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Under Yggdrasil (2020)

Under Yggdrasil (2020)

Vilborg Davidsdottir
2020
327 pages
Fiction
Historical Fiction

The year is 901, the place, Iceland, newly settled by Nordic Vikings. Thorgerd Thorsteinsdottir gave birth to twins barely a grown-up herself, but she had to wait a long time to have the child she had most yearned for, Thorkatla. All the more tragic are the events following the Assembly, when the little girl is seven years old – events no one can understand. Thorgerd chooses to seek support from the Norns who decide the fates of men under Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, rather than from the White Christ of her grandmother, and the quest for truth leads her to setting sail from Iceland, east across the ocean, and eventually, on a seeress‘s journey into the Underworld and the Realms of the Dead.

Reviews

“A very talented author, who has great knowledge of Old Norse sources from which she weaves her gripping story.”

THORA INGVARSDOTTIR, UNIVERSITY OF ICELAND

“Extremely well written, the plot is skilfully woven and compelling from start to finish.”

SKALD.IS

“Vilborg manages to capture the reader completely in Thorgerd’s web of fate”

LESTRARKLEFINN

“The past meets the present in a captivating way in this book, bringing together the fascinating setting of the Viking Age and contemporary descriptions of the inner life of the characters. I have always wanted to read an Icelandic Saga filled with feelings, and this is it.”

ANDRI M. KRISTJANSSON, NATIONAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (ON OCEAN ROAD)

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