They say it is part of their tradition that a foreigner must join them in this excursion, helping them form a band of thirteen men. On his journey, Ibn Fadlan is sidetracked by a group of Vikings who insist he accompany them on a journey of their own. Ibn Fadlan is charged by the Caliph of Bagdad to travel on a mission to the North country. At the same time, the reader can appreciate that Crichton has put forth a book that is at once believable fact and false fiction. For those scholars interested in Beowulf, Crichton's version varies too much from the original and can cause consternation. The effect is both interesting and slightly frustrating to the reader. Once the Ibn Fadlan Manuscript has been exhausted, Crichton carries on the tale in the same tone and style of Ibn Fadlan.
Ibn Fadlan and his manuscript are purported to be true but their influence on Crichton's book is minimal.
In Eaters of the Dead, Michael Crichton weaves a retelling of the Beowulf epic with a marginally factual ancient manuscript about an Arab who travelled North.
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