Sword Song is the swashbuckling story of Bjarni, a Viking swordsman. Banished from his home for a murder he didn't intend to commit, Bjarni takes up a new life as a mercenary. He journeys from England to Dublin, and then to the islands off the west coast of Scotland. There he meets the man who is to shape the course of his life for years to come, a life that will lead him from boyhood to manhood--fighting among the clan chiefs from the west coast of Scotland in feuds as bitter and bloody as can be imagined.

Discovered among her papers after her death in 1992, Sword Song is a fitting capstone to Rosemary Sutcliff's marvelous career as one of Britain's premier authors of historical fiction.