Preface
Before I begin with my review of this book, I just want to make clear that these types of reviews are something that I am looking to replicate with the books that we go through in the Kingkhu Book Club. The format of this review will most likely change and improve as I figure out the best ways to synthesize my thoughts about these books as a whole, and hopefully avoid making them too long or extensive. If you have any thoughts are feelings about the format of this review, please let me know, feedback is appreciated. Now without further ado, back to your regularly scheduled program!
Introduction
First things first, I enjoyed this book. When I first saw that this book was even a thing, I probably rolled my eyes. Books that are produced through the collaborations of authors and media personalities are so common these days that, as a bookseller, it's difficult to take many of them seriously. Whether we’re talking about mystery novels from the likes of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, written by Louis Penny and James Patterson respectively, or historical fiction from Millie Bobby Brown (yes this exists, no I have not read it, it’s called Nineteen Steps if you’re interested though) are just a few to list that have popped up in recent years. It is often hard to take any of these books seriously because it’s very hard to believe that the media personalities that get involved in fictional books this way are actually providing much more beyond their likeness to the book’s creation. For this book to be centered around the narrative of an West African girl, I was a bit trepidatious about her co-writer being a white lady, and this is all before we get to the controversy that popped up long before this book’s release.
The controversy had to do with an excerpt that was released about a year before the book, and it was a couple paragraphs that were essentially reading a group of people known as the Amazigh, to filth. It contained sentences like “The Amazigh are dangerous on their best day. They have little regard for anyone who doesn’t worship the Muslim god — and even their own tribes are always at war with one another.” Now, this is obviously quite a bad look, but when it comes to writing, especially from antiquated perspectives, I thought that in the context of the book this portion of the book might work better. Having read the book now, I know that the main character, Yafeu, is from around an area that was known as Wagadu that eventually fell apart around the 11th century with the emergence of the Muslim Almoravids, which partly consisted of Amazigh people.
With that known, I can see how she might have had that denigrative view of the Amazigh, but why anyone would choose to do that as the excerpt is to get people hyped for this book is ridiculous. Or it just makes sense in the current world of outrage media and clickbait, and perhaps I’m a bit desensitized to stunts like this one.
Or maybe it worked and I was the targeted audience because now I HAD to read it and see what Willow Smith and Jess Hendel thought they were cooking…was my original intention, but it turns out they got rid of all mentions of the Amazigh in the final version, so chances are they burnt the food the first time.
This is notable considering religion and spirituality play a large role in the plot and meaning of this book. I wish they had attempted to land the plane, especially since a major theme of this book is exploring the spiritual nature of the world that transcends any one religion, and connects them through their recognition of universal truths.
With that said, this is a review from my brain, so there is going to be an immense amount of my own perspective on this. Once I read a story, that version of it becomes mine and is tainted with my ideas of the world and literature. I say that to say, the things I derive from this text may be vastly different from what you do, or even from what the authors intended, but it is true to my experience of the book.
Review
The book begins immediately by establishing the world through the lens of West African mythology, the lens through which our main character understands her world. Though the first chapter is only five pages long, it introduces many spiritual terms and figures that are used throughout the rest of the book. I will start this review by first exploring some of these terms because I think that they play a significant role in the meaning of this book. When it comes to tracing many of these terms, gods, and belief systems to their origins, answers might lack a sense of finality because there are many terms that originated far in the past and have changed or been adapted or modified by the merging of peoples and cultures over the years, but hopefully, the answers I list will provide the necessary context.
Nyama
When I first searched this term, I kept getting answers that were telling me it was the Swahili word for “meat” and I was like “ain’t no way this lady’s been reading people’s meat this whole book!” And luckily, that is not the case. It seems that Nyama in this context is actually in reference to a word derived from the Mande people that translates roughly as “power”. The Mande people refer to an ethnolinguistic grouping of peoples that spoke Mande languages, languages that shared strong linguistic and lexical similarities with one another. Mande languages include a wide umbrella of languages and dialects in West Africa, one of which is Soninke, the native language of our main character.
Nyama is essentially an animating life force that creates and embodies nature. This is a very useful concept for understanding its role throughout the book, but one I confess I only looked up when it was time to start writing this review. I grew up in Ghana, not relatively far from where I think this book is first set, and so I grew up conscious of Adinkra symbols, which are symbols of power that originate from Ghana. One of the most well-known of them is the Gye Nyame, which is a symbol that means "supremacy of God". It symbolizes God's omnipotence and the idea that people should not fear anything but God, with the “nyame” part meaning “god”.
