Rich, suspenseful, funny, scatological, farcical, profound, adolescent, dramatic…….

I’m using one of Scottish playwright David Greig’s techniques in his impressive first novel. Here’s one of his lists—names of some of the Viking raiders who land on the Scottish island of Iona in 825 AD at the beginning of the 183-page novel: Buttercock, Bloodnose, Eyeballs, Gore Dog, Puffin Face, One Ear, Chin Slitter, Fuck-a-Whale, Lead Fist, Shorty, Fat Dog, Denmark, Horse Boy, Madhead and Ghost Axe.

The Vikings actually did invade and pillage the Island of Iona in 825. It was easy to do so because the tiny island was a religious retreat populated by unarmed monks. Greig uses this historical event and even has the actual abbot, Blathmac, as one of his characters. The first chapter describes the invasion, the killing, the destruction of valuable religious accoutrements and the departure of the Vikings with the island’s womenfolk. The remaining 28 chapters describe the aftermath, the way the three survivors recover. 

Greig develops these three characters brilliantly. We meet Grimur first, as he is one of the Viking raiders and is a survivor in an unusual way. Feeling his age, Grimur doesn’t join his younger enthusiastic colleagues when they charge up the beach. In fact he is disenchanted by the whole Viking culture. Off on his own, Grimur finds a mead kitchen on the far side of the island and gets so comatose drunk that when his Viking friends find him, they think he’s dead and bury him. Una, the mead lady who gets Grimur drunk so that he is unable to kill her, is able to avoid capture by staying on the far side of the island. And the third survivor is a young monk, Brother Martin who hides in the filth of the island latrine, “up to his knees in a sea of shit.”  

The rest of the story follows the interaction between Grimur the Viking, Martin the Christian novitiate, and Una the mead lady. There are some visitors:, the local king’s men from the nearby Island of Mull; and later an anchoress called Bronagh. But the focus is on the three survivors of the Viking raid. 

Grimur’s character is especially successful as his Viking upbringing clashes with the complete Christian devotion of Martin, the young monk. Equally successful are the interactions between the mead lady and Grimur as two vastly different cultures are tested. Martin, who is scripting one of the gospels is convincingly drawn as he struggles to maintain his Christian devotion in difficult situations.

David Greig came to write this book following a offer from Jamie Crawford of Birlinn to contribute a historical novel to the recently established Darkland Tales series. This Scottish series had already published novels by Denise Mina, Alan Warner and Jenni Fagan. To be part of the Darkland series, Greig’s novel would have to be “historical, short and a thriller.” (The National, Oct 14, 2023) And its subject matter had to be Scottish.

A longtime interest in Scottish medieval history encouraged Grieg to accept Crawford’s offer. He told The National that his playwriting experience of having to cut drama texts was helpful in the writing of his first novel. He also found he had to limit dialogue so that it didn’t sound like a play. 

Columba’s Bones is above all a great read. I’ve read it four times. I learnt a lot about the clash between the Nordic Viking Culture and the Christian Celtic culture. I reveled in the character of the Viking Grimur. I laughed a lot. And I took particular pleasure in the writing of David Grieg. Time to read his plays.