“I see,” he whispered, brimming with admiration. “My respect for you could not be greater.”
“It was the only way,” she whispered. “For all our sake, and Valhalla’s.”
Mightiest of queens, most beautiful of the female Æsir. Sweyn felt breathless, looking at his chosen bride. When she lay with him under the sacrificial oak, she gave him the strength and confidence he needed to take power.
Now she had returned to him with an even more precious gift, a son and king who ruled Svealand.
“Your Majesty,” Bishop Agne said, bowing sycophantically as he approached the throne. “Is your queen baptized?”
Sweyn’s smile soothed the vigilance in Sigrid’s eyes.
She was the morning light filled with the promise of a new day. She was the storm that forced the enemy into submission, a ruler with uncanny acumen and cunning. She quieted war into peace and fertility, and joy followed in her footsteps. She was his everything, and not even God could make him give her up. Sweyn looked into her green eyes and drank from her unwavering strength.
“She will follow whatever religion she pleases.”
Now he knew everything, and she no longer shouldered this heavy burden alone. Sigrid leaned back, and for the first time in eons, she could breathe. She wasn’t alone anymore. She had never dared to really confide in anyone all these years for fear of erring and revealing the lie she had so carefully hidden.
She had done such a good job pretending and had trod so cautiously that even Erik had ultimately been forced to swallow the lie that he was the father. Sigrid smiled, enjoying the magnificent revenge she had ultimately gotten against Erik.
He had threatened to kill her and the children, and he had violated her and raped her, all in the belief that he was her superior in strength and power. Now he was dead, poisoned by a mistress, and Sweyn’s son ruled as king of Svealand and possessed all the riches that had been Erik’s. This was all Sigrid’s doing. She had so carefully woven her retaliation, and now it had paid off.
The sweetness of triumph glowed like passion in her body.
She was reunited with her beloved, and her rank was now exalted. She was the most powerful woman in the North. No one could hurt her anymore.
And yet she still hadn’t carried out any of the destiny the Norns had woven for her, and the son who was to save Scandinavia, the king of kings, remained unborn.
She leaned toward Sweyn and smiled suggestively.
“Just how badly injured are you?”
He understood her right away.
“Not that badly.”
“Good,” she said, and stood up, lust pulling within her body. “Because I’ve waited long enough to have you in bed.”
Standing beside the king, her mother looked like a teenager kissed by the autumn sun that blessed their union. Her gold necklace shimmered like spun fire, and she’d never been more beautiful than now, as she basked in the warmth of the king’s admiring love. Estrid smiled at the deep love that united them. The intention had always been for this to happen.
Toste was already drunk, his face a deep red. He walked up to the two of them as the bishop blessed their marriage and tied the handfasting ribbon around their wrists.
“Blessed be Queen Sigrid!” Toste exclaimed, and noblemen and warriors cheered for their new queen. “She will give you a strong son soon,” Grandfather Toste yelled, very pleased with himself. “We could all hear how hard they were working at that last night.”
The men around them laughed heartily, filled with joy and hope for the future.
Her mother had been united with the king; the old ways had been united with the new in a sacred marriage. It was as it should be.
Jelling was the place they were meant to be, and they had all been forced to sacrifice something to get here.
Estrid swallowed and pushed aside the thoughts of her daughter, which ached in her body. Thyre was being well taken care of, and she was safe at Mother Anna’s home, where no enemies could hurt her. She wouldn’t think about the baby anymore. That had never happened. The child wasn’t hers.
“What is it that weighs so heavily on such a beautiful young girl?” an old man asked her.
Estrid looked at the extremely elderly man, gray-haired and toothless, who smiled at her. He was dressed as a monk, and his few remaining wisps of hair hung over his stooped shoulders. He was the man they called Knut Danaást, the one who should have been king.
Estrid forced herself to smile.
“Nothing weighs on me. I’m delighted to see my mother so happy,” she replied.
The old man’s cloudy gray eyes studied her carefully, and it was as if he saw everything she wanted to conceal.
“I was on my way to go pray. Would you perchance care to join me?” the elderly man asked.
