Review
From the book jacket: Katla is a slave and daughter of a Christian woman
captured in a Viking raid on Irish shores. Setting sail from Iceland with her
master's household, she heads toward the distant promise of a new homestead in
Greenland. Also on the ship is Thorbjorg the Seeress, a much maligned and
persecuted healer and prophetess who is ever faithful to the call of her patron
god, Odin.
Upon first arriving in Greenland, Katla is brutally raped by her master's son,
Torvard. The child of this union is Bibrau: taciturn, reclusive, infused with
the savagery of her conception and suspected by many to be a changeling. But the
seeress Thorbjorg, following a vision from her god, takes Bibrau as her
apprentice. The young girl becomes an adept at healing and Norse magic, but her
bitterness perverts the wisdom Thorbjorg gives. As her power grows, Bibrau...
Beyond the Book
Greenland Then: There is evidence of habitation in Greenland up
until about 200 AD, but then the islands appear to have been uninhabited
until the Norse settlers from Iceland arrived led by Eric The Red. Around 1200 Inuit from North America migrated
southwards and appear to have coexisted peacefully with the Norse.
However, by the mid 14th century all signs of habitation by descendants of the
Norse had disappeared, possibly due to famine brought on by the "Little Ice Age"
(starting in the mid-13th century), possibly by other factors explored in
chapters 6-8 of Jared Diamond's
Collapse.
Greenland Now: Resettlement of Greenland by the Danes began in the 18th
century. In 1953 Greenland was made an equal part of the Danish Kingdom
and...
