It was Celtic missionaries from Ireland who converted the heathen English in the AD sixth century and at the time Ireland was known as center of learning. Well after AD 700, if a monk in Europe could read and write both Latin and Greek, he was most probably of Irish provenance. But by 820, the Celtic Church had practically ceased to exist. Set against the age of the Viking terror, Hammeraxe traces the story of the wronged younger son of a Viking chieftain and his spirited Moorish wife. How she taught him to war with both bow and horse in the Moorish fashion. It tells the story of how he became a chieftain in his own right. How a chance friendship on an island near France led to the violent Viking invasion of Ireland. Why a captive Irish monk betrayed his country and became a Norse chieftain. How the power of the five kings was broken and why the Celtic Church was destroyed. A sweeping tale of flames, terror, betrayal, and love, Hammeraxe tells the story of the Viking invasion of Ireland in the ninth century and how it affected life in Ireland permanently.