Eaters of the Dead

Eaters of the Dead

First edition cover
Author	Michael Crichton
Language	English
Genre	Plausible historical novel
Publisher	Knopf
Publication date	March 1976
Publication place	United States
Pages	288
ISBN	0394494008
OCLC	1959473
Dewey Decimal	813/.5/4
LC Class	PZ4.C9178 Eat3 PS3553.R48
Preceded by	The Great Train Robbery
Followed by	Congo

Eaters of the Dead: The Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan Relating His Experiences with the Northmen in A.D. 922 (later republished as The 13th Warrior to correspond with the film adaption of the novel) is a 1976 novel by Michael Crichton. The story is about a 10th-century Muslim who travels with a group of Vikings to their settlement.

Crichton explains in an appendix that the book was based on two sources. The first three chapters are a retelling of Ahmad ibn Fadlan's personal account of his actual journey north and his experiences with and observations of Vikings (probably from Sweden). The remainder is based upon the story of Beowulf.

Plot summary

The novel is set in the 10th century. The Caliph of Baghdad (Arabic: المقتدر بالله) sends his ambassador, Ahmad ibn Fadlan (Arabic احمد بن فضلان), to the king of the Volga Bulgars. He never arrives but is instead captured by a group of Vikings. This group is sent on a hero's quest to the north. Ahmad ibn Fadlan is taken along, as the thirteenth member of their group, to bring good luck. There they battle with the 'mist-monsters', or 'wendol', a relict group of Neanderthals who go to battle wearing bear skins like the berserkers found in the original Beowulf story.

Eaters of the Dead is narrated as a scientific commentary on an old manuscript. The narrator describes how the story told is a composite of extant commentaries and translations of the works of the original story teller. There are several references during the narration to a possible change or mistranslation of the original story by later copiers. The story is told by several different voices: the editor/narrator, the translators of the script and the original author, ibn Fadlan, as well as his descriptions of stories told by others. A sense of authenticity is supported by occasional explanatory footnotes with references to a mixture of factual and fictitious sources.

Sources and inspiration

In an afterword in the novel Crichton gives a few comments on its origin. A good friend of Crichton's was giving a lecture on the "Bores of Literature". Included in his lecture was an argument on Beowulf and why it was simply uninteresting. Crichton stated his views that the story was not a bore and was, in fact, a very interesting work. The argument escalated until Crichton stated that he would prove to him that the story could be interesting if presented in the correct way.

In a seemingly offhand reference, Abdullah Alḥaẓred's (عبدالله الحظرد) Necronomicon (of H. P. Lovecraft fame) is quoted in the in-character bibliography.

Film adaptation

The novel was adapted into film as The 13th Warrior, directed by John McTiernan and released by Walt Disney Pictures through its Touchstone banner. Crichton himself did some uncredited directing for a reshoot after Disney fired McTiernan for various reasons, one of which was going way over budget. The consensus among test audiences was that McTiernan's original (longer) cut of the film was much better than the final theatrical release. Ibn Fadlan was played by Antonio Banderas. Crichton writes that he was "quite pleased" with the film, though it earned mixed reviews and performed poorly at the box office, earning about $62 million worldwide; the film's budget was more than $100 million.

References

• Crichton, Michael. "A Factual Note on Eaters of the Dead" in Eaters of the Dead. New York: The Ballantine Publishing Company, 1992. ISBN 0-345-35461-3.