Tomas
Friedhoff, age 15, from The Netherlands chose Vinland
for a class assignment. Here is his book report.
Title:
Vinland
Publication
Date: 1992
Author: George Mackay Brown
Number
of pages: 232
The
book is about a young boy called Ranald Sigmundson who lives in a poor
family in Orkney. His mother Thora wants Ranald to visit his
grandfather’s farm next spring so that he can learn the skills of
farming, because his grandfather is old and has no sons who can take
over the farm when he dies. But his aggressive father, who is a skipper
decides that his son will sail with him on his journey to Greenland the
following morning.
They
visit Iceland first and Ranald is told by his father to watch how he
bargained with other merchants. Ranald got bored and wandered of. He
meets a skipper from Greenland called Leif Ericson who tells him about
his plans to sail west as far as he can with his ship West Seeker.
Then he is spotted by his father who punishes him for wandering off.
Next morning the crew of the West Seeker discovers they have a
stowaway, it’s Ranald. The crew accepts Ranald as a new crewmember and
Leif says he would make a good skipper. Therefore he teaches Ranald the
skills which make a good skipper. After a long journey they discover a
beautiful island which they call Vinland.
They
are greeted by the traditional inhabitants and make friends. When the
tribe performs a war dance, as an honour to the crew of the West
Seeker, one of the warriors turns in his wild whirling and finds him
face to face with the cook. Because the warrior has his spear raised,
the cook feels threatened and stabs the warrior to death. Leif is very
angry at the cook, but he has a problem if he kills his cook. The tribe
keeps attacking them after the event, so Leif decides to head back for
Greenland. There Ranald is introduced to the Norwegian skipper Hakon
Treeman who is trading with Leif and when Hakon tells he will be
visiting Orkney with his ship, Ranald becomes homesick. He asks him to
take him aboard his ship Laxoy. First the Laxoy heads for
Norway to purchase some timber.
When
they arrive in Norway, Ranald is told that the king of Norway wants to
speak with him. At the kings palace Ranald is asked to tell the king
about Vinland. When Ranald returns to the ship, the skipper is missing.
Shortly after Ranalds return, news reaches the Laxoy that their
skipper Hakon is dead. The crew decides to deliver their cargo to Orkney
first, before deciding what to do with the ship. In Orkney, the
treasurer of Earl Sigurd wants to buy the whole cargo. He offers 2
marks. But Ranald turns out to be a very good trader and he manages to
get 12 marks for the cargo. They divided the profit. Ranald told them he
enjoyed his time onboard but that he should take care of the farm in
Breckness and his mother.
Next
morning Ranald said farewell to the crew and bought a horse. He rode to
his hometown. He discovers that somebody has taken over the farm. He
manages to take control of the farm again without using any violence.
Ranald’s mother who, has been living in a small house near the farm
since Earl Sigurd threw her out of her home, doesn’t recognize her son
since he is now an adult. Ranald became a good farmer and a wealthy man.
He gets married and has five children. One of them, called Einhof, runs
away from home.
Ranald
starts to take part in politics, by visiting the yearly assembly at
Tingvoe. Meanwhile the sons of the Earls quarrel over the governance of
Orkney, while their father died on a military mission. This results in
high taxes and bad governance. In the course of time, many Earls are
killed by other Earls. After a while, Ranald starts to dislike politics.
He limits himself to the farming and lets his son visit the assembly.
One
day one of Ranalds daughters becomes ill and dies. This hurts Ranald
deeply and he starts to be more private and starts living on a house
which his son has build near to the farm.
When the newest Earl, Earl Thorfinn, visits Breckness with his poet
Arnor there is a big surprise. It turns out that the poet Arnor is
really Einhof. Einhof spends the rest of the day with his family before
returning to the Earl.
It
seems that Ranald is aging rapidly and people say he has become old to
fast. Ranald still misses the sea and being on board a ship, so he
starts designing his own ship. He informs at the local ship wharf about
the possibilities, and it turns out that the owner is not skilful enough
to build such a vessel. Ranald still continues designing his ship. Years
pass by and on one day he wants his wife to pay the shipwright for his
vessel, though the man has been dead for several years. Ranald is
clearly suffering from amnesia. The next morning Ranald was seen leaving
his hut for a walk along the shore. Just before a monastery Ranald fell
down and didn’t get up again. A monk administered the last rites and
some fisherman carry his body into the chapel. Ranald is buried on the
following day.
The
main idea of the author is that the sea and nature form an important
part of his life. It is not surprising because the author himself spent
most of his life living in Orkney ,surrounded by the sea and in a
landscape full of nature.
The
author is not only a novelist but also a poet. His way of living
inspired him to write poems. In the book Vinland I found a fair amount
of them. He also published volumes of poetry.
I
really liked the book because there was no shortage of action. From the
first till the last page it was a nice book to read. All the travels to
distant places, several struggles for the governance from Orkney and the
description of the interesting life of Ranald himself make a perfect
combination. The book isn’t the most difficult adult title, but I
wouldn’t say that it belongs to the adolescent section either. It’s
a kind of hybrid-version, it is too easy for adult but to difficult for
16/17 year olds. The author also uses a fair amount of sailing and
agricultural terms which makes it more difficult to read, but you just
got to get the hang of it or just read past it. Therefore I recommend it
to anyone who is interested, both adults as adolescents, because it’s
just beautiful to read about the sea and distant islands like that. The
book is so good that it made me forget everything around me and in my
opinion that’s the sign of a great book: you forget everything else
while you’re reading and you don’t want to stop till you’ve
finished the book.
The
book ends when it’s going downhill with Ranald’s mental condition.
He is talking about that his ship should be ready by now and that his
wife should go pay the shipwright, but the shipwright died several years
ago. Ranald has continued to isolate himself to meditate in his small
house near the farm. He’s seen leaving this house on Easter morning,
the day after he told his wife to pay the shipwright. Fishermen who are
preparing their ships to sail next day see him walking along the shore.
He trembles a couple of times but he keeps on walking. He falls down
near a monastery and doesn’t get up. When the fisherman reached him is
it too late. He’s already dead and a monk performs the last rites. The
fisherman carry him to the chapel where he is buried the next day.
The
main character has died and the reader isn’t wondering what happens
next. The reader is left with no questions about the ending, so
therefore I come to the conclusion that the book had a closed ending.
I
would prefer an other ending about the book because the first 15 pages
of the book describe the journey to and the stay in Vinland. Ranald
makes friends with a young boy who is a traditional inhabitant of the
island, but because of the aggression of the cook from the West
Seeker this friendship has no future anymore. The crew is forced to
leave and later Ranald settles down in Orkney, but throughout his life
he is faced with the desire to return to Vinland and make friends with
the boy again before his death. I would have liked that he succeeded in
his plans for the perfect ship and to sail with that ship to Vinland
again to make peace with his old friend and his tribe.
Tomas Friedhoff
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