And so, using that knowledge and the context clues of the book, I kinda assumed I knew what the vibes were. Luckily I was right, but hey this is fantasy (well, more like magical realism technically, but that’s not relevant to my point), I’m not interrupting my reading experience every two seconds to research terms I don’t understand.
What I DID find out through additional research is that the griots of society were often seen as some of the few individuals who could control nyama through their words. This shows the importance that stories have in many African cultures, something that will be even more significant later when we see the role that prophecies play in the plot of this book.
Sogbo
Sogbo is a major deity from Africa who is pretty global today because of the African Diaspora resulting from the Transatlantic slave trade. You can find him in places like Brazil, Haiti, and even here in the U.S., in places like Louisiana. This is because it’s from the Vodun religion, what most people now probably know as voodoo. While most people associate voodoo with hexes, curses, and those scary dolls that can be used to torment people, in reality, it's much more than that. Vodun is a whole religious system that has long and widespread roots and influences across the African Diaspora. It has contributed to the legend of many iconic African-descended figures in history like Boukman from the Haitian revolution, and Queen Nanny from Jamaica. Voodoo is pretty popularly known as an evil practice in the United States, but this is because the biggest voices in crafting the narratives around it were the White people who often found themselves at the vengeful face of it. Depending on where in Africa you are, Sogbo is also known by other names, such as Shango, Esango, and Hervioso, to name a few.
Sogbo is the god of rain, lightning, thunder, and fire (not the only one). More significantly, he is known as a warrior god, and one that holds domain over justice, which is part of the reason he survived through the Transatlantic slave trade, as he had much to offer the people surviving it. That said, the Sogbo we meet in this book far precedes the Diaspora, and with him being identified as Sogbo as opposed to any other of his names means that Yafeu is most likely from where Benin is located today.
Legba
Interestingly, I couldn’t find any information on “legba” when I went in search of information. In the Haitian practice of Voodoo, Papa Legba is a figure that’s said to stand at a spiritual crossroads and gives (or denies) permission to speak with the spirits of Guineé, a portion of the underworld in the Voodoo religion where the dead reside. Legba facilitates communication, speech, and understanding, and is invoked at the beginning of every ceremony.
Prior to becoming Papa Legba, he was known as a figure in West African mythology called “lebe” meaning “the old man at the gate.” The figure referenced in this book might be a bit anachronistic, or maybe the two names were synthesized in the interest of clarity because he is simply referred to as “Legba”. In any case, though Legba doesn’t impart much of a direct effect on the plot, he is a major figure of West African mythology and worldview, for a couple of reasons:
The first is that Papa Legba is what is known as a trickster god, a type of deity that is known for engaging in mischief and artifice, like Loki. However, where we would look at a mischievous figure like Loki as evil for the most part, in Vodou good and evil are determined more by context and situation rather than personal character, and subsequently, these figures transcended these boundaries.
Secondly, Papa Legba governs transitions and change, something that is important in Vodou and its sister religions. We later encounter a character Nyeru, who reminds Yafeu of this worldview, telling her “Nothing lasts forever, Yafeu…Change is the one thing we can always rely on'' (pg. 249). In this way, you can almost feel Legba’s fingerprint across this entire novel as change is the main thing that Yafeu has to grapple with throughout the story. If you have read the mission statement on the front page of this website, or the Parable of the Sower quotes that surround it, you might have noticed some commonalities between our outlooks.
Mawu-Lisa
Mawu-Lisa is a very interesting figure because he/she/they are sometimes considered to be two independent deities who are inextricably linked to one another, Mawu being a goddess of the moon, and Lisa being a god that governs the sun. At other times, they are seen as a single deity that is both man and woman. Of all the deities that are mentioned in this book, Mawu-Lisa is the one that is referenced the most, and though this is mainly a way of communicating the way that Yafeu regards the cycle of night and day, I believe they also hold an interesting parallel to the character of Yafeu herself, who attempts to navigate the balance of masculine and feminine energy throughout the book, and how different societies regard her on that basis.
It may seem like I am spending a lot of time on the cosmology of this book, but think it bears significant meaning when discussing books that deal with mythology and spirituality, particularly in this book because there is a deliberate conversation being had about it.
