Michael Crichton · 1976 · sea

Michael Crichton's 1976 novel, a sly retelling of Beowulf framed as the lost manuscript of Ibn Fadlan, a real 10th-century Arab courtier. Sent north from Baghdad as an ambassador, Ibn Fadlan is instead conscripted by a band of Northmen as the thirteenth warrior in a quest, and carried by river and sea to a Scandinavian hall besieged by the wendol, the cannibal mist-monsters of the dark. Adapted to film as The 13th Warrior.

1. 1
   Baghdad

   The Caliph sends the courtier Ibn Fadlan north as ambassador to the king of the Volga Bulgars.

2. 2
   The Volga Bulgars

   A long overland journey, east of the Caspian and across the steppe, to the Volga, where he meets the Northmen and is taken as their thirteenth warrior.

3. 3
   Gardarike

   By ship up the rivers of the Rus, through the realm the Northmen call Gardarike, the land of rivers.

4. 4
   Hurot Hall

   Across the Eastern Sea to Rothgar's hall in the Danish north, where Buliwyf and his men make their stand against the eaters of the dead.