King Gaeirmund ponders visions of his greatest conquest. Lone William slaughters men for sport in a modern gladiator pit. And the tale goes on. Under the Ground intertwines two heroic journeys of a Dark Age king in a foreign land destined to forge a nation, and a wandering swordsman surviving in a 21st-century dystopia. The novel incorporates a collection of motifs including European travel and antiquity, animals and nature, combat, honor, tragedy, romance, and a foreshadowing critique of our declining American culture.