Iron age Europe comes alive in Jeff Hein’s first novel

A new work by Medford author Jeff Hein has been 30 years in the making.

Hein was in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany when he first heard about the Cimbri, an iron age Germanic tribe that originally lived in what is present day Denmark.

Hein said he quickly became fascinated with the story of this group numbering around 60,000 people who took their livestock and belongings and began a slow trek around Europe that lasted nearly 20 years until butting into the Roman Republic.

“I walked a lot of the footsteps the people traveled,” Hein said, from the village in Denmark that archaeologists discovered in 1929 to have been the original home of the Cimbri (pronounced as “kim-bree”) and along the Elbe and Danube rivers through what is now Hungary and Bosnia where they traveled during their journeys.

“You can almost feel the presences of the people who passed there,” Hein said, noting that he found it inspirational.

“It became a personal passion of learning about it and grew into something I wanted to share,” Hein said.

Hein said he got the idea of writing a story around the Cimbri a few years ago. With his retirement from serving as the Taylor County Veterans Service Officer and downtime during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to clock in the time for writing to actually get the work finished.

In the past year and half, Hein has worked to finish his book “The Cimbri Appear.” It is the first of a planned four-novel series that follows the Cimbri in their journeys.

“It is historical fiction,” Hein said, noting that whenever possible he built it around real events and people in the historical record.

In the story, the Cimbri are living in what is now Denmark until a cataclysmic tidal wave destroyed their community. Hein noted the geological records show evidence of past tsunami activity in that lowlying region. As a nation, the Cimbri, then began their journey walking thousands of miles and along the way coming into contact with other hostile tribes and dealing with the untamed terrain. The story also follows the coming of age of the Cimbri king Borr from a 15-year-old sickly son of a chieftain to being a powerful war leader handing the legions of the Roman Republic one of their few major defeats. Hein said the other books in the Cimbrian War saga will follow Borr and the Cimbri as they continue their interactions with Rome 100 years before Julius Caesar and the founding of the Roman Empire. In addition to his story, the novel also includes historical notes pointing to the real people and events that are woven into the novel. The Cimbri Appear is available online in both e-edition and print through Amazon and locally is available at Medford Healthmart Pharmacy and at County Market. Hein will be holding a book signing at the Frances L. Simek Memorial Library in Medford on Monday, December 13 at 6:30 p.m. He will be reading an excerpt from his book and have a limited number on hand to sell.

Jeff Hein was born and raised in Wisconsin and served in the U.S. Army for 20 years. After retiring from the military and returning home to Wisconsin, he served as a county Emergency Management Director and Veteran Service Officer. He is now retired and lives near Medford, with his wife Dawn and their two lab/ shepherd mixes Daisy and Annie, aka Mischief and The Tank. He holds degrees in Supervisory Management and Business Management and is a member of the Medford American Legion Post 147 and VFW Post 5729.

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Jeff Hein