Jamie and the Viking age

This summer the fifth Jamie Poole diary will be released in paper. We are so excited to see another book released, and hope you are just as excited! We will have local events planned as well as continue to deliver books within the Halifax area and parts of Nova Scotia. Retailers like Dartmouth Book Exchange and Cape and Cowl Comics and Collectibles will will remain our preferred hubs to get the current Jamie Poole books.

The book is titled Destiny of the Departed and will resume where Tome of Tubal-Cain left off. If you read the two part book The Battle of the Beanfield and The Courtship of Brett Poole, you will have insight on some behind the scenes events that impact this story.

If you do not have any of the Jamie Poole books or need to catch up with one or two, email me at jamiepoolebooks@gmail.com or one of the retailers mentioned above. Any books will be autographed!

As we prepare for its release, there's a bit of history behind the story to share. TV shows like History Channel's Vikings or Netflix's Vikings Valhalla provide a glimpse into the Viking Era. They were pretty cool and are enjoying a resurgence of popularity with shows like these. But where did they come from? Were they always raiders?

Let's take a look without getting too bogged down but, as Jamie would put it, let's also try to keep to the facts.

The Viking Era is commonly recognized to be from the years 793 - 1066. Scandinavians were known to expand and explore throughout Europe and into America. We've picked 793 because that's the year they attacked Lindisfarne, a monastery on the far eastern side of Scotland. Not familiar with that? Watch Vikings. They got you covered. In 1066 the era ended with the Battle of Hastings.

These dates are flexible. It is even assumed that the 793 raid of Lindisfarne was not the first raid on the monastery there. It's simply the one that got a lot of media attention. All those priests posting updates to Facebook and all that.

I've already covered Ragnarök and the theory it may have been a real event a few centuries before the Vikings. What else might have influenced the coming Viking Era?

The collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 led to political unrest as other powerful nations or groups tried to claim what had once been Roman. This was still a few centuries before the Vikings, but they didn't emerge from nowhere. Scandinavians were already busy at work fishing, farming, hunting, and sailing. Likely they were also raiding, but not to the extent that would give them their own era.

Many of us are familiar with the Silk Road which brought good from China into Europe. Due to the fall of Rome and the Muslim expansion into Europe, the ensuing unrest pushed trade routes north and eventually towards Scandinavia. This led to more northern trading opportunities but also to more piracy. Vikings were often pirates, although not all Scandinavians were Vikings. (Sorry!) TV has romanticized pirates in the Caribbean and also in Scandinavia. While there was much brutality in the raiding, it should not be overlooked that this provided tremendous opportunities for the Scandinavian people. Trade routes, new technology, more and/or better land for fishing, farming, and hunting came available as they expanded into Britain, Ireland, Greenland, and Iceland. This is what led Vikings to America. I won't say they discovered America. The people already living here would quickly correct me.

However, in the world of Jamie Poole, she is associated with Eliyana and a clan of peoples living on a chain of islands called the Larupine Islands. If you note the map above, they are located north of Scotland and west of Norway. The Orkney and Shetland Islands are nearby. Destiny of the Departed takes place in the year 567, which is two centuries before Lindisfarne. Eliyana mentions the Norse influence within her clan. Although her clan is fictional, it is dropped directly into a hotbed of future Viking activity. Because of this, Vikings and what led to the Viking Era will have influence as the backdrop of this and future books. Destiny of the Departed is a story of Scandinavia people before they hit History's stage.

So get ready for Time-Traveling Viking Raids. (Maybe I'm kidding. Maybe I'm not. You'll never know if you don't read the books!)

If you have enjoyed the movies and television shows and feel curiosity on who these people were and the influence we still feel today this is a must read book. Vikings were equally influential as Romans on our modern world. This is guaranteed to be an exciting read.

Eliyana's people were killed unjustly and prematurely. They want justice. It is up to Jamie to help them find justice. Does she have what it takes? And just want does it take to save a people killed almost 1500 years before one's birth? You'll have to get the book to find out!