“Her Majesty follows the old ways,” Gynnya answered for her.
“Is that true?” Knut Danaást asked, regarding Estrid thoughtfully.
She saw the pleasure in his eyes when she shook her head.
“Let us go to God’s house and pray together,” she said, taking the old man’s hand without even glancing at the astonished Gynnya.
The noise from the festivities was barely audible through the wooden walls of the church as Estrid crossed the dirt floor within. He was already waiting for her.
A cross hung on the wall before her, the symbol she had once feared but which had been her salvation in her time of deepest need. Estrid smiled at the white God, who smiled back at her in all his dazzling splendor.
He was the light and the salvation; he was her father and brother and life.
Estrid knelt before his feet and let herself be surrounded by his blessed light.
Tears ran down her cheeks as he placed his hand on her forehead and filled her with the Holy Spirit that healed all that was broken and gave her divine peace.
Estrid would spread God’s light in the world. This was what she had been chosen for, why she’d been saved from the darkness. She saw Vidar now in God’s face, but also something else, something more. In the radiant light, the splendor of Vanadís blended with the Virgin Mary and all the gods people worshipped. A power greater than any god or goddess overwhelmed her in all its grandeur. Her body trembled from pure joy, because only now did she understand that all the gods and goddesses were the same.
Crying, she smiled in rapture at the divine light.
“All I want is to serve you.”
“She’s a singularly beautiful child,” Mother Anna said, smiling tenderly at the girl in her lap as she sat on the bench by the hearth while a winter storm raged outside the farmhouse.
The baby reached for her finger, squeezing it tightly with her hand and smiling so that she melted Anna’s heart.
“What will become of you, little dear?” she said to the baby, who met her gaze wide-eyed.
Vidya looked up from her breast, where her baby boy was nursing loudly.
“God knows what Estrid would have done with the tiny girl if she’d taken her with her.”
Anna cuddled the baby tightly to her chest and stroked her back as she looked into the flames.
“Her own brother,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s true.”
Vidya looked seriously at the child.
“She spoke of it often when she was possessed by the demon, how King Olaf had come to her bed drunk and raped her in revenge for some wrong she had committed. When she was herself, she didn’t remember it and instead said that God himself had filled her with his Holy Spirit.”
Vidya shivered with distaste and pushed her hair out of her face.
“I’ve never been as afraid of anything as I was of Estrid. Even Ragna didn’t scare me as much as she did.”
“Still, in all her craziness the poor girl freed you,” Mother Anna said, gently rocking the baby in her arms.
She had never seen such a tormented soul as Estrid, but however twisted her mind was, she had done good, and she had given Anna the daughter she’d asked God for.
She looked sadly at the baby who slept in her arms, breathing heavily with her little mouth half-open.
“Poor child, hopefully you didn’t inherit your mother’s craziness.”
The door was flung open right then, and a cold wind blew into the house. The dogs jumped up and started barking at the door, which jerked back and forth as if someone invisible were moving it. Brodde leapt up but was hardly able to close it.
“God help you, little Thyre,” Anna said, a tingle of fear running down her spine.
Just then they heard shrill cries from outside. The hair on Anna’s arms stood up as the baby cooed in delight and reached out her hands to the shadows in the corner, as if she were trying to reach for some invisible being. The shrieks outside the house grew into a raging howl, the door flew open again, and the heavy table was hurled against the wall with a crash while Vidya shrieked in fear.
Then the fire on the hearth suddenly went out. Anna stared terror-struck into the darkness, and all that could be heard was baby Thyre’s delighted laughter.
“God help us all,” she whispered.
