Eaters of the Dead

Eaters of the Dead

First edition cover
Author	Michael Crichton
Cover artist	Paul Bacon
Language	English
Genre	Plausible historical novel
Publisher	Knopf
Publication date	March 1976
Publication place	United States
Pages	288
ISBN	0-394-49400-8
OCLC	1959473
Dewey Decimal	813/.5/4
LC Class	PZ4.C9178 Eat3 PS3553.R48
Preceded by	The Great Train Robbery
Followed by	Congo

Eaters of the Dead: The Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan Relating His Experiences with the Northmen in AD 922 (later republished as The 13th Warrior to correspond with the film adaptation of the novel) is a 1976 novel by Michael Crichton, the fourth novel under his own name and his 14th overall. The story is about a 10th-century Muslim Arab who travels with a group of Vikings to their settlement.

Crichton explains in an appendix that the book was based on two sources. The first three chapters are a retelling of Ahmad ibn Fadlan's personal account of his actual journey north and his experiences with and observations of Varangians. The remainder is a retelling of Beowulf.