hild: battle
hjálm: iron helmet
høggorm: serpent
hval: whale
Kristinn: Christian
Írland: Ireland
Ísland: Iceland
járnbrák: iron slick
krage: tree-trunk ladder
magri: lean
melrakki: white fox
mjøð: mead
Nóreg: Norway
øg: terror
pái: peacock
papi: hermit; monk
rauði: red
sefask: be calmed
sjøvættir: sea spirits
skald: bard
þegn: king’s aide, usually old
þing: assembly
tordýfill: dung beetle
valsham: hawk-plumage cloak
POSTSCRIPT
This book is a companion to Hush: An Irish Princess Tale. The heroine in the first novel is Melkorka, a character who appears and reappears briefly in the Icelandic sagas Landnámabók and Laxdœla. Her younger sister, the heroine of the present novel, was made up in the first novel, and so I was free to create whatever story I wanted for her. I blended her story with the well-known story of Alfhild, the first Norse woman pirate so far as anyone knows, and the character I find most striking in the Norse Amazon tradition.
Melkorka and Brigid were princesses in Ireland in 900, but that doesn’t mean they lived in a castle. Castles didn’t come to Ireland for another couple of hundred years. In fact, there were no castles in Denmark at this time either. Instead everyone lived in homes made of wood and mud, often just branches and straw stuck together with soil, clay, sand, or animal dung, usually with only a couple of rooms. Royal families had plenty to eat and nice clothes and jewels. But their lives were not totally leisure; they helped out with chores, even though they had servants to cook and clean for them. And whole families (and often others as well), rich or poor, slept together in a single room in both Ireland and Denmark.
The people of Ireland had organized themselves into alliances of families, called tribes or clans, of perhaps a few thousand people spread across hills and valleys. They lived in private homes and owned private land, but they also shared public land. The clans each had a king. A king’s home was usually fortified by a wall and often larger than the ordinary home, perhaps with some extra rooms. Clans further allied themselves to form larger confederations with nearby clans. There were four main confederations in Ireland at this time, with four main kings. Melkorka and Brigid’s father was a lower king.
Vikings had raided the island for a little more than a hundred years, stealing wealth from monasteries, massacring many, raping and plundering. In sum, they terrorized the Irish—they were criminal. But not all Norse were this way. Some of them established towns and settled down to mix civilly with the Irish. Dublin was such a town; it was huge compared to other towns, perhaps around three thousand inhabitants just within the town walls, and many more outside in the hills and valleys. It was in Dublin that Melkorka and Brigid’s family met the problems you learn about in this book. When a Viking leader wanted to marry Melkorka, their father planned a trick to slaughter him and his men. Since the plan was dangerous, the girls’ mother tried to protect them by dressing them in peasant clothing and sending them off on a horse, not to return until the event was over. But while the girls were hiding out, a Russian slave ship captured them.
The custom of capturing people, particularly women and children, and keeping them as slaves or selling them into slavery was common in this time period (and, interestingly, was probably responsible for the spreading of certain genetic tendencies, such as the appearance of multiple sclerosis in places the Vikings traveled). The slave trade thrived, with captives moving between Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the Icelandic sagas, the slavers who stole Melkorka are Russian, so I kept them Russian in my story. However, the Russians were only one group of many who scanned the shores for slaves. Often captured women and children were brought to Miklagard, which is now called Istanbul and which was said to be the biggest city in the world at that time. People from east and west, north and south, met there for trade. That’s what happened to Melkorka. But instead of being sold in Miklagard, the Russian slaver kept her as he headed back north, and he ended by selling her to a Viking, who took her off to Iceland. Iceland was, essentially, a Norse colony at that time. Starting in the late 800s, the Norse had been settling there, although there is archeological evidence that Irish monks had settled there earlier.
Brigid, however, never traveled to Miklagard. She jumped out of the Russian slave ship as it passed through the Limfjord, way near the north of Jutland, in Denmark, straight into the icy water. Hence begins her tale, told in this book. Denmark at that time consisted of the same landmass as today plus the western coast of what is now Sweden. Across the southern border were the Franks, a people who had adopted Christianity and were viewed as a major threat by the Danes. Denmark, while a small and unimposing country today, was important at that time if for nothing else but its geographical position. It jutted up between the two seas and thus was in a position to control commerce between lands to the east and lands to the west.
Brigid could have followed many paths, for she was only eight when her life was so completely disrupted. But there was something in her character in the first book, Hush, that made me believe she would revolutionize her world. So I went searching for evidence of revolutionary women at that time. And I found Alfhild.
