Christmas Reading...

So I got this book for Christmas (Somerled Hammer of the Norse) and have now finished it. If your interested in this period this book gives a reasonable outline of the politics of the era and of Somerled's raise to Lord of the Isles. Sadly it gives no details on Somerled's main battles.

Generally this book is, in my opinion, more about championing the brave Gaels against the nasty and barbaric Norse than giving a detailed account of Somerled's life. The book comes down firmly in the camp of Somerled as a Gael despite modern DNA testing seeming to suggest Somerled was Norse (or at least partial Norse) and he most certainly had a Norse name.

Quite a lot of the book (about a third) is concerned with the Lordship of the isles after Somerled's death and subjects like Norse longships and the Gaelic language all interesting stuff if not directly useful to my hobby project.

All in all not a bad book (if you can take the authors Gael propaganda with a pinch of salt) and to be honest I haven't find much else out there dealing with Somerled.