Eric Brighteyes

Eric Brighteyes is a Viking romance inspired by Norse sagas and Haggard’s 1888 visit to Iceland. Beloved of two women, the light and dark haired half-sisters Gudruda the Gentle and Swanhild the witch, Eric and his companion Skallagrim the baresark undergo trials and adventures to escape the wrath of Eric's enemy Ospakar Blacktooth. The People serialized EB in 1891. On 13 May 1891 Longmans, Green, and Co., London, published the first book edition, which was illustrated with 17 full-page woodcut prints and 34 supplemental illustrations (13 initial letters) by Lancelot Speed. 10,000 copies issued. William Bryce, Toronto, retains Speed’s illustrations for the 1891 1st Canadian edition. In 1891 Heinemann and Balestier, Leipzig, published an edition for their English Library series. John W. Lovell, New York, published the 1st US edition the same year. Interestingly, EB’s publication corresponds with the US International Copyright Act of 1891. This act extended American copyright protection in a limited capacity to foreign authors of select nations including Great Britain. For this reason, EB is the last Haggard novel with rampant pirated American copies. Macdonald & Co., London, published an edition of EB with an illustrated dust jacket in 1949, 1st thus, with a 4th imprint appearing in November 1963. This edition is illustrated by Lancelot Speed, with a title-page drawing and jacket design by Hookway Cowles.

Further Reading

Orel, H. “Adapting the Conventions of the Historical Romance: Rider Haggard's Eric Brighteyes.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 36.1 (1993): 40-59.

Pocock, Tom. Rider Haggard and the Lost Empire. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993. 78-79, 89.

Whatmore, D. E. H Rider Haggard: A Bibliography. Westport, CT: Meckler Publishing Co., 1987. F14, 23-25.