Full Description
In 1019, after burying her husband in Greenland, Bergthora Bjornsdóttir
returns to Iceland to exact her revenge for a violent act she suffered
as a young girl. But in her hunger for vengeance she drives Engilborg,
the young wife of Egill—a powerful and ruthless chieftain—into the arms
of her uncle, Leif, shattering the lives of family and friends in the
rural community along Hvamms Fjord. Kjartan, Engilborg's father—who
spent 15 years in Constantinople as a Varangian warrior, so he could buy
back his family's farm—struggles to protect his family from shame and
ruin. Ægileif, a seeress obsessed with Egill, uses her witchcraft in a
desperate attempt to win his love while Óstarki, her enigmatic son,
seeks to reclaim the moral compass his mother has abandoned. Spanning
across four decades and geographical settings that include Iceland,
Greenland, and North America, as well as present-day Switzerland,
Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and Syria, we follow these men and women as
they navigate the struggles of pastoral farming, war, family life, and
death while searching for a path from their heathen past to a Christian
future. Secrets surface, friendships fracture, and long-buried
animosities culminate in a gripping tale of honor, betrayal, friendship,
faith, and heathen magic.
