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The Saga of Erik the Viking

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‘This is the tale of a Viking warrior who lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago. His name was Erik. His ship was called Golden Dragon and its figurehead was a fierce monster carved out of wood and covered with gold leaf.’

So begins this spell-binding series of adventures written by the newly acknowledged master of children’s stories, Terry Jones. Dramatically reminiscent of the most exciting of Nordic Sagas, Erik and his brave band of men set sail in search of ‘the land where the sun goes at night’. Though lightly undertaken, this quest into the unknown turns into an exacting experience for the courageous companions whose strength, skill, wit and intelligence will be tested to the extreme limits.

Each chapter forms a complete story in itself, and the landscape of myth and legend it magnificently depicted by Michael Foreman in this, his second collaboration with the author. As one reviewer commented about their last book, Fairy Tales, ‘The Brothers Grimm and Marx together could not have done better.'

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

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592 people want to read

About the author

Terry Jones

184 books289 followers
Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name


Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, before creating Monty Python's Flying Circus with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Jones co-created and co-wrote with Palin the anthology series Ripping Yarns. He also wrote an early draft of Jim Henson's film Labyrinth and is credited with the screenplay, though little of his work actually remained in the final cut. Jones was a well-respected medieval historian, having written several books and presented television documentaries about the period, as well as a prolific children's author. In 2016, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for his outstanding contribution to television and film. After living for several years with a degenerative aphasia, he gradually lost the ability to speak and died in 2020 from frontotemporal dementia.

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5 stars
234 (35%)
4 stars
221 (33%)
3 stars
151 (23%)
2 stars
41 (6%)
1 star
6 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
Profile Image for Jessica.
Author 26 books5,911 followers
August 10, 2023
I loved the movie Erik the Viking as a kid, and a few years ago I saw that our library had this, which looked . . . odd and interesting. It wasn't a novelization of the movie, it looked like it was aimed at . . . kids? I finally got around to it this summer and I can't believe I've waited so long!

Jones starts out by explaining that as a kid he loved the idea of the Viking sagas, and then he read them and . . . it was just a long list of lineage followed by some very basic details of lives . . . what I secretly thought myself reading most sagas! I mean, there are some standouts (Hello, Njal's Saga!) bur overall they are pretty standard histories of the people of certain areas. Which is great that they recorded that but not like, gripping reading.

So he invented his own! Delightful! Thrilling! And reading very much like The Good Bits of a Saga, complete with riddles and sword fights and prophecies and ships and wolves and all the things you want in a Viking tale! And the illustrations are GORGEOUS.
Profile Image for Catherine Mason.
375 reviews2 followers
January 24, 2020
I started reading this before Terry Jones died and finished it after his death. The last chapter was therefore extra moving because it was about the main character playing chess with Death. This is a magical book. Great fun and with beautiful illustrations by Michael Foreman. Full of daring-do but also kindness and love. A fitting legacy for Terry Jones to have left.
529 reviews7 followers
March 21, 2014
One of the favored books from my childhood, remembered and passed down to my daughter.

+ VIKINGS!
+ no one dies, i reassured my daughter. except for the chapter with the dog-warriors, turns out that one or two of the unnamed crew were butchered on the beach. somehow she survived that trauma
+ short episodic chapters that also form one AWESOME overarching story
+ magic swords!
+ dragons!
+ a narwhal!
+ a chess match against death!
+ good morals subtly expressed
+ awesome pictures (get the edition with colored plates)

This was a seminal book that has stayed with me, and for the low price of an hour, it can be yours as well.
Profile Image for Rebecca.
278 reviews396 followers
July 24, 2009
*sets sat-nav for the edge of the world*
Profile Image for Jenny.
218 reviews4 followers
June 2, 2020
I wish I had found this when some of my grown up boys were younger so we could have read it together, but that is my only sadness about this great book. I was absolutely delighted by Erik and his companions as they sail in Golden Dragon seeking the land where the sun goes at night. Adventure and imagination and Norse tradition all wrapped into one fun story. The book is written in chapters which can stand alone as a short story, but all together make the saga. There are some good moral lessons addressed amid the sword play and monsters. Really a great read, I think it would make a great read-aloud.
Profile Image for Anthony Buck.
Author 3 books9 followers
April 24, 2021
I really enjoyed this one. An imaginative story with a very good end. Recommended
1,695 reviews54 followers
December 19, 2021
December 2021 update: we didn't do it. Reading is changing to a termly basis as it is so hard to get through the books... Changing to one fiction, one non-fiction, poems and songs for a wider reading curriculum.
__________________________
We did it - 3.5*

