Showing results by author "Michael E. Wills" in All Categories

Amesbury, just two miles from Stonehenge, is regarded as one of the oldest towns in Britain, with evidence of habitation for more than 5,000 years. In 2002, a male skeleton was discovered there. It had lain undisturbed for almost that length of time. Archaeological research showed that the man was born almost a thousand miles from where he died. He had lived in the period when the Stone Age was ending and the age of metal was dawning.

An exciting Viking story for six- to 10-year-olds. Sven’s father is a prisoner in a far-away country. There is a way to get him free and Sven knows how to do it, but he will need help. An offer of assistance comes from a very unexpected and frightening source. Will Sven be brave enough to accept it?

After three years in the service of the emperor of the Greeks, Ahl and his Viking friends have become very rich. Now the crew longs to return home with their wealth, their problem is that the emperor will not permit them to leave. They make a daring plan to escape. The route home is perilous as they navigate uncharted seas. They must overcome robbers, storms, and hostile strangers as they seek their way back to the Northlands with the riches they have earned.

Maia is an Egyptian girl who lived at the time of the pharaohs. Her normal happy life is interrupted when she is kidnapped and made to work as a home help in a house very far from her own. Her only possessions are the clothes she wears and her very special red slippers. When one of these is stolen she is desperately sad. But help comes from an unexpected place and her plight comes to the attention of the pharaoh. The story is based on an Egyptian folk tale.

The young crew of the Viking ship Eagle set out on a new journey when they are given the task of delivering a message in the land of the Rus. But fate has a surprise in store for them when they are ordered to travel on the Viking trading route south to Constantinople, a route fraught with danger. They must face warring tribesmen, deadly rapids and a host of other dangers before they reach their destination.

When one of their friends is captured and sold into slavery in the land of the Rus, the children of the old chieftain and their comrades decide to risk everything to rescue him. Little do they know what awaits them when they embark on the Viking ship, the Eagle. In addition to the dangers of the sea voyage, they must face the villainy of a traitor, marauding pirates, and robbers, before they end up in a seemingly hopeless situation as slaves in a quarry.

The year is 950 AD and the story starts in the town of Birka on an island in the great lake which covers a vast area inland of what is today Stockholm. It was a wealthy town at the center of an international trading network where merchants from as far afield as Turkey, Russia and Ireland met to buy, sell and barter. The wealth of the island also attracted unwelcome visitors and frequently the Birka warriors had to defend their homes and families against gangs of Viking raiders.