There are many variants on the story of Alfhild—with her living anywhere from the fifth century to the eleventh, with inconsistencies over who her parents were and what role snakes played in her time in the tower, and with debates over whether she was, in fact, a single historical figure, or a blend of several, or a complete fiction. Given these uncertainties, I felt I had some license to use those aspects of the various tales about her that made the present story cohere the way I wanted it to.
The prince Hakon in this story is also made up. However, there was a King Hakon of Norway (the third king of all Norway) around the time that this young Hakon might have become a king. That King Hakon erected beacons on hills to send messages up and down the country quickly. Also around the time of our boy Hakon’s prime, the attitudes in the Norse countries toward Christianity changed. The real King Hakon himself was in favor of Christianity, although he did not manage to make Norway accept it. Meanwhile, King Gorm, who was the first historically recognized king of all Denmark (ruling at least ten years and perhaps more than twenty, until his death in 958), was not opposed to Christianity, and his son, Harald Bluetooth, who ruled from 958 to around 987, was reputed to be baptized by a cleric who went simply by the name Poppa or Poppo or Papi.
The views of Norse mythology put forth in this book are based on materials from a few centuries later. My assumption (which is shared by many scholars of Norse culture) is that those materials were in large part based on oral traditions that predated them by hundreds of years. The first recorded versions we have of the Norse myths are in Icelandic sagas that date from around 1180 AD. But somewhere around 1225 the Icelander Snorri gave us a major work called the Snorra Edda, also known as Prose Edda. Most modern ideas about Norse mythology are based on that work. Alongside Snorri’s work is another collection called the Poetic Edda. It contains a collection of anonymous poems performed by all sorts of people on all sorts of occasions. As I was writing this book, I consulted translations of both works.
DONNA JO NAPOLI is the acclaimed and award-winning author of many novels—both fantasies and contemporary stories. She has received numerous awards, including the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water. Her novel Zel was named an American Booksellers Association Pick of the Lists, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. A number of her novels have been selected as ALA’s Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults. She is a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where s
he lives with her husband.
A PAULA WISEMAN BOOK
Simon & Schuster • New York
authors.simonandschuster.com/Donna-Jo-Napoli
Watch videos, get extras, and read exclusives at
TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com
ALSO BY DONNA JO NAPOLI
Beast
Breath
Bound
Hush
Storm
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abram, Christopher. Myths of the Pagan North: The Gods of the Norsemen. London: Continuum, 2011.
Barrett, James H., ed. Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2003.
Becker, C. J. “Viking Age Villages and ‘Manors’ in Denmark: Recent Discoveries.” In Proceedings of the Eighth Viking Congress, edited by Hans Bekker-Nielsen, Peter Foote, and Olaf Olsen, 25–36. Odense, Denmark: Odense University Press, 1981.
Blindheim, Martin. “The Ranuaik Reliquary in Copenhagen: A Short Study. In Proceedings of the Tenth Viking Congress, edited by James E. Knirk, 203–218. Oslo: Universitetets Oldsaksamling, 1987.
Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist, trans. The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturlason. London: Oxford University Press, 1916.
Byock, Jesse L., trans. The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.
Chisholm, James Allen. “The Eddas: The Keys to the Mysteries of the North.” Accessed November 3, 2013. http://www.heathengods.com/library/poetic_edda/ChisholmEdda.pdf.
Clarke, Howard B., Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, and Raghnall Ó Floinn, eds. Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998.
de Paor, Liam. “The Age of the Viking Wars (9th and 10th Centuries).” In The Course of Irish History, edited by T. W. Moody and F. X. Martin, 91–106. Cork: Mercier Press, 1967.
Douglas, T. Lives of the Most Celebrated Pirates and Sea Robbers. London: J. S. Pratt, 1845.
Duffy, Seán. Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Einarsson, Bjarni F. The Settlement of Iceland: A Critical Approach. Granastadir and the Ecological Heritage. Doctoral dissertation: Göteborg, Sweden: Göteborgs Universitet, 1994.
Englehart, Deirdre Sheridan. “A Story to Tell: The Culture of Storytelling and Folklore in Ireland.” Childhood Education 87, no. 6 (2001): 409–414.
Etchingham, Colmán. Viking Raids on Irish Church Settlements in the Ninth Century: A Reconsideration of the Annals. Maynooth, Ireland: Department of Old and Middle Irish, St. Patrick’s College, 1996.
Foot, Sarah. “Remembering, Forgetting and Inventing: Attitudes to the Past in England at the End of the First Viking Age.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series, vol. 9, 185–200, 1999.
Frank, Roberta. “Skaldic poetry.” In Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide, edited by Carol J. Clover and John Lindow, 157–196. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
Graham-Campbell, James, and Dafydd Kidd. The Vikings: The British Museum, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. New York: William Morrow, 1980.
