Sigurd, a young warrior who becomes a Jarl of Olaf's and helps him in his conquest. Fair warning, as King Olaf is known for having brought Christianity to Norway, this book probably isn't the best for people who love the old pagan myths of that land. There's plenty of adventure, blended with some history, though the author isn't aiming to be entirely accurate. Much of it reminds me of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon tales, though the writing is not up to that level. While fun, the story suffers from the confines of the pulp genre. It's too fast-paced, with many interesting scenes glossed over that could've been interesting if longer. And the characters are not overly developed. The cliches of pulp are there too. The lead female in this book gets rescued from captivity no less than three times in one hundred thirty pages. But as light reading it works, and it does a good job of capturing a Viking feel, even if it lacks the grit of more modern portrayals of that era.