High Kings & Vikings — Nigel Tranter

As Christendom approached the first Millennium, conflict and war prevailed throughout a troubled Scotland. The population remained under constant threat from bloodthirsty Viking raids, and the High Kings of Scots came and went, their brief reigns usually coming to a violent end.

In 995, young Cormac mac Farquhar, newly succeeding his father as Thane of Glamis, was to find himself reluctantly caught up in the misfortunes of the ruling monarch, Kenneth the Second, and the ensuing national chaos. But little did Cormac know that out of this legacy of hatred, he would find unexpected happiness.

In this compelling tale, Nigel Tranter vividly recreates the so-called Dark Ages, one of the most little-known -- and violent -- periods in the whole of Scotland's dramatic history.