Vinland (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Vinland
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author = George Mackay Brown
cover_artist =
country = Great Britain
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = John Murray (UK) & Polygon (UK)
release_date = 1992
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 260 pp (paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN 978-1-904598-33-6 (paperback edition)
preceded_by =
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"Vinland", published in 1992 by George Mackay Brown, is a historical novel set in the Orkney Islands in the early 11th Century. It derives its name from a voyage the protagonist takes to that faraway land in the west.

Plot summary

The novel's progagonist is Ranald Sigmundson, an Orkneyman who journeys to Vinland as a youth, fights in the battle of Clontarf, and has other adventures. Later in life, Ranald tends his farm and warns his family and friends against becoming too involved in worldly affairs. The story's prose style is quite minimalistic and vivid, after the manner of an ancient Norse saga. It is, like much of Brown's other work, a revival of that literary form.