The chapter starts with Yafeu hunting a herd of deer, which she loses due to the appearance of a painted wolf who scares the herd away when it attempts to catch one. In reaction, Yafeu gets angry and thinks of killing the painted wolf instead, stopping only when she considers it more closely and identifies with it -
“I raise my dagger again, but something makes me hesitate. She’s little more than a cub, and the bones jutting out from her haunches betray the meagerness of the dry season. Perhaps she was separated from her mother during the last rains. Only an inexperienced huntress would spring too soon like that, ruining an easy kill.”
Black Shield Maiden; Smith, Willow and Jess Hendel; Page 7
This is a significant moment of foreshadowing not only Yafeu’s future path in life but also the internal struggles she will soon experience. A few chapters later, Yafeu’s mother identifies this painted wolf as a spiritual sign and says that it will have a significant mark on Yafeu’s destiny. Yafeu’s read of the painted wolf as hungry, brash, bold, immature, and separated is accurate and is a harbinger for the situations we later see Yafeu herself in. As we progress through the plot we see the painted wolf appear many more times, in dreams, in visions, and even in the real world to a certain degree.
As Yafeu demonstrates her battle prowess and her different fighting style, and starts wearing the pelt of a wolf she kills, she gains the nickname Ulfhednar. The Ulfhednar were a group of Viking warriors, similar to berserkers but also distinct, though to what degree depends on the source.
The clearest difference that is agreed upon is in their appearances, with berserkers wearing the bear skins and the Ulfhednar wearing wolfskins. Both were known to enter a different state of mind when in battle, a battle craze that granted them supernatural abilities. Looking at the ways in which the book describes Yafeu in the moments she is killing people, it does seem to reflect the battle-crazed rage of the Ulfhednar.
Interestingly, some sources I found said that the Ulfhednar were also seen as slightly above berserkers, being warriors by birthright, and always male. If that is the case, looking at the significance that names already plays in the book, Yafeu earning this title might have also signaled the moment that she began to be accepted by the male-dominated warrior class.
In this same first chapter, we also get our strongest look at Yafeu’s father in this first chapter, a figure that holds powerful sway over Yafeu’s motivations throughout the book, but one that is already gone before the book begins.
It took me a while to realize it as well, even though we are explicitly told this at the beginning, but Yafeu’s name is actually her father’s, which she uses as her own for the entirety of the book, all except for the very last sentence. He is also the person who contributed the most to the crafting of Yafeu’s personality and skill set, being the one who taught her how to hunt, fight, and blacksmith, something that was very unorthodox because all three fall under realms of society that were seen as belonging to men, something that creates many issues for Yafeu in her hometown.
We will talk about him more later in the book as we start to discuss specific moments that he influenced, but in this first chapter we follow along with Yafeu as she recalls one of the hunting trips he took her on where they survived a crocodile encounter, prompting Yafeu’s father to raise one of the central struggles of the book.
(Wo)Man Vs. Nature/Divine
Once they survive the crocodile encounter, Yafeu exclaims “The gods have saved us” (pg. 6) to which her father responds
No…people want to believe that the gods or the spirits are responsible for everything that happens in their lives. The truth is the belief itself is what controls fate. … Belief is power, daughter of mine. But it’s also a choice. When you choose to believe in something, you give it power. I chose to believe that I was stronger than that crocodile. And so I was. That is why he left. Not because the gods saved me. Or, perhaps, the gods did save me. Perhaps they saved me because I was willing to save myself.
Black Shield Maiden; Smith, Willow and Jess Hendel; Page 7
Yafeu’s father’s perspective on the spiritual and divine it juxtaposed against her mother’s who, when hearing about the story of the crocodile upon their return, took it as an omen that danger would befall their town and made them move. Yafeu and her father initially think her mother is being overreactive until, lo and behold, this premonition ends up coming true when their village is attacked soon after they leave. This is one of many signifiers that Yafeu and her father are more inclined towards real-world pragmatism rather than a belief in the spiritual.
This is all an early set up of a conflict that exists within Yafeu, as she is guided by the heart of her father and the words of her mother.
