Vikings (Raiders and Ruins)

The Vikings are the main antagonists from the book Raiders and Ruins by Terry Deary. They are seafarers and traders who sometimes raid non-Vikings villages and abbeys. The book is focused on ones who live in a small village in Norway.

History
Everything changes when a Viking slave girl Hilda saves Eric, an English young novice monk who fled from Lindisfarne Abbey in a small boat and almost died in the storm, and she gets him on their ship. She sells him as a slave to Rollo and his son Harald. Rollo orders Eric to go fishing, but to avoid the southern bay. However, Eric infringes Rollo's order and sails to the bay where Harald throws down a stone from the cliff, almost hitting Eric.

Later, Hilda reveals to Eric that the Vikings are going to attack some monks. To find out which ones, two slaves listen to the conversation of the Vikings on their meeting, only to learn they are going to attack an abbey somewhere in North East England. Next day, Hilda cons Harald to leave the cliff, so Eric can enter the cliff safely. He finds big dragon-ships there and even sees the mock battle between the Vikings where Mad Magnus the Berserker mistakenly injuries the leader of the village Sigurd who later dies. Hilda's owners offer her as a wife to Sigurd, meaning she will be burnt with his body. Luckily, she doesn't understand Norwegian and Eric lies to her about wedding, so she suspects nothing.

At funeral feast, the Vikings get drunk. Eric and Hilda then try to escape to England in Eric's small boat, but their plan fails thanks to Mad Magnus' failure attempt to kill himself. They return to the village where they find out it is Lindisfarne Abbey the Vikings are going to raid.

Next day, the ship with Sigurd's body is sent to the sea, along with Mad Magnus, Hilda and Eric who has to burn it and then return to the village in the boat. However, he uses the ship to sail back to England. Mad Magnus eventually decides to help Hilda and him. They reach Lindisfarne and warn the monks, but are only able to save Father Patrick and Ethelbert, Eric's friend. The Vikings come shortly after and raid the abbey completely.

Behind the Laughter

 * This story is based on the real-life event when the Vikings from Norway raided Lindisfarne in 793.