Henry Treece Quotes

“Trust a horse before a hound, a hound before a lass- and a long ship before them all!”

“The village on the fjord could do with a little gold, and some silks. It would not even object to a few pictures- provided, of course, that the artist had used real gold leaf in painting them.”

“A viking is born, my son, and never escapes his destiny. As some men love horses and others love hunting wolves, so a viking loves ships, every plank and rope of them, and he is never happy unless he is riding the track of the whale, treading the path of the gannet.”

″‘I speak now for Gnorre Nithing because he not a man to speak for himself. He is a warrior and a viking, not a talker about firesides.’ Thorkell smiled up at him gently, ‘What right have you to speak for another man, Aun Doorback?’ he said. ‘The best right of all, Master Goldhair,’ said Aun. ‘It was my brother that Gnorre killed.‘”

“Life is never sure, Harald. Whichever way a man turns, he thinks he might have done better to take the other path.”

“And even the children giggled and pushed closer to see this Wolf, who had sailed on every sea man knew, yet hated the very thought of water touching his tender skin.”

″‘Come you, shipmaster, and let us drink together, for you seem a sharp fellow.’ Bjorn said, ‘Not I, Thorkell, but my apprentice.’ ‘Bring him, too,’ said Thorkell. ‘A lad who has thoughts about oarholes like that should make a viking one day.‘”

“Such a king as he does not deserve a funeral fire like that. A king who has no ship to take him to Odin is not worth following. Better a man should go a-viking for himself.”

“Better to become the bear’s supper than to remain the cow’s slave.”

“And when Thorkell came to the village, men were silent until he gave them word to speak. Even the old warriors, men who had killed bears in the high summer on the mountain tops.”