It is interesting that this is told to her by her mother because women were often the carriers of stories and legacies at this time, as men were frequently the ones out in search of creating these legacies, much like Yafeu’s own father. There is an interesting full circle moment that occurs later in the book when Yafeu hears this same story from Fritjof, a seerman of Skiringssal, a Viking Age (800 - 1050 CE) hall that existed in Norway, where most of this story plays out.
Fritjof is one of the few undeniably magical elements of this book, an old man who lost his mind to the endless expanse of fate and prophecy. Relationally, Fritjof is the equivalent of a griot, making him one of the characters in this book with the most direct connection to the metaphysical world. Though she isn’t shown in an official capacity as Fritjof is, Yafeu’s mother acts as his mirror for Yafeu’s gods, listening and connecting to the divine world.
When Fritjof tells his story it is in the form of a performance rather than a spiritual convergence, but it is established throughout the book that Fritjof exists more in the world of spirits than he does the physical one, and as such most of his actions seem to carry additional significance. His tale is supposed to be one about Erik the Red (a real and notorious Norse explorer from back in the day though I’m not entirely sure this is a reference to him) and tells a parable of how he and his men are stranded after they forsake their traditional gods in favor of “White Christ” which I imagine is a distinction made because they referenced the evangelizing movements that were occurring in Europe during this time that I imagine were promoting White Christ as opposed to the original dark-skinned Jesus that was in Ethiopia.
In the tale that Yafeu’s mother tells, Yafeu’s father is responsible for saving the white foreigners that he is sailing with by praying to his Gods as opposed to their Norse ones. In Fritjof’s tale, Thorhall, Erik’s right-hand man, saves his men by praying to their Norse gods as opposed to the” White Christ”. Once Yafeu realizes the parallels between the stories, she makes the connection that the story she heard of her father’s travels abroad was most likely made up by her mother so that Yafeu could continue to look up to her father and remember him as a hero. While I believe this is true because I thought it was weird that Yafeu’s mother had heard any news of her father in his absence, I also think the story holds more significance than that.
For one, I think it connects back to this idea of connectivity as it pertains to religion and spirituality. There are parallels constantly being drawn between the deities of these two cultures, something that is also made across the different versions of this tale. Returning to the statement that Yafeu’s father makes about the gods, this supports his assertion. Regardless of your perspective on god(s) or whether their nature can truly be known, the truth is none of us actually know it. What we do have is our belief, and our belief shapes the faces of our gods, and how we interact with them. The parallels in these stories show not only the subjectivity involved in our views of the divine, with the Norse gods representing false idols in one myth and true gods in another, all-the-while being very much relationally similar to many of the gods they are compared to. Knowing that the divine plays a pivotal role in the plot of this book, the purpose of this conversation isn’t to say that our conceptions of diversity are wrong, but rather they are correct, just not all there is to know.
They also show how legends around people are crafted in a very similar way. As far as the audience knows, her father could have achieved nothing more than dying alone in an unknown land, but the myth that her mother crafts in his wake creates power, a power to inspire and achieve. In chasing her father’s legacy, Yafeu creates her own. The alchemic transference of power is created from belief. It highlights the power of stories, connecting it back to the relationship between stories and the divine.
Knowing now that there is no telling what happened to Yafeu’s father, there is an added element of foresight that is added to the tale of Yafeu’s mother. With Yafeu adopting her father’s name for much of the book, her mother’s story takes on a prophetic quality as it is now attached to her legend that she begins to craft as she pursues his shadow. Ironically, she only discovers her own name at the end of the book, after her tales (as far as we know) are concluded. While she achieved great things, they were all in the pursuit of something she couldn’t achieve. Her name is returned to her at the end of the book when she is reunited with her family and they say it to her for the first time in years. This shows that Yafeu’s sense of self is attached to her family, something she doesn’t gain again until the end of the book.
At the beginning of the tale, she is surrounded by family but still chased after her father’s trail. By the end of the book she has crafted her own myth of greatness in her father’s name, and through her experiences, finds herself no longer searching for that missing piece of herself, and is gifted her sense of self by connecting with the people that sustain our sense of self, our family.
Feminism/ Romance/ and Male Characters
Most of the male characters in this book are trash. Well…trash or boring. This is something that conflicts me a lot when I read feminist texts, particularly ones written by women because, as a man, I can’t really be the one to determine what a woman’s experience of the world might be like as it pertains to men and patriarchy. This is especially true for a character that is attempting to break into male-dominated fields and is met with opposition, and at a time when women often were required to marry just to survive life, I get it. With that said, I love strong female characters, and positive and powerful characterizations of women, even beyond the display of physical strength.
