Most readers of any fiction genre are happy to suspend disbelief and accept a story as ‘real’ for the duration of the novel. Readers of historical fiction also trust the author to tell stories about real people and events, and accept the fictional element required to create scenes and relationships between the characters. Reading historical fantasy – such as the excellent novels by Guy Gavriel Kay, or Game of Thrones, which both include elements of real history, involves a slightly different transaction between the author and reader. Here, we have to imagine the setting and epoch in our mind’s eye, and then describe in everyday words. And that is not always easy.
I have come to writing historical fantasy fairly late in my career. I have always enjoyed classic epic fantasy of the Lord of the Rings kind, but I began reading books by Guy Gavriel Kay a few years ago, and that introduced me to another sort of fictional world.
Kay’s stories involve very real people one can relate to in an alternative version of our world. They also contain a lot of history. The Lions of Al-Rassan, for example, is one of the best books on Spanish history I’ve ever read. Kay conveys the power politics, racial and religious struggles so well I lived every page, sensing that this is what it must have been like. This, for me, is where historical fiction and fantasy come together, offering a clearer insight or meaning to the past.
Writing my new series, The Doomsong Saga, involves much the same process as my historical crime fiction. I do a lot of background reading, follow up curious events or details and make reams of notes, which are then consciously, or otherwise, modified for my story. Compelling content is vital, but the devil is in the small details required to make strange happenings believable.
The saga begins in an imaginary early-medieval setting then moves on to include elements of real history and events documented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Book 1, The Doomsong Sword, began as a re-telling of part of the ancient Norse Volsung saga with a fictional reluctant hero, Davor, who comes to possess the sword named Gram (Anger), Doomsong and Truthteller. Sometime later, I reviewed the Scandinavian history Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price (Basic Books, 2020) and saw the storyline for another book. I then became immersed in what’s now called the Viking Age partly because I spend time in Sweden each year – and partly because I grew up on a Viking battlefield.
Book 2, The Doomsong Voyage, begins with the threat of a recently documented climate catastrophe caused by the eruption of a volcano. I tweaked the dates a little but the ash cloud did make life for Scandinavians even more difficult than it already was, bringing in the fabled Fimbulwinter – a never-ending winter – that forced people to seek new homes on fertile land. As a result of this (in my story), a young tale-maker named Finn sets sail on a Baltic trading knarr to find a pirate named Ice-Heart in the Middle Sea. The pirate is a clan leader, who has the knowledge and personality required to persuade his people to leave all they know and cross the ocean to find a better life. The pirate is not called Ice-Heart without reason, however. To say more would be a spoiler.
Having lived on the Mediterranean coast of Italy and then Spain for more than half my life, I was familiar with how the Vikings sailed and raided as far as the Levant; how they established camps and then settled in Frankia and Hispania. My fictional Voyage also includes a version of Moorish Al-Andalus, Barbalus. The independent state of Barbalus came from staying in the hill-top town of Vejer de la Frontera.
As I was writing, more and more documented history crept into the story. But there is good deal of magic in it, too. People firmly believed in magic, shape-shifting, enchantments, and the inexplicable power of gods such as Odin/Woden, Thor and Freya in the so-called Dark Ages.
The Doomsong Voyage developed and grew, and once it was finished, I could see how it would make a series. Fortunately, so could my publisher. And, I’m very pleased to say, the book has received some excellent reviews and endorsements by professional historians.
I’ve now completed the third book in the saga, The Doomsong Legend. This has taken me back home to North Devon in the British West Country, where I grew up – on a Viking battlefield. Historians dispute who fought whom and when, but there is little doubt there were at least two major battles on the stretch of land between Northam and Appledore on the River Torridge. Whether Hubba (Ubbe / Hudd) really did lead 23 dragonships into the estuary as stated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle I do not know, but it makes for a good story.
J.G. Harlond
Málaga, January, 2026
Find more about my books on: www.jgharlond.com
The Doomsong Sword: https://mybook.to/DoomsongSaga1
The Doomsong Voyage: https://mybook.to/DoomsongSaga2
Having lived on the Mediterranean coast in Italy and Spain for more than half my life, I was familiar with how the Vikings raided and traded as far as the Levant. This fictional voyage also includes a version of Al-Andalus. My Independent state of Barbalus was the result of a weekend in the hill-top town of Vejer de la Frontera and staying in an old house with a patio like this.
books about early medieval Ireland: 