Erik the Viking Sheep

Christine Linge is a past director of the Toronto & District Parent
Co-operative Preschool Corporation, a freelance writer, and a bookseller
specializing in children’s literature.

While Erik the Icelandic sheep is quarantined, he is visited by Marie,
the farmer’s daughter. Marie names the red-fleeced sheep “Erik the
Red” and amuses him with stories and books about the Vikings.
Thereafter, Erik daydreams that he is a Viking sheep, leading raids on
farms from his dragon boat. Once released from quarantine, he speaks
endlessly of these fantasies to the other sheep, actually hoping to
organize a Viking raid. But the sheep “don’t like new ideas,” and
they butt him and run away.

Undiscouraged, Erik places an old metal bucket on his head, pretending
it is a helmet. It gets stuck and he tumbles into a pond, to the
amusement of all the other farm animals. From then on, Erik tells his
stories only to the lambs and is gradually accepted as a great
storyteller.

While Creith’s knowledge of and affection for Icelandic sheep is
commendable, it is unfortunate that the story hinges on a single
“joke”—Erik the Red must be a Viking sheep—that cannot support
the weight of a whole book. In addition, Creith’s plain prose fails to
enhance the narrative with further shades of meaning, and Linda
Hendry’s cute drawings that simply illustrate the plot, adding no new
dimensions. Finally, the story’s “lesson”—keep your imagination
and/or differences to yourself lest you be laughed at and shunned—is
not one that children need to learn. Not recommended.