WHO'S AFRAID OF BEOWULF?

by Tom Holt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 10, 1988

Last time out, Holt offered a comic variation on Wagner's Ring Cycle (Expecting Someone Taller, p. 76); this time he tackles the Norse sagas--with improved, grinworthy results. Hildy Frederiksen, a starry-eyed young archeologist from Long Island, stumbles upon a perfectly preserved Viking longship buried in Scotland's far north. Aboard the ship in an enchanted sleep lie King Hrolf Earthstar, his 12 champion warriors, Kotkel the mumbling wizard, and a pair of electricity-consuming elementals. Awakened by the astonished Hildy, Hrolf tells his tale: they arranged to be buried a thousand years ago after a terrible but unsung battle with an evil sorcerer-king, who escaped: now the evil has popped up to shake a fist at the present. Fighting off the unwelcome attentions of a BBC film crew, Hildy arrays the Norsemen in hopefully inconspicuous gray polyester suits, so the locals mistake them for CIA men--but the heroes are unamazed by modern technology (in their day it was called magic). As the search for Eric the sorcerer-king (he runs a high-tech business empire from a London tower block) proceeds, the SAS become involved (fortunately the heroes are magically invulnerable to ""special effects""). The elementals Zxerp and Prexz, necessary to defeat Eric's powerful magic, are captured instead; and Hildy must make use of an Old Norse magic solid-state computer chip shaped like a Viking brooch in order to save the day. In neither speech nor deed is Hildy a very convincing American, but this is sprightly, well-plotted work, with plenty of knowing references to real sagas: often amusing in a decidedly British--bantering, ironic, low-key--manner.

Pub Date: Jan. 10, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1988

Categories: FICTION