Oh my god. I read 188 pages to the children online. I am proud of myself but my throat is dead.
They liked it but they didn't love it. TOO many adventures.
_________________
December 2020 update:

Paperback edition
I've read this again to plan my reading for the next part of half-term.
Can't believe I have to read 188 pages to the children in 3 weeks.
____________________
I liked it - 3.5*

Book 5 of the 2020-2021 academic year.

I enjoyed it but I preferred Fairy Tales.
I think the children will enjoy it and there are lots of adventures and I like the moral at the end.
Profile Image for Dave.
130 reviews4 followers
July 9, 2015
This is Terry Jones attempt at telling Viking sagas in the way that he hoped they would be, full of adventure and excitement. Told, as in the real sagas, in very episodic form, this is the adventure of Erik and his crew on the Golden Dragon as they travel the world taking on deceitful trolls, Dogfighters (your actual dogs of war), mystical mountains and go on to adventures at the edge pf the world and outwit The Old Man of The Sea.
These are aimed at young teenagers, but the stories are nicely told and generally great fun, while retaining something of the flavour of the original sagas. The only downside was that reading it on a black and kindle, there was no colour in the pictures, which are also delightful.
6 reviews
May 17, 2008
This is one of my very favorite read-alouds with children ... The first time I read it ... I shared it with my own 3 young boys . . . when they were still at that magical age of childhood bedtime stories ... the years just beyond age 5. Their minds ... imaginations and eyes were full of wonder as each new chapter / adventure ... unfolded, was anticipated ... with pleas to read more than one chapter a night.
Profile Image for Jessica Pesic.
81 reviews
April 12, 2011
Being Scandinavian (and having an intense passion for vikings when I was little), my mother bought this book for me when I was learning how to read. At that age it seemed monstrous to me, almost like a text book, but it was filled with beautiful illustrations, so I didn't mind. This book will always be special to because it was my mother-and-me book.
She used to read it to me all the time until I learnt how to read, at which point I read it to myself over and over again!
737 reviews3 followers
February 3, 2015
My 5- year old loved this book more than any book we've ever read to him. Some of the pictures were scary but he just ate up all of the different stories and adventures Erik had- strongly recommend to anyone who has a kid who might like to hear about some viking adventures. We are seriously thinking of buying it for our home library.
Profile Image for Laurène Poret.
217 reviews7 followers
August 7, 2016
From the cover art I was expecting fantasy and from the author comedy, that wasn't it at all. It was still nice but definitely felt like a book you would enjoy reading to a child and not really like something for me
14 reviews3 followers
February 9, 2017
This was really useful to use during our Topic of the Vikings, we used it to create our own viking saga - inspired by these stories and following a similar structure. Also as they are quite short sagas they are easy to dip in and out of!
Profile Image for Sarah Trood.
12 reviews1 follower
March 10, 2015
Another my dad read to me and my brother as kids although my dad never finished reading it to me.
Profile Image for Andrew.
764 reviews17 followers
February 9, 2020
I tackled this Terry Jones children's book in part because I wanted to pay some kind of honour to his memory, on hearing of his passing, and also because I have been long aware that the film Jones produced was an entirely different product of his imagination. As a serious consumer of Monty Python related books, TV shows, movies etc it seemed 'right' to read 'The Saga of Erik the Viking' now.

Overall I was quite happy with 'The Saga..' and with Jones's ability to shape a 'new' take on Viking storytelling. There are plenty of strange, magical, fantastic adventures herein with Erik and his band of Norsemen having their characters tested for bravery, honesty, intelligence and loyalty. Yes, 'The Saga...' does read as a bit of an episodic "boys' own.." kind of effort, however there is an inner logic and cohesiveness to Jones's writing that works very well. The lack of violence makes it a very safe read for any child, and the continual emphasis on morality also hangs true on the framework of the book's thematic structure.

It might be said as a mild criticism that Jones has not written a book for girls as well as for boys; the absence of strong female characters and/or a female perspective might be construed as disadvantageous. However this is not a grievous sin of omission or commission.

