“Stand up naked in the storm! Shake back your mane and face the thunders and the giant winds that roar between the worlds. Face the rush of events, the gigantic Truths, the dizzying realities. Be one with the tempests, the roaring ocean, and the swirling constellations."
- A Thunder of Trumpets
The first story in this collection, "The Grey God Passes", is a blend of historical fiction and fantasy, set in early medieval Ireland, centring on the bloody Battle of Clontarf, in which 11,000 people were slain, the High King Brian Boru was killed, but the power of the Vikings in Ireland was broken. The fantasy elements of the De Danaan "Dark People", prophesy and spectral interventions of pagan gods are woven in as part of the characters' ??
"It is the death-grip. Now comes the reaping of kings, the garnering of chiefs like a harvest. Gigantic shadows stalk red-handed across the world, and night is falling on Asgaard. I hear the cries of long-dead heroes whistling in the void, and the shouts of forgotten gods. To each there is an appointed time, and even the gods must die..."
- The Grey God Passes
Howard's Grey God, Odin, predicting doom before the Battle of Clontarf, Ireland, 1014.
Marchers Of Valhalla | 
