This acclaimed fantasy classic of men, elves, and gods is at once
breathtakingly exciting and heartbreakingly tragic.
Published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, Poul Anderson's
novel The Broken Sword draws on similar Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon
sources. In his greed for land and power, Orm the Strong slays the
family of a Saxon witch--and for his sins, the Northman must pay with
his newborn son. Stolen by elves and replaced by a changeling, Skafloc
is raised to manhood unaware of his true heritage and treasured for his
ability to handle the iron that the elven dare not touch. Meanwhile, the
being who supplanted him as Orm's son grows up angry and embittered by
the humanity he has been denied. A pawn in a witch's vengeance, the
creature Valgard will never know love, and consumed by rage, he will
commit a murderous act of unspeakable vileness.
It is their destiny to finally meet on the field of battle--the man-elf
and his dark twin, the monster--when the long-simmering war between
elves and trolls finally erupts with a devastating fury. And only the
mighty sword Tyrfing, broken by Thor and presented to Skafloc in
infancy, can turn the tide in a terrible clashing of faerie folk that
will ultimately determine the fate of the old gods.
Along with such notables as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, multiple Hugo
and Nebula Award winner Poul Anderson is considered one of the masters
of speculative fiction.
This edition contains the author's original text.
