Northern Wrath
Thilde Kold Holdt.
Epic fantasy/ Viking epic
Northern Wrath is a wonderfully structured Viking epic that follows a host of characters, mostly from a village that is destroyed by Christian raiders. The few survivors scatter, some intent on revenge, others becoming entwined in plots initiated by divine power. All seek to save their customs, their way of life, their very world and afterlife against the encroaching power of Christianity. We meet Odin, Loki, and other well-known Viking deities, and many lesser known, giants, dwarves and elves (but not as you know them), shapeshifters, soothsayers, and historical