Black Fox of Lorne

By Marguerite de Angeli “Now we shall go a-Viking.” With these fateful words, Harald Redbeard determines a new course of life for his twin sons, Jan and Brus. No longer are they children, at work and at play on the lands of their kinfolk in Norway; now, although they are but thirteen years of age, they are men: they shall go a-Viking.  Setting sail in their dragon-prowed Raven of the Wind, Harald and his sons are beset by those ancient enemies of seafarers—storm and fog—which separate them from the other ships in their convoy and dash them to ruin on the rocks of Scotland.  Even as they wrestle with the fear that their mother and household are lost to the sea god in watery death, Jan and Brus find their plight worsening: their father slain and their own freedom taken by the murderous Gavin Dhu, Black Fox of Lorne. Swept into the wilding world of tenth-century A.D. Scotland, where loyal clansmen clash with invaders, marauders, and treacherous lairds, the brothers must enact a life-or-death deception. Their secret: that no one in this strange land reckons they are not one, but two—twin brothers with the courage to defy the odds that death might be likelier than life. As she did with medieval England in her award-winning The Door in the Wall, Marguerite de Angeli employs her familiarity with setting and knowledge of history and myth alike to craft and illustrate Black Fox of Lorne into a credible and stirring story at the full strength of legend.  They were twins, so like in voice and look, in manner and motion, that one was easily mistaken for the other. The game was a part of their lives.    Marguerite de Angeli (1889–1987) was an American author and illustrator of children’s literature. Noteworthy among her many books are The Door in the Wall, winner of the 1950 Newbery Award, and Yonie Wondernose and a Book of Nursery and Mother Goose Rhymes, both of which earned Caldecott Honors. Born in Lapeer, Michigan, de Angeli spent most of her adult life in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she and her husband of fifty-nine years, John, raised their six children.  * * * Hardcover: 220pp., illustrated with ribbon ISBN: 978-1685954086 ALLTA Collection | Book Five