APPENDIX
IMPORTANT PEOPLE
SIGRID’S ESTATE
Alrik—Björn’s son; Toste’s nephew; Sigrid’s cousin; Olaf’s friend and cousin
Asta and Nanna—sacrificial priestesses
Björn—Toste’s brother; Sigrid’s uncle
Borghild, Brisa, Eir, and Gynnya—kinswomen in Sigrid’s court
Dagrun—Ulf’s mistress
Edmund—Sigrid’s jarl
Egil Iron-Fist, Folke, Jörn, and Käll—Scylfing chieftains
Esbjörn—a Scylfing warrior
Estrid—Sigrid’s daughter
Ingeborg—Ulf’s wife
Ingemar, Agne—some of Sigrid’s hirdmen
Ingvald—a farmer from an outlying farm
Katla—a kinswoman of Estrid’s
Kolgrim and Yngve—some of Toste’s warriors
Lia—wife of Sigrid’s jarl Edmund; a member of Sigrid’s court
Olaf—Sigrid’s son
Runar—Ulf’s warrior
Sigrid—daughter of the Scylfing chieftain, Toste
Skagul Toste—nobleman and chieftain of the Scylfing clan; father of Sigrid and Ulf
Soot—one of Sigrid’s maidservants
Ulf—Sigrid’s older brother
Ylva—Sigrid’s housekeeper, formerly married to Toste’s brother Rune
JÓMSBORG
Åke—Palna’s son and Sweyn’s foster brother
Ax-Wolf—legendary berserker
Beyla—a seeress; Palna’s sister
Farman, Finnvid, and Ragnvald—Jómsvikings
Gunhilda—Sweyn’s wife, from Scania
Palna—chieftain of the Jómsvikings, an elite force of mercenary soldiers; Sweyn’s foster father
Sweyn—Palna’s foster son; former king of Denmark
UBSALA
Axel—Erik’s right-hand man
Erik of Svealand—king and leader of the Svea
Yngvald—one of Erik’s men
THE ANUND CLAN
Agnatyr—a chieftain
Mother Anna—a farm owner who lives outside the Anund clan’s valley
Ragna—a seeress
Ragnar—a member of Mother Anna’s extended family
Turid—a shield maiden
Vidar, Brodde and Helge—Mother Anna’s sons
Vidya—a slave
HEDEBY
Agnes Starke—a member of the noble-born Starke family
Lage—a local chieftain
Sten Starke—jarl of Hedeby
OTHERS
Borislav—king of the Obotrites
Emperor Otto II—king of Germany and Holy Roman emperor
Erik and Torgny Haraldsson—Harald Bluetooth’s sons; Sweyn’s half brothers
Gorm the Old—King Harald Bluetooth’s father
Håkon Sigurdsson—jarl of Lade, a king in Norway
Harald Grenske—king of Vestfold
Knut Danaást—Harald Bluetooth’s older brother
Odo—a Saxon; tributary king under Emperor Otto
Olav Tryggvason—warrior from Gardarik; future king of Norway; called Crowbone due to his penchant for divination
Thyra Dannebod—King Harald Bluetooth’s mother
Thyre Haraldsdotter—Harald Bluetooth’s daughter; Sweyn’s half sister
Thyre—Estrid’s daughter
GLOSSARY
Æsir—one of the two main tribes of deities (cf. Vanir)
Alda Bergr—a kenning for Thor, meaning “protector of mankind”
Angerboda—a giantess who, along with Loki, is the parent of Fenrir the wolf, the Midgard serpent, and Hel
Balder—the fairest of the gods; son of Odin and Frigg
blood eagle—term linked to a method of execution, carving the blood eagle. The ribs are opened on the victim’s back and the lungs are pulled out and draped over the ribs, thus resembling an eagle.