This is particularly true because I feel like books that seek to go back and apply a feminist tale to a time or setting that wasn’t very progressive for women can often make the mistake of adding masculine qualities to women as a way of acknowledging their strength instead of celebrating the feminine qualities that are critical to the growth and maintenance of a healthy society. Now, I do think that there are women who embody these qualities such as Yafeu’s mother, Freydis’s mother, Helge, Bronaugh, and Aire. However, these women are spoken of only tangentially most of the time, and all analysis is left to the readers to assume the purpose and position that these women play in their societies.
For one, I think that displaying a strong woman surrounded by a bevy of weak or morally corrupt men doesn’t really give me a sense of her strength, but rather just makes it seem like she is the best of a shitty bunch, which isn’t as impressive or interesting. The moment that I truly fell in love with the character of Yafeu was early on in the book when she survives the destruction of her village and is forced to find the strength within her to not only find the will to go on, but to determine to herself that she would rescue and/or find her family. It's a moment where the audience gets to sit with Yafeu and travel into the depths of despair with her and then discover that at the bottom of it all is a greater strength than either of us could imagine. THAT is how you write a strong female character. Strength is in the will and determination, not in the plain ability of a character, and I think the book could’ve offered a better male contrast to Yafeu as she navigated the world of warriors.
And I also get it. The idiocy of men is critical to the plot of the book because it is predicated on the clash of societies, all of which are run by men in this book. However, I think that centering the plot around idiotic men like Balli made it so the book didn’t have to truly contend with the struggles that those societies faced at that time and the hard decisions that came with those struggles. We hear of hard winters and famines, but we don’t see what that would mean for a society that isn’t run by a mad king only inspired by greed and glory.
Another mark of a book having weak male characters is the presence of a single, mild good man, and that is Ingmar. When I first picked this book up, just from the vibes alone, I assumed it was a lesbian romance. If you are looking for that, look elsewhere. On one hand, I applaud the book for starring a female character with such a strong attitude and physical prowess without negating her femininity and ability to be compatible or even desirable to the opposite sex. With that said, they should have just made this a lesbian romance and called it a day because HOLY MOTHER OF GOD is Ingmar perhaps the most YA component of this book. He’s Peeta from Hunger Games, but without the later badass character development.
From the moment he meets her, he is respectful, unprejudiced, kind, and captivating, with eyes clear as a lake and deep enough to swim in. He’s one of the few men that actually respect the women warriors and quickly sides with them when shit hits the fan. Like bruh, I actively felt the lepidopterarium in my stomach slowly dying. It’s not that I was looking for anything toxic, but I did want her romantic journey to be more challenging and meaningful to her development and the plot as a whole. Not only that but if you are going to spend the whole book showing me how these societies have many ingrained prejudices that affect Yafeu, don’t suddenly present a man with none of these same issues, as if you plucked him out of 2024. If you cut out the character of Ingmar, literally nothing major in the plot would change, and I kinda wish they did.
What I will say that I think this book did well was analyze the different ways in which patriarchy can negatively affect women’s relationships with each other, and a great way to start this conversation will be to introduce the other main character of this book, Freydis. Yes, there is another main character that I’ve been ignoring up until now, in fact, there are two, but I also feel that there's a good reason for it.
There are three POV’s in total that are taken over the course of the entire book: Yafeu, Freydis, and Altvir. However, the POV’s of the other women are really supplementary to Yafeu’s story, providing perspective and context behind the machinations of the world that Yafeu is forced to navigate after she is kidnapped. However, this isn’t to say that Altvir and Freydis didn’t have their own stories to tell.
Freydis is a Nordic princess who the book’s synopsis describes as “shy” but I would say “spineless” would be a more accurate description. This isn’t to shit on her character either, because her part of the book is about her journey of growth from being a doormat to a self-made woman, but hey, she is a doormat. She is hated by her father, King Balli, because she is an only child and he doesn’t have a son to inherit his position. Her mother, Yngvild, has also grown to resent Freydis over the years because as she continues to have miscarriages over the years, she begrudges that her only child had to be a girl.
The implication of the book is that these miscarriages are due to a curse affecting the land as a result of Balli’s poor leadership: abuse of the Divine Right of Kings type shit.
