'Sword Brethren' by Jon Byrne - Medieval Adventure

10 hours ago6 min read

Author Jon Byrne joins us today for an interview as we delve into his evocatively titled novel, Sword Brethren. Jon shares some interesting behind-the-scene tidbits into the writing of Sword Brethren.

Bound by faith. Forged in battle. Haunted by doubt.

About Sword Brethren

by Jon Byrne

1242. After being wounded in the Battle on the Ice, Richard Fitz Simon becomes a prisoner of Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod. Alexander, intrigued by his captive’s story, instructs his scholar to assist Richard in writing about his life.

Richard’s chronicle begins in 1203, when his training to be a knight is disrupted by treachery. He is forced to flee England for Lübeck, where he begins work for a greedy salt merchant. After an illicit love affair, his new life is thrown into turmoil, and he joins the Livonian Brothers of the Sword as they embark on imposing the will of God on the pagans of the eastern Baltic. Here, he must reconcile with his new life of prayer, danger and duty – despite his own religious doubts, with as many enemies within the fortified commandery as the wilderness outside. However, when their small outpost in Riga is threatened by a large pagan army, Richard is compelled to make a crucial decision and fight like never before.

'Sword Brethren' by Jon Byrne - graphic for blog tour

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An Interview with Jon Byrne

What do you think readers will love about your book?

Sword Brethren should interest anyone interested in historical adventure – especially novels set during the medieval period. The book is the first instalment of The Northern Crusader Chronicles, and the action begins in England, before moving on to the early Hanseatic city of Lübeck, and finally ending in Livonia (Latvia and Estonia).

Many books have been written about the Crusades in the Holy Land, but the Northern Crusades have been largely forgotten, despite being just as fascinating and rich in drama and violent conflict. Sword Brethren is an epic adventure that culminates in the first of many battles against an elusive enemy in this undiscovered wilderness of forest and swamp.

The book seeks to explore this neglected legacy, and I hope it might appeal to readers who enjoy the bestselling authors Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, or Ben Kane.

Which writer(s) have or do inspire you?

I generally read books in the same genre as I write (historical action/adventure), and in my opinion, Bernard Cornwell is the master storyteller and probably the best author in this category. I have virtually all of his books – most of the Sharpe series as well as The Last Kingdom and all of the subsequent books detailing the history of King Alfred the Great and Uhtred of Bebbanburg’s many battles against the Danes (Vikings) in the Dark Ages. I cannot recommend these books enough, along with his trilogy about King Arthur starting with The Winter King. No one can quite describe a battle like Cornwell, and he really makes you feel like you are in the middle of the fighting. His attention to detail is exceptionally good without overburdening the reader with too many historical ‘facts’.

Other great writers in the historical action genre include Ken Follett, of course, whose masterpiece Pillars of the Earth, details the fictional building of a cathedral in 12th century England. It is an epic book that deserves to be on everyone’s bookshelf, but with over 400,000 words and over 1000 pages, it’s not for the faint-hearted. Another good author who I enjoy is Robert Harris, who writes historical fiction set in many different periods of history – the amount of research he must undertake for each novel is truly impressive.

Did this book require extensive research? If so, what did you find most interesting?

Sword Brethren required thorough research that took many years to complete. I have built up a small library of books on the crusades in the Baltic and medieval life in general. Additionally, my book was kindly read for any historical errors by Prof. William Urban, a medieval historian from Monmouth College, IL, and the preeminent English-speaking expert on the Northern Crusades. Despite being retired and in his eighties, he also took time to read and comment on the next book in the series, Soldier of Christ, for which I am very grateful.

However, the principal first-hand source I used is The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, which was written by a priest, Henricus des Lettis. The chronicle deals with events in the eastern Baltic between 1180 and 1226. Written from the German point of view, it describes the role of the Latin Church in colonising and spreading Christianity to the local pagan tribes. It is a detailed account, rich in human history, and Henry provides eyewitness testimony of events. This is particularly valuable as there is practically no other first-hand evidence of the early Christian settlement of what is now Latvia and Estonia.

However, the part of the research that I probably enjoyed the most was visiting all of the places in the novel: East Anglia in England, Lübeck in Germany, and Latvia. To see these settings in real life really helped to get a better feel of how they might have been nearly 800 years ago. (B&B: Impressive!)

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just to see where an idea takes you?

When I am writing, I have an approximate idea of where I want the book to go, but there is no detailed outline or plot. One of the things I enjoy most is the journey into the unknown, sometimes seeing the plotline getting dragged in different directions – to places I had never even considered when I started. Only afterwards do I write a chapter breakdown to better see where the story is lagging and to help improve the pacing.

Having said that, I do make extensive notes, sometimes drawing certain buildings or scenes in order to better visualise them. A lot is left to the imagination because there are very few buildings remaining from medieval times – mostly churches and castles that have been extended or rebuilt so extensively, until there is only a fraction remaining of what would have stood in the early 13th century. And many of the buildings and even castles at this time were made of wood, so obviously there is nothing left to accurately show how it really would have been.

What is a significant way your book has changed since the first draft?

The name of the book has changed three times. During most of the writing process it was called Brothers of the Sword, a title I liked a lot, but due to two other books with the same name coming out in 2023 – both in the same genre by far more famous authors than me, caused me to finally change it to Sword Brethren.

Like most books that are published, Sword Brethren underwent many drafts during the editing process. One of the biggest changes came at the suggestion of a professional editor who advised that the book should end at the end of Part 2. I took his advice, and it cut the book by over 25,000 words. However, as the story then ended just before Richard, the protagonist, actually joined the Order of Swordbrothers and embarked on the crusade, this was against the whole premise of the book. After initially taking his advice, I was never really happy and felt the book had lost its appeal. As it was always intended to be the first in a series, I realised that writing about a crusade that few people knew about was what made the book different. Otherwise, it was just another adventure novel set during medieval times.

So, working with another editor, I reinserted the final third of the book again, heavily revising and improving the end to make it more satisfying, even though the story was incomplete. Now the book is more in line with what I originally intended.

B&B: One can really feel the passion you have for this book and the research behind it. It sounds fascinating! Thank you for sharing an extra glimpse into the writing of it.

Author Jon Byrne

Jon Byrne, originally from London, now lives with his German family by a lake in Bavaria with stunning views of the Alps. As well as writing, he works as a translator for a local IT company and occasionally as a lumberjack.

He has always been fascinated by history and has studied the Medieval world for over twenty years, building up a comprehensive library of books. In his research, he has travelled to all of the locations mentioned in the book (East Anglia, Bremen, Lübeck, Latvia, etc).

Sword Brethren (formerly Brothers of the Sword) made it to the shortlist of the Yeovil Literary Prize 2022 and the longlist of the prestigious Grindstone International Novel Prize 2022. It is the first book in The Northern Crusader Chronicles.

www.jonbyrnewriter.com

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