A deeply stirring historical tale, one like "The Shield Ring," is rare. The characters are forceful, sympathetic and interesting. There is a startlingly vivid picture of life in hut and Great Hall in a Viking settlement or steading among the northern hills and lakes of England in the eleventh century while the Normans harass its borders….
Splendid as was the "Eagle of the Ninth," this is finer. The intelligent reader over twelve will be caught by the sweep and power of it and by its wild, poetic atmosphere. It cannot be pigeonholed as just for the "young"….
Margaret Sherwood Libby, in her review of "The Shield Ring," in New York Herald Tribune Book Review (© I.H.T. Corporation; reprinted by permission), May 12, 1957, p. 8.