Essentially the idea is that Balli is a usurper and a false king, the land was poisoned by him and therefore suffering. I will explain the Balli situation later when we talk about Altvir more. This curse presents itself in the book as poor harvests and harsh winters, which leads to infighting, death, and the weakening of the community, which if you’ve read any classic Nordic sagas, you will know is the worst-case scenario. In the harsh cold environment, community is all you have, especially when you have a reputation for pillaging. In fact, these issues are regarded as signs of Ragnarok to some, the Norse version of armageddon.
The point is, the situation is dire, and being the self-indulgent coward he is, Balli pushes the responsibilities for all these tragedies by deflecting it onto those around him. He blames the farmers for their poorer yields, he blames Fritjof for not giving him visions he views as useful or positive, he blames Freydis for not being a boy, and he blames his wife for not being able to give him the son he believes he deserves. He beats and lambasts them constantly over this fact, offering nothing but cruelty and blame to Yngvild when he hears of her miscarriages.
This causes Yngvild to foster this same resentment towards herself, as well as Freydis, who she grew to view as a sign of the universe flipping her off as she killed herself trying to produce an heir.
This dynamic is what fosters this sense of ontological unworthiness that Freydis is consumed by when we first meet her, or to put it more simply: she a doormat. I did actually like the parallel that Freydis provides to Yafeu as it pertains to societal station and personality. Though Yafeu is supposed to be Freydis’s handmaiden, Yafeu is clearly the leader in their relationship, and ultimately the influence that sees Freydis escaping her own world as a royal.
Looking beyond the surface is a central idea of this book, and all the different elements of the book: the mythology, the characters, the political machinations, are all conduits towards this purpose. And speaking of spiritual and political machinations, let's talk about the character that gives us the most insight into that side of things: Altvir.
Altvir is actually a very cool character who I wish we got to explore a bit more than this book does. She is perhaps the most complicated character in this book because she is not a good person, but she is an honorable one who you can empathize with. Altvir is the twin sister of Balli, and by all rights besides sex, the true ruler. She is the superior warrior, leader, politician, and strategist to her brother, even being the force behind Balli’s greatest claim to fame, a war that first gained him his position as king.
She is also interesting because her character exemplifies the qualities that would value her as the height of manhood in her society, but this is a path that she finds after her womanhood is denied to her.
We later learn that she attempted to run away and escape with her lover at a young age, an endeavor that ended in her lover’s death as well as her being raped and left for dead. Upon returning home, she found that she was with child, but didn’t know whether it was from her lover or attackers, something she would never know because the child died in a premature birth. It is after these traumatic experiences that Altvir fully steps into her role as a commander and orchestrates the defeat of the Danes. This culminates in a battle where Altvir forces the Danes to surrender, but due to her rage, she refuses their surrender and traps them in a building that she then burns down. The fire eventually goes out of control, burning a whole neighborhood down of their own kinsmen, forever staining Altvir as a monster and a cursed woman.
In many ways, Altvir is both the ideal form of and cautionary tale for Yafeu. They both excel in the roles that society traditionally relegates to masculinity- smithing, fighting, leading, and strategizing, and are looked upon negatively as a result. Just like Yafeu, her lack of femininity is seen as a sign of her being cursed, and it is a side of themselves that they cultivated through necessity rather than desire. It is this connection between them that allows Altvir to aid Yafeu in navigating her own rage that she harbors and unleashes in flashes of violence. Atlvir tells Yafeu “I was only ever good at burning things down. You have the fire in you, just as I do. But fire won’t be enough. Burning won't be enough. You will have to be good at building, too.” (pg 362).
Neither woman is “good” and I think that is important to the meaning of the book. They both clearly derive some level of pleasure from violence and killing, a relatively regular occurrence in their lives. Despite this, they still channel their emotions into the building rather than destruction.
Regardless of man or woman, this is ultimately the positive role that the channeling of masculinity can embody, and the violence that we see surrounding Atlvir, Yafeu, and the other women in this story is the result of an abuse of this masculinity by the men around them. This is exemplified in the character of Snorri, Atlvir’s second in command of Balli’s troops for much of this book, and one that constantly seeks to undermine and sabotage her for her position. Snorri embodies every negative quality of manhood, and his positioning in society as a leader of men and the prospective inheritor to Balli’s position shows how the nominality of manhood is more valued in society than actual leadership qualities. This dynamic shows the community’s adherence to sexism to the point that they would rather nominate a bitch like Snorri, rather than a woman like Atlvir.