The illustrations are interesting, if not exactly memorable, and they do what they are supposed to do. Jones's prose is highly readable and does evoke the motifs and style of Norse literature, or at least what we perhaps expect it to be. There are also some entertaining 'adult' moments (e.g. Erik playing chess with Death a la Bergmann's 'Seventh Seal').

Bottom line; 'The Saga of Erik the Viking' is a very good children's book and a significant product of the (sadly now departed) creative imagination of Terry Jones. Worth the read for Python fans and kids alike.
Profile Image for Michael Rubin.
30 reviews2 followers
December 30, 2017
When I was ten I lived in Europe. I dreamed of living on a sailing vessel with vikings. My grandest hope would be to row an oar for a chief, or run afoul of spirits and dragons while voyaging to the end of the world. The land was young and every breath I would take would yield to myth.

If you enjoyed Beowulf, Gilgamesh, or the Ring saga, this is the book for you. Over thirty years later these pages remind me these dreams are still with me. I am waiting for my own long ship and I want to travel with Erik and his tribe.

My daughter at 7 thrilled at playing chess with death and watching the vikings engage in a battle of wits with the old man of the sea. During the evenings we read this book together we both were sailing the seas as viking together. As such I highly recommend it for all ages over 6.

Side note I have to include:

The 30 year old copy I had read to my daughter was purchased in Germany when I was 11. I swear even then I knew I wanted my future daughter to read and love it as I did. She did love it and read it several times over. One day it disappeared after she borrowed it. She knew how much it meant to me and it meant as much to her. She was so mortified, I could not subject her to any discipline. I saw she was punishing herself more than I ever could.

Months later on a trip to London in a basement of a used book store, we found the same edition for $5 by happenstance. We rejoiced and re-read. Months later from that trip while clearing out a closet full of bags and papers the original copy was found. As sweet as that day in London was, this one was sweeter. The magic sword, golden goblets and other treasures Erik won mattered less to both of us than this 30 year old pile of pages.
Profile Image for James Warwood.
Author 57 books51 followers
May 20, 2019
What an adventure!

There are two clues in the title of this book to help you understand everything you need to know:

1) VIKINGS - which means the book contains magical swords, long beards, the Golden Dragon (not a solid gold fire-breathing monster, but the name of a Viking ship), battles and trolls and dog-warriors and bags and bags of adventure.
2) SAGA - which means the author, Terry Jones (yes, one of the great Monty Python), has written this in the style of the old Icelandic tales with short episodic chapters that form one overarching story.

I can't stress enough how brilliant this book would be to read young boys and girls as an epic bedtime story. Each chapter is a new adventure. Nobody dies. Morals, like sticking up for your friends and never giving up, are subtly woven into the story. Even the author's reason for writing this book will encourage you to pick this up and read it to your children - "When my son reached five I obviously had to write a book for him. We had just visited an exhibition of Vikings in the British Museum, so I asked him if he would like a story about Vikings and he said yes. This gave me the chance to write the Sagas as I would have liked them to have been; full of flights of imagination and adventurous exploits, monsters and creatures and magic and fantasy." - from the forward.

I loved it, so much so that when my son reaches five he'll have the pleasure of hearing me re-read this aloud to him.
Profile Image for Matthew Burton.
350 reviews8 followers
October 14, 2025
Being endlessly fascinated by the ancient world (and especially Vikings), I couldn’t resist diving into The Saga of Erik the Viking, and I absolutely loved every minute of it! On the surface, it’s a lighthearted and beautifully illustrated adventure that feels like a children’s story, but beneath all the whimsy lies something much deeper. Prepare yourself for a charming, thoughtful journey through Norse imagination — equal parts adventure, philosophy, and childlike wonder.

What I find truly captivating is how these tales, filled with gods, monsters, and mysterious forces, were shaped by real-world experiences. It’s fascinating to think about how the people of the time used the supernatural to make sense of the unknown — turning atmospheric and scientific phenomena into stories of awe and wonder. Jones has managed to make mythology feel both accessible and profound. It’s fun, clever, and surprisingly meaningful — a perfect example of how stories can teach, entertain, and preserve the imagination of an entire culture. It may have the look of a kids’ book, but there’s a depth here that any adult lover of myth or history will appreciate.
Profile Image for Roman Khan.
129 reviews2 followers
January 1, 2018

This book is about a Viking called Eric going on an adventure with his crew and going on adventures like fighting the dog fighters and meeting the old man of the sea who is filled with tricks. I really like this book because Eric doesn't fall for tricks like he said to Thorkhild “don't go in the sea, the old man of the sea is filled with tricks and might freeze you to death!. My favourite character from the book was Eric because he was the most bravest and he didn't fall for tricks. I think you should read this book because Eric and his crew are really adventurous because they went across about 10 adventures. I didn't give it 5 stars because i didn't write that much notes so that's why i gave it a 4 stars.

