I think Michael Crichton’s “Eaters of the Dead” is cool.
I watched the movie adaption “The 13th Warrior” first, probably when it came out in ‘99.
Watching it, I was thinking: this is Vikings + Arabs. Historical fiction. Fighting. Yay!
I read the novel later, I was thinking: this is like cooler version of Beowulf.
Here’s the synopsis (via grok3):
Published in 1976, Eaters of the Dead is a historical fiction novel that blends fact, legend, and adventure. The story is narrated by Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a 10th-century Arab courtier from Baghdad, who is sent as an ambassador to the Bulgars but becomes embroiled in a journey far beyond his original mission. Based loosely on the real Ibn Fadlan’s historical account of his travels, the novel takes a fictional turn when he encounters a band of Norse warriors led by Buliwyf, a Viking chieftain.
Ibn Fadlan, an outsider to the rugged and brutal Norse culture, is reluctantly recruited to join Buliwyf and his twelve companions on a perilous quest. The group is summoned to a distant Scandinavian kingdom to confront a mysterious and savage threat: the “wendol,” a group of cannibalistic, bear-like humanoid creatures that terrorize the region under cover of mist and darkness. The wendol’s relentless attacks have left the local population in despair, and Buliwyf’s band is their last hope.
You notice “Buliwyf” and “wendol”, hmmm…
Yep, that is exactly what Crichton was trying to do.
From the “A Factual Note on Eaters of the Dead” at the back of the book:
“Eaters Of The Dead was conceived on a dare. In 1974…”
He was trying to prove to his friend that the core story was dramatic and exciting, while his friend thought it was a boring.
He did it by transforming the poem into a first hand account by an outsider, an arab, who tagged along with the crew.
“What sort of narrative would be most desirable? I concluded the most useful account would be written by an outsider—someone not part of the culture, who could report objectively on the events as they occurred.”
Not just any Arabs, but Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a travel writer at the time who wrote about the Vikings.
“His manuscript, well-known to scholars, provides one of the earliest eyewitness accounts of Viking life and culture.” […] “I obtained the existing manuscript fragments and combined them, with only slight modifications, into the first three chapters of Eaters of the Dead.”
So cool. Mixing up history and myth.
The book is presented as a found manuscript with a robust introduction by “academics”:
“The Ibn Fadlan manuscript represents the earliest known eyewitness account of Viking life and society. It is an extraordinary document, describing in vivid detail events which occurred more than a thousand years ago.”
He tried to keep things a real as possible, but eventually lost track:
“But within a few years, I could no longer be certain which passages were real, and which were made up; at one point I found myself in a research library trying to locate certain references in my bibliography, and finally concluding, after hours of frustrating effort, that however convincing they appeared, they must be fictitious.”
I love it!
Oh yeah, and he threw Neanderthals in there for the group to fight, a cooler Grendel.
“And Eaters contains many overt anachronisms, particularly when Ibn Fadlan meets up with a group of remnant Neanderthals.”
It was not well received.
“When Eaters of the Dead was first published, this playful version of Beowulf received a rather irritable reception from reviewers, as if I had desecrated a monument. But Beowulf scholars all seem to enjoy it, and many have written to say so.”
It only has 3.7 stars on goodreads. But that seems to be the average for Crichton’s works it seems, besides Jurassic Park. Oh well.
It might have been before it’s time.
I still think it’s great fun! Book and movie.