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Literature: Whos Afraid Of Beowulf

Who's Afraid of Beowulf? is a comic fantasy novel by Tom Holt.

Archaeologist Hildy Frederiksen has always wanted to make a major discovery, and an intact Viking ship burial certainly fits the bill. She most definitely does not expect the dead Vikings to come back to life, and is understandably rattled when they do.

It seems that a thousand years ago, King Rolf Earthstar of Caithness ('God-forsaken place but it is my Kingdom') and his band of heroes fought a dreadful battle with the evil Sorcerer King. They won the battle but lost track of their enemy, and so found it necessary to do a 'King Arthur'; that is, put themselves into an enchanted sleep to wake when they are needed to destroy the Sorcerer King once and for all. Thus Hildy finds herself the dazed and bewildered guide to an unflappable King Rolf and his bickering band of heroes as they make their way southward to confront the enemy in his new stronghold, London.

Tropes:

Authority Equals Asskicking: King Rolf
Badass Crew: The heroes
Badass Normal: Hildy Fredrikson becomes this.
Battle Cry:
Starkad: I forgot my battle-cry.
Brynolf: It's Starkad, Starkad.
The Berserker: Starkad Storvirson
Calvinball: Two imps have spent the past thousand years playing "Goblin's Teeth". They're still on their first game. Descriptions of the gameplay suggest it contains elements of chess, Monopoly, Scrabble and several others.
Can't You Read The Sign?: Vikings Arvarodd and Brynolf come to a perfectly logical but completely wrong conclusion about the London Underground by reading the signs.
Circling Monologue: In Who's Afraid of Beowulf?, the last Viking king, Hrolf Earthstar, circles the evil Sorcerer King before battle, determined to break his attempt to rule the world. Unusually, the mighty but doomed villain accepts the Last Second Chance given by the hero. After all, someone could have got killed.
The Dragon: Thorgeir Stormherder, former timber-wolf.
Faux Affably Evil: The sorcerer king
Famed in Story: Both King Rolf and Thorgeir Stormherder comment on the absence of a King Hrolf's Saga, but Rolf's heroes are known to Norse scholar Hildy from other sagas.
Genre Savvy: The heroes are old hands at adventure and know just what to expect.
"Things are looking up. We've just be betrayed by a traitor."
Gentle Giant: Starkad the Berserker again. His comrades call him "Honey-Starkad" because he's 'sweet and thick'.
I Have Many Names: King Rolf buys time with this trope.
Immune to Bullets: The heroes, thanks to their state-of-the-art magic armor.
King in the Mountain: Played for laughs: Viking King Hrolf of Caithness (god forsaken country—but it is my kingdom) and his band of heroes are disinterred in time to put an end to their ancient enemy, the Sorcerer King's, attempt to take over the modern world via magic—or as we call it, technology.
Last-Second Chance: The sorcerer-king has the good sense to accept this.
Only Sane Man: King Rolf.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: King Rolf again—and the sorcerer king, too.
Shiny New Australia: The Big Bad offers someone China as a bribe for his assistance.
Traffic Wardens: The heroes find their vehicle has been clamped while they were in the museum. The king responds to this by drawing his sword and cutting the clamps off. All bystanders cheer.