A question for the hive mind

[la_marquise]

How many vikings are too many? Or, more accurately, how many viking attacks can you stand within one book? I need at least two, for plot reasons, but I don't want to be boring.

Comments

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

If it's made clear that the Vikings are frequently attacking, then I can stand two, no problems.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

How many significantly different Viking attacks can you write? The answer is the maximum you should have per book. (And no Steve Jackson cheating where you make people roll to see if the Vikings kill them this time.)

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Make them different, and there's no problem.

[anef.livejournal.com]

Detailed descriptions of cute half-naked vikings, long blond hair, big axes. Oh, not *that* sort of book?

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever put down a book because it had too many viking attacks. Two would be fine.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Drastically different results from each attack? Attacks on different places, involving different people? Vikings attacking each other?

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

um... not to be too pedantic and medievalist-like, but if you want to get a reasonable number, I am almost positive that the Annales Bertiniani, Fuldensis, and Xantensis (?) all have numbers in the sense of, "this year, those bastard vikings attacked again" starting in about 878. Do the Irish and/or Welsh records (and I expect various A/S monastic annals ( are there such things?) would give you a really good idea.

My gut feeling is that, if we're talking about actual raids from Scandinavia, it's about one raid per year per group, and that you wouldn't get more than two different raids per year in any case, because raiding has a purpose, and it makes sense only to raid when there's stuff to take. Who robs an empty house?

ETA: which means, I expect that I can handle an attack per year, but not in great detail.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Could you do a different POV for each attack? That would add variety. (I'm happy with two attacks)

[armb.livejournal.com]

Bernard Cornwell probably gives you a lower bound on how many you can get away with, and I'm fairly sure it's more than two....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saxon_Stories

(Of course he's writing a series where conflict with the Vikings is a central theme of the whole thing, so two could still possibly be too many in a different book. But if there are good plot reasons for both, and the descriptions are repetitive, I'm sure two would be fine.)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

As many as you need, as long as it's not the same battle over and over.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't balk at two, especially if they were presented in individual ways. More than two and you'd really have to work hard on making each one seem fresh. But at the end of the day, it's however many you need to tell the story.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I fail to see how you can make a viking attack boring, no matter how many there are.

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

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