Shieldmaiden by Marianne Whiting
This was an enjoyable novel. It has similarities to other
Viking novels I’ve read (very reasonable due to the scant historical detail
available) but there is freshness to ‘Shieldmaiden’ that keeps the interest
high.
It was a little bit confusing though, to find things about Cumbria that
made me think twice about what I was reading, though I would have to do a lot
of Viking Britain research to know what are the best know facts about Viking
invasion of northern Britain, and when.
Vikings are so well
known for their pillaging and plundering strategies but the fact that they left
their own lands to find foreign land to farm was an essential part of their domination
of parts of the UK .
Heroine, Sigrid, has interesting links to Norwegian nobility that elevates her
status but in essence the tribulations of surviving a harsh winter at a more, or
less, subsistence level means she comes across as a very practical and hard
working individual- if a little bit arrogant and naive at the beginning of the
story. Ragnar, the love of her life, plays a less strong role in the novel but
that emphasises Sigrid’s many strengths. She wields a mean sword but the tale is
not overly gory!
The duality of Viking pagan worship and new found Christianity
comes across in the book as very realistic- I'm sure it was expedient to
profess to of one faith or another depending on the life and death situation a
person found themselves in at this time many hundreds of years ago. A wavering faith also seems realistic when one
faith is almost forcibly supplanted with another.
I found the ending a bit
abrupt but I’m thinking a read of Book 2 will no doubt solve that problem.
Slainthe!
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