Explore Jennie Hall books at New West Press.

Jennie Hall's Viking Tales introduces a world of seafaring, leadership, settlement, and expansion through connected stories. Harald Fairhair's early life and rise are part of the narrative, which also looks toward journeys and communities farther west. This collection centers on Hall's retelling of the Viking past, offering readers memorable people and episodes through which to approach a larger subject. The stories invite attention to the relationship between personal ambition and collective movement, and to the ways courage, loyalty, and a search for opportunity are expressed in an unfamiliar social world.

Historical fiction offers a way to encounter an earlier world through the experiences of individual characters. These stories invite discussion of how private loyalties intersect with public events, and how a novelist makes the past feel immediate. Reading alongside a timeline or historical account can help separate invented episodes from documented events while preserving the pleasure of the narrative itself.