Raiders from the Sea- Lois Walfrid Johnson

Lois Walfrid Johnson has done a masterful job integrating historical fiction, adventure, and riveting faith together in a very spellbinding series. These books are very entertaining, but offer something else to a culture that relentlessly seeks entertainment. Johnson challenges us to a high calling of faith and inner character.

In the first volume of the Viking Saga, we meet 13 year old Briana who loves her homeland of Ireland, but long to see far-off places beyond the sea. In one traumatic day that wish is granted as Viking raider’s from across the sea pillage the young girl’s peaceful Irish village. Among the children captured from their homeland is Bree and her older brother Devin, who managed to save their younger siblings while sacrificing themselves.

We soon see that the Viking raiders are led by Mikkel, the son of a great Viking chieftain, a boy whose life Bree had saved the morning of her capture. The young Viking prince releases Devin on coasts far from his home, to be rid of his indebtedness to Bree. However, he refuses to release this unusual young woman who surprises him all along the journey. Bree and Devin must then embark on their own journeys of courage and self discovery. Devin must find his way home, and Bree must go on as the personal slave of the 15 year Mikkel.

Readers will be mesmerized by what unfolds along Bree’s journey as the slave to a Viking Prince. She will be forced to hold fast to her faith as the Pagan practices of her Viking captors bombard her all along her journey. The characters, male and female alike, are strong and deep, living out biblical truths despite difficult situations.

Perhaps the most poignant scene in the story is when a treacherous storm threatens to destroy the captive laden ship. The Vikings pray to the god Thor to save them, but, getting no results, they threaten to start throwing captives overboard to appease their god. Bree steps in to pray to the Almighty God. In moments the storm subsides as God mightily displays His authority over the wind and the rain. The Vikings are forced to show Briana a grudging respect as they struggle with the superiority of her God. This story will carry you with it all the way to the end.