cruentation—a test to identify a murderer, in which a victim’s corpse would spontaneously bleed in the presence of its murderer
Dag—the god of day
Danelaw—the portion of England ruled by the Danes
Danevirke—the massive earthwork wall that protected Denmark from enemies to the south
dís (plural: dísir)—a goddess associated with fate, who sometimes intervenes in the lives of mortals and clans
draugr (plural: draugar)—a dead person whose body is reanimated
ealdorman—the chief officer of a district
einherjar—people who have died in battle and have been brought to Valhalla by valkyries
Einmánuður—time period from the middle of March to the middle of April
Einriði—a kenning for Thor, possibly meaning “lone rider”
Fenrir wolf—an enormous wolf, son of Loki
Fimbulwinter—the great winter which immediately precedes Ragnarök
Folkvang—Freya’s residence
Freya—the goddess of love, sex, beauty, fertility, and gold
frost giants—a type of giant, among the race of giants who are the enemies of the gods and people
fylgja—a guardian spirit
galdr—a spell or incantation
Garm—a wolf chained at the mouth of Gnipa Cave
Geats, the—a tribe living south of the Svea
Geatland—the south-central portion of modern Sweden; home to the Geats
Gefjun—Æsir goddess, a virgin, who is served by women who have died unmarried
Gjallarbridge—the bridge over the river Gjöll, over which one must pass to get to Hel
Gjöll—a river that flows near the gate to the underworld
Gnipa Cave—the location where Garm, the large wolf, is bound before Ragnarök
Gói—time period from the middle of February to the middle of March
Heimdall—the guardian of the gods
Hel—the goddess of the underworld; the death goddess
Helheim—the kingdom of the death goddess Hel in Niflheim
hird—a retinue of armed companions
Hlóriði—a kenning for Thor, possibly meaning “noisy rider”
Hnefatafl—a board game
Holmgård—the town of Veliky Novgorod in what is now Russia
Hvergelmir—a spring at the center of the cosmos
jarl—a Scandinavian nobleman ranking just below the king
Jómsborg—the home to the Jómsvíkings, on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea
Jómsvíkings—the brotherhood of Viking mercenaries
Jotunheim—the land of the giants
Kaupang—an area in Norway
Kvasir—the god whose blood is used to make the mead of poetry
Laufey—Loki’s mother
leidang—a conscripted military fleet for coastal defense
Loki—a deceitful god; Thor’s foster brother
Mjölnir—Thor’s hammer
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br /> Móðguðr—the maiden who guards Gjallarbridge and assists Hermód in his attempt to retrieve Balder from Hel
myling—the soul of a dead child who was not given a proper burial
Náströnd—the shore of the dead
Niflheim—the realm of the dead
Níðhöggr—a dragon that harms Yggdrasil from below one of its roots; also thought to suck the corpses in Niflheim
Norns, the—Verdandi, Urd, and Skuld, the three goddesses of fate
Odin—the All-Father; king of the gods; god of wisdom
Ragnarök—aka the twilight of the gods; the final destruction of the universe after the war between the Æsir and the Giants
Rán—a goddess associated with the sea who has nine daughters
Rogaland—a coastal area in Western Norway
Scania—the southern part of modern Sweden near Denmark
shield maiden—a woman who participates in battle
Sjöfn—a goddess associated with love
Skuld—one of the three Norns; name means “will happen”
Sleipnir—Odin’s eight-legged horse
Sól—personification of the sun
Svea, the—a Scandinavian tribe, aka the Swedes
Svealand—the central, core region of modern Sweden
Thing—an early parliament
Thor—the god of thunder; protector of mankind
Urd—one of the three Norns; name means “happened”
Utgard—a realm in Norse mythology (cf. Asgard, Midgard)
Valhalla—a great hall where warriors slain heroically in battle are received in the afterlife
valkyrie—a maiden of Odin who helps choose those fallen in battle to be taken to Valhalla
Vanadís—another name for Freya, meaning “dís of the Vanir”
Vanir—one of the two main tribes of deities (cf. Æsir)
Verdandi—one of the three Norns; name means “happening”
Vik—an area in Western Norway located on the southern shore of Sognefjorden
Yggdrasil—the ash tree of life that binds the realm of the gods, the realm of men, and the underworld; aka the world tree
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Johanne Hildebrandt is an award-winning war correspondent and author. Her breakthrough came with her bestselling trilogy, Sagan om Valhalla (the Story of Valhalla), and Fördömd (The Condemned). In 2002, she was awarded the prestigious journalist award Guldspaden (Golden Shovel) for her book Blackout, which describes her ten years as a Bosnian War correspondent. She was also nominated for the Grand Journalist Prize following her accounts of the war in Iraq. In 2012, she was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences—the first woman admitted to the academy, which was founded in 1796. Estrid and The Unbroken Line of the Moon (in The Valhalla Series) are her first two novels translated into English.
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