8 h 34 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 34 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Before the familiar Viking raids, a young Norseman takes to the sea, bound by honor, loyalty, and the warrior’s life.
In Paul Du Chaillu’s Ivar the Viking, the sea is a road that leads far from home. Ivar, a young Norse warrior, sails across the Baltic and the North Sea as he rises among fighting men. Ships, sea crossings, battles, and feasts fill a story set in the third and fourth centuries.
Alongside Ivar’s adventures, Du Chaillu explores how Northern people live, worship, travel, and bind themselves to leaders through oaths. Odin and Thor belong to the characters’ everyday beliefs. The novel also gives shape to the author’s argument that the early North holds skilled sailors, lawmakers, and craftsmen, not warriors alone.
What you’ll discover
- A young warrior’s rise Follow Ivar among fighting men, where honor and loyalty guide his course.
- The sea as road Sail across the Baltic and North Sea on voyages that carry Ivar far from home.
- Oaths and shared feasts Explore the bonds that hold warriors together, from loyalty to their leader to life among companions.
- Gods in daily life Discover a fictional Norse world where belief in Odin and Thor runs through everyday experience.
- An unhurried Northern world Settle into formal prose that gives space to customs, craftsmanship, worship, and travel.
Who will love it
For readers who love sagas, dragon ships and berserk champions, and who enjoy rich detail about halls, oaths, omens and games. It also suits anyone curious about how early Norse people lived and sailed.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A chief rules within shared laws
- Fate begins at the cradle
- Leadership starts far from home
- Shared honor turns rivals into brothers
- Sacred vows become public action
- Voyages reveal more than raiding
- Loss makes honor a personal duty
- Marriage promises bring rival claims
- Courage answers the claims of fate
Who’s who
- IvarSon of Hjorvard and ruler of Gotland in time, a gifted athlete and warrior who wants lasting fame and the love of Randalin.
- HjorvardIvar's father, the Hersir of Gotland and a sea raider whom Roman fleets avoid, who longs for an heir.
- HjalmarIvar's foster-brother from Engel, a champion runner and swimmer who loves Astrid and is loyal to his friends.
- SigurdThe older foster-brother, a traveled and thoughtful Viking who has not yet met the woman fate holds for him.
- SigmundSigurd's younger kinsman and a sworn foster-brother, a fighter who falls for the shy and lovely Solveig.
- RandalinYngvi's second daughter, learned and brave, who admires courage above beauty and chooses Ivar as her husband.
- YngviThe Hersir of Svithjod at Upsalir, host of the games, who keeps twelve berserk champions and three renowned daughters.
- SigrlinIvar's mother, wise and proud, who manages the estates and fears for her son when dreams warn of danger.
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Ivar the Viking
by Paul Du Chaillu · 1893
A Viking heir wins wrestling crowns, a bride and feuds while foster-brothers swear blood oaths in the Baltic.
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“Whoever commands the sea commands power”
In short
What does a young chief learn before he leads a fleet? In Ivar the Viking, a boy born on the Baltic island of Gotland around the year 275 is named, fostered, trained and sent to sea, while the Roman Empire trembles at the sight of Norse sails.
Ivar the Viking at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 45 min3 h 50 min fast, 5 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 68,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1893by Paul Du Chaillu
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Viking lord rules from Dampstadir
The story opens with a mariner sailing past Gotland and seeing great burial mounds on a headland. Two of them belong to Hjorvard and his son Ivar. Hjorvard is a Hersir, a hereditary chief and high priest, and he has never lost a battle.
His home is Dampstadir, a quadrangle of tarred wooden halls around a grassy square. Carved dragon heads jut from the roofs. In the great hall, shields line the walls, and Hjorvard's sword Hrotti hangs above his seat, wrapped in peace bands that only he may untie, and only for war. Roman swords, coins and painted Greek glass recall the voyages of his forefathers.
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Details
- First published
- 1893
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Du Chaillu, Paul. Ivar the Viking. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/ivar-the-viking.
Du Chaillu, P. (2026). Ivar the Viking. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ivar-the-viking (Original work published 1893)
Du Chaillu, Paul. Ivar the Viking. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ivar-the-viking.
@book{duchaillu2026ivar,
author = {Du Chaillu, Paul},
title = {Ivar the Viking},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ivar-the-viking},
note = {First published 1893}
}
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What is Ivar the Viking about?
It follows Ivar, son of the chief Hjorvard of Gotland, from his birth around the year 275 through his fostering, voyages, battles, friendships and courtship. The tale shows Norse customs, gods, feasts, games and laws around the year 300.
Is Ivar the Viking a true story?
It is a historical novel by Paul Du Chaillu, published in 1893. The main characters come from his own invention and Norse tradition, but he built the setting from sagas, graves and museum objects to picture real Norse life.
Who are Sigurd, Sigmund and Hjalmar?
They are Ivar's sworn foster-brothers. Hjalmar is his boyhood companion from Engel, while Sigurd and Sigmund are Vikings he meets in his first expedition. The four swear a blood oath to share dangers and avenge each other.
The author
Paul Du Chaillu
French American explorer and writer
Paul Du Chaillu, who died in 1903, was an explorer and writer, born in the nineteenth century and best known for his accounts of Africa, where he described gorillas and forest peoples. He later travelled in Scandinavia, wrote The Land of the Midnight Sun and The Viking Age, and argued that Norsemen shaped early Britain.
“Whoever commands the sea commands power”
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