Grammaticus, Saxo. The Danish History, Books I–IX, late twelfth century. Translated by Oliver Elton. (New York: Norroena Society, 1905.) Douglas B. Killings, editor, electronic edition. Kindle Edition.
Hallencreutz, Carl F. “Missionary Spirituality: The Case of Ansgar.” Studia Theologica 36, no. 1 (1982): 105–118.
Helle, Knut, ed. The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Hodges, Richard. “Goodbye to the Vikings?” History Today 54, no. 9 (2004), 29–30.
Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press, 1991.
Jesch, Judith, ed. The Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: The Boydell Press, 2002.
Jochens, Jenny. Old Norse Images of Women. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Kenny, Michael. “The Geographical Distribution of Irish Viking-age Coin Hoards.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature 87C (1987), 507–525.
Klinge, Matti. Ancient Powers of the Baltic Sea. Ontario, Canada: Aspasia Books, 2007.
Laing, Lloyd Robert. The Archaeology of Celtic Britain and Ireland, c. AD 400–1200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
The Laxdaela Saga. First published 1899. Written around 1245 AD. Translated from the Icelandic by Muriel Press. Charleston, SC: Forgotten Books, 2008.
Lindow, John. Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Lynch, Patricia. Enchanted Irish Tales. Dublin: Mercier Press, 1989.
Madsen, H. J. “Introduction to Viking Århus.” In Proceedings of the Eighth Viking Congress, edited by Hans Bekker-Nielsen, Peter Foote, and Olaf Olsen, 69–72. Odense, Denmark: Odense University Press, 1981.
Nyberg, Tore. Monasticism in North-Western Europe, 800–1200. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2000.
Oakley, Stewart. A Short History of Denmark. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972.
Old Sailor. The Log Book; or, Nautical Miscellany. London: J. Robins and Sons, 1827.
Olrik, Axel. The Heroic Legends of Denmark. London: Oxford University Press, 1919.
Pearson, Andrew. “Piracy in Late Roman Britain: A Perspective from the Viking Age.” Britannia 37 (2006), 337–353.
Poser, Charles M. “The Dissemination of Multiple Sclerosis: A Viking Saga? A Historical Essay.” Annals of Neurology 36 (1994), S2, S231–S243.
Randsborg, Klavs. The Viking Age in Denmark: The Formation of a State. London: Duckworth, 1980.
Roesdahl, Else. Viking Age Denmark. London: British Museum Publications, 1982.
Rose, Jamaica, and Captain Michael MacLeod. The Book of Pirates: A Guide to Plundering, Pillaging and Other Pursuits. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2010.
Rowley-Conwy, Peter. “Rye in Viking Age Denmark: New Information from Øster Aalum, North Jutland.” Journal of Danish Archaeology 7, no. 1 (1988): 182–190.
Sheehan, John. “Early Viking Age Silver Hoards from Ireland and Their Scandinavian Elements.” In Scandinavia and Ireland in the Early Viking Age, edited by H. Clarke, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, and R. Ó Floinn, 166–202. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998.
Short, William R. Icelanders in the Viking Age: The People of the Sagas. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2010.
Stanley, Jo. Bold in her Breeches: Women Pirates Across the Ages. London: Pandora, 1995.
Walpole, Charles George. A Short History of the Kingdom of Ireland from the Earliest Times to the Union with Great Britain: with Five Maps and Appendices. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882.
Wolf, Kirsten. Daily Life of the Vikings. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2014 by Donna Jo Napoli
Jacket design by Krista Vossen
Jacket photograph copyright © 2014 by Terry Bidgood/Trevillion Images
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact
the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Book design by Krista Vossen
Map by Elena Furrow
The text for this book is set in Adobe Jenson Pro.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948–
Hidden / Donna Jo Napoli. — First edition.
pages cm
Companion book to: Hush.
Summary: When a marauding slave ship captures her sister, Melkorka, eight-year-old Brigid is lost at sea but survives, disguised as a boy, and sets out to rescue Melkorka, and as the years pass she becomes a woman, reputed to be fierce enough to conquer a man, but desirous only of reuniting with her family.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4424-8300-2 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4424-8303-3 (eBook)
[1. Voyages and travels—Fiction. 2. Princesses—Fiction. 3. Conduct of life—Fiction. 4. Coming of age—Fiction. 5. Sex role—Fiction. 6. Sisters—Fiction. 7. Middle Ages—Fiction. 8. Europe—History—10th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.N15Hid 2014
[Fic]—dc23
2014011732
Hidden Page 24