In the Shadow of the Beast

"Pagan ships have done much harm to the islands of Aquitaine. Some of them were entirely lost . . . a great chastening is upon them unlike any the ancient Christian world has ever seen."—Alcuin of York, Letter to Arno

King Horic is dead. The oaths that once bonded the Danes and Northmen in the islands of Aquitaine have broken. Hasting's new land is imperiled by fearsome challengers and old foes alike. A rumor from the continent will shatter the brittle veneer of his strength and expose his deepest wound from the past. His greatest trial will not be fought with a sword, ax, or shield, but with his heart.

A supposed son of Ragnar Lodbrok, and referred to in the Gesta Normannorum as the Scourge of the Somme and Loire, his life exemplified the qualities of the ideal Viking. Join author and historian C. J. Adrien on an adventure that explores the early life and adventures of the Viking Hasting and his crew.