When One Act of Courage Changes the Course of History

History is often told through kings, wars, empires, and sweeping political movements. But sometimes the most interesting way to explore the past is through a much smaller moment: one person making one choice that changes everything that follows.

That idea lies at the heart of Brent Olson’s Neither Collar nor Crown: Part Two of King Harald’s Dream, an ambitious work of alternative historical fiction set against the vast and turbulent world of the fourteenth century.

The novel begins with a child.

Seven-year-old Lin is the eldest daughter of a prestigious Chinese family serving the Mongol rulers of the Golden Horde. She has been raised in a world governed by tradition, hierarchy, and expectations that leave little room for a young girl to determine the course of her own life.

When the painful practice of foot binding begins, Lin’s future appears already decided.

Then a stranger intervenes.

Known only as The Strykar, a mysterious foreign warrior risks his own safety to protect a child he has never met. It is a seemingly simple act of compassion, but in Olson’s imagined history, its consequences reach far beyond one family.

The Power of Asking “What If?”

Alternative history offers writers and readers an unusual opportunity. Rather than simply revisiting what happened, it allows us to ask what might have happened if one decision, one encounter, or one seemingly insignificant moment had unfolded differently.

For Olson, that question has deep roots.

Before turning extensively to fiction, he spent more than twenty-five years as a journalist, reporting from more than twenty countries on six continents. His work brought him into contact with different cultures, political systems, faith traditions, communities, and ways of understanding the world.

Those experiences helped inspire a question that would eventually influence his fiction:

Couldn’t we have done better?

Neither Collar nor Crown explores that question not by rewriting history into a perfect world, but by imagining how different choices might ripple outward through time.

A Personal Story Against an Epic Backdrop

As Lin’s story expands, so does the world around her.

The novel moves across continents and cultures during a period of enormous upheaval. Political intrigue and ancient rivalries shape the lives of ordinary people, while one of the greatest disasters in human history—the Black Death—begins its devastating march across the known world.

Against that backdrop, Lin must navigate questions far larger than herself.

What does she owe to the traditions that shaped her?

When does obedience become complicity?

What happens when compassion requires personal sacrifice?

And how much can one person realistically change?

These questions give the novel its emotional center. The historical setting may be enormous, but the choices remain deeply human.

Who Gets to Be a Hero?

One of the most compelling ideas running through Neither Collar nor Crown is the question of heroism.

We often imagine heroes as warriors, rulers, or larger-than-life figures whose names survive in history books. Olson’s story suggests another possibility.

Some acts of courage happen quietly.

They may involve protecting someone who has no power. Questioning a tradition everyone else accepts. Choosing compassion when cruelty would be easier. Or doing what is right without knowing whether the decision will make any difference at all.

As Lin’s journey unfolds, the frightened seven-year-old girl introduced at the beginning of the story moves toward a destiny she could never have imagined.

The title of The Strykar, initially belonging to the mysterious warrior who alters her fate, eventually takes on a much deeper meaning.

Some legends are forged with a sword. Others are earned through impossible choices.

History Through a Different Lens

Olson brings an unusual background to historical fiction. In addition to his decades as a journalist, he has spent much of his life on a small farm in Big Stone County on Minnesota’s western prairie and nearly two decades in public service as a Big Stone County Commissioner.

He has taught creative writing in nine states and six countries and has spoken to audiences across North America. In 2012, he was named a Bush Foundation Fellow, and in 2024, he received the Prairie Star Award from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council in recognition of his lifetime contribution to the arts in southwest Minnesota.

Across both his fiction and nonfiction, Olson has returned repeatedly to questions about community, responsibility, history, and the consequences of the choices people make.

In Neither Collar nor Crown, those questions are placed on a much larger stage.

The result is a story that combines adventure, political intrigue, danger, romance, loss, and redemption while asking readers to reconsider something deceptively simple: how different might history have been if, at a critical moment, someone had chosen differently?

Neither Collar nor Crown: Part Two of King Harald’s Dream and Brent Olson’s other books are available for purchase wherever books are sold online. Neither Collar nor Crown is available in eBook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook editions.