104 reviews35 followers
January 11, 2019
I read this with my four-year-old son and really enjoyed it. It has some important life lessons about the virtues and character. One story memorably shows that courage and strength are not always useful if unaccompanied by wisdom, and that a leader needs the latter more than the former. Another story teaches that sometimes even doing the right thing can lead to unfortunate consequences.

It would have been nice had their been more women in the story. On the other hand, I'm glad that we just happened to be reading this book when my son was encountering gendered teasing for his long hair at school.
Profile Image for Paul Nickerson.
3 reviews
Currently reading
November 24, 2019
One of my most memorable reads as a child, now reading ( a little prematurely) to my 4 year old. It remains an epic novel full of suspense and well thought out episodic arcs with fantastic themes. I find it hard to be objective about a book I have loved since a child and now my child seems to love, but if I had to ask for one improvement it is that the characters themselves have little definition between themselves - they are just all bloody good brave men, perhaps Rangnaforkbeard is marked out because he has spiritual awareness of some kind. I love this book
Profile Image for Erica Baxter.
1,052 reviews7 followers
March 19, 2024
I was excited about this one, but I didn't love it. There is a lot of adventure and epic feats of heroism, but there was so much plot and so little character development that the book felt dull and rambling—just one grand event after another. It read like a bunch of bumbling men running around trying to be manly.

If I was a 6 year old boy, maybe. But this one doesn't really transcend the age and gender barrier (and I normally love middle grade books).
Profile Image for yumi.
415 reviews10 followers
February 24, 2020
How lovely. But really Erik wouldn't be the main character without his amazing crew, and the stories really make that shine, that his Besties are what keep it going, and I love them for that. It's not a one man show like a lot of adventure stories.
Profile Image for Mark.
90 reviews1 follower
April 2, 2020
6*.
Yes it’s a kids book.
But without reading this book as a kid I would never have read The Hobbit. Without that never Lord of The Rings. I would not enjoy books the way I do.
And there would have been no Python in my life.
Well worth a re-read to celebrate the great Terry Jones.
1 review
April 11, 2020
The Saga of Eric the Viking

Magical book, similar to the Odyssey.
Lots of ageless lessons of courage, truth, and comradeship, mixed with ogres, magic and wizards.
All while on a great search for where the sun sets. Great lessons for kids, and reminders for adults.
70 reviews
March 3, 2021
A good read for a 9+ yr old

Read as a teacher when studying the Vikings in school. Each short chapter is like a ‘mini -story’ so it is easy to pick up and put down. Fairly repetitive but a nice introduction into adventure books!
Profile Image for Aryan Lal.
104 reviews2 followers
March 12, 2022
The story is about a Viking called Erik the Red. He said he would never sleep in his bed again until he found where sun vanishes at night! Did he manage to find the land where the sun goes at night? Read this interesting saga!
Profile Image for Scott.
314 reviews3 followers
August 23, 2023
I got this book in 4th grade and absolutely loved it. I decided to read it with my son so that he could practice his reading. The story still captivates with fantasy and different Viking culture. The pictures add to the experience, but it's a easy and good read.
Profile Image for Robin Braysher.
220 reviews5 followers
September 18, 2024
"In the Lands of the North, where the black rocks stand guard against the cold sea, in the dark night that is very long, the men of the North Lands sit by their great log fires, and they tell a tale..."

Okay, so that's from a TV series from my childhood - Noggin the Nog - but it could just as easily preface this book, which I haven't read since my children were small. The story really does have the feel of a Norse saga. I like to think that my enjoyment of the book comes from my Scandanavian heritage (16% DNA, in case you're wondering!), but I think it's probably because the book was written by someone who knew his stuff and knew how to write a good story. It's got it all - trolls, ogres, sorcerers, wolves, storms and even the edge of the world.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews

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