Excerpt from When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

He looked at my brother. "What's she saying?"

"Góðan dag," I repeated, then said: "Ek heiti Zelda! Hvat heitir þú?"

Which was me telling him my name and then asking what his name was.

"Tell her what I told you to say," Gert said to the Viking.

Gert was sitting on the arm of the couch, wearing a cone birthday hat with wrinkled fingers coming out of the top. The wrinkly fingers waved around from the balcony wind.

The Viking stared for a second, not knowing what my brother was talking about, and then his face got big with understanding. "Oh, right. One second."

The Viking closed his eyes and cleared his throat, like he was the President about to tell the world something very important. Gert turned down the drum music, which I had him download specially off the Internet from Kepple's website.

"Ack anne there," he said, stopping after each word and looking at me the entire time. "Ack anne there." The Viking turned to Gert. "Am I saying it right?"

"Is he?" Gert asked me.

"Ack anne there," I said.

It sounded like Old Norse, or sort of like Old Norse, only with less spitting. "Can you say it again, please? With more spitting?"

"Ack anne there." He coughed and took out a sheet of folded paper from his plastic underwear, which was shiny and gold (something a real Viking wouldn't be wearing). He handed me the piece of paper.

The words were in Old Norse. I sounded out each letter. "Oh," I said. "Ek ann þér."

Gert smiled. "Right?"

It was not perfect, but I told Gert that I liked the Viking very much with my smile.

Excerpted from When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald. Copyright © 2020 by Andrew David MacDonald. Excerpted by permission of Gallery/Scout Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.