This is also significant because Fritjof is viewed as a feminine figure in his society because Seiðr (seidr), or magic, is seen as the realm relegated to women. Despite this, just like Altvir, he is allowed to occupy his position due to the society needing to use his talents, but still reserving the respect of their positions and responsibilities due to their views of gender.
Conclusion
Ultimately, I enjoyed this book. As a lover of mythology, I enjoyed the way that it was naturally braided throughout the narrative and meaning of the story, as well as the personal development of the main character. It did lag a bit in the middle as the plot and pacing took a second to fully coalesce, and certain elements felt a bit juvenile in their approach. Mostly though, I just don’t think I like Freydis and her bond with Yafeu enough for this to have been a book I super enjoyed. The part of the book that could use the most work would be in the character building of a lot of the surrounding characters like Altvir and Ingmar (or cut him out), but these aspects of the book aren’t hard to get through.
I would definitely recommend this book if you would want to read a coming-of-age story starring a strong female character, mythology, and magical realism.
Words and Concepts I take with me
I was gonna make this section longer, but this piece is already pretty long, so here imma just list some fun and interesting terms and entities that I took note of while reading.
Scandinavian Terminology
Hird
An informal retinue of personal armed companions in Scandinavian history. Could be substituted for the “da bois” or “the squad”.
Holmgang
An old-school Scandinavian squabble!
Hugin/Mugin- Thought/ Memory
I have known about Odin’s two pet ravens, Hugin and Mugin, for a while, but it wasn't until this book that I found out they are supposed to represent “thought” and “memory” respectively.
Disablot
A pre-Christian Scandinavian ceremony that was set to honor the female spirits, deities, and Valkyries.
Eiderdown
It sounds like a cool Final Fantasy creature, but it’s pretty self-explanatory actually. Eiderdown is the down feathers of the Eider duck…disappointing I know. Still, it sounds cool as hell so I'm listing it.
Nithing
This refers to a villain or coward who breaks a code of honor, and I think it might be worth bringing back into our daily lexicon.
African Terminology
Sasabonsam
Sasabonsam is a vampire-like folkloric being from the Akan people. It is said to have iron teeth, pink skin, long red hair, and iron hooks for feet and lives in trees, attacking from above. If I remember correctly, it is also mentioned in Black Leopard, Red Wolf, a coming-of-age fantasy novel by Marlon James that I recommend.
Dyabe Cisse (Dinga Cisse)
Known as the first king of the Ghana empire from 830 C.E. to 1235 C.E. This is not current-day Ghana, but the kingdom known as Wagadou.
Amanirenas
Amanirenas was a queen of the ancient African kingdom of Kush during the first century C.E., and is most notably known for beating back a Roman invasion for a time.
Ogise Emose
This is interesting because it is undoubtedly a mistake, but I’m unsure if it was made on purpose or not…let me explain. The term “Ogise” is actually a title that translates to “king of the sky” which refers to the rulers of the Igodomigodo kingdom, where Benin is currently. The book calls Ogise Emose “the first woman to rule Igodomigodo” but Emose was actually a man whose father died prior to his birth resulting in him being referred to and associated more with his mother’s name, Emose. I don’t know if this mistake in the book is the result of Yafeu’s confusion about this man, or the author’s, but considering it was brought up in a list of notable women like Amanirenas, I’m willing to bet on the latter.
Aido Hwedo
Also known as Great Rainbow Serpent, Aido Hwedo is a powerful loa spirit in Vodou and its sister religions. She is considered one of the most ancient loa spirits and governs over fertility, wealth, rainbows, fire, and more. She is also related to Damballa, often depicted as a white or black serpent who is, depending on the telling, her husband, her brother, or even him in a different form. Interestingly enough, she was frequently depicted as a snake eating her own tail, much like Ouroboros. She was also known as a servant to Mawu-Lisa, a creator deity in Vodou.
Nana bukulu
The female supreme creator deity of the Fon and Ewe people of Africa, and subsequently in the many different interactions of the Vodun religion as it spread throughout the world. She gave birth to Mawu-Lisa and initiated the creation of the universe.
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