The Silver Horn Echoes: A Song of Roland

The Dark Ages--a time of great turmoil and the collision of empires!

As the Frank kingdom prepares for war, Roland, young heir to the Breton March, has been relegated to guard duty until a foreign emissary entrusts him with vital word of a new threat to the kingdom. Now Roland must embark on a risky journey to save all he loves from swift destruction.

And yet while facing down merciless enemies, he must also reveal the hand of a murderer who even now stalks the halls of power and threatens to pull apart a kingdom reborn under the greatest of medieval kings, the remarkable Charlemagne.

For Roland to become the champion his kingdom needs, he must survive war, intrigue and betrayal. The Silver Horn Echoes pays homage to "La Chanson de Roland" by revisiting an age of intrigue and honor, and a fateful decision in the shadows of a lonely mountain pass--Roncevaux!

Roland and his exploits have been part of my life since I was very young. Some of the first stories I read as a child were from books of mythology that regaled me with the exploits of Roland and his Peers. These tales then led me further to the chivalric deeds of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, Men of Iron by Howard Pyle, and the eternal Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. Many a summer afternoon, after all the chores were done on our small Ohio farm, I spent curled up in the bole of a willow tree with some small volume smuggled from my parent's bookshelves transporting me to lands where brave knights faced insurmountable odds. The books in our home were plentiful, and when I ran out my parents encouraged the use of my library card to seek out more. It was there that I discovered the feats of Byzantine emperors and generals, Charlemagne and his paladin knights, and many more historical tales. Unbeknownst to me at the time, my father was a kindred spirit who must have taken some pride in my interest in things medieval, and in particular a knight named Roland.

For more about the journey to Silver Horn Echoes: A Song of Roland, see Michael Eging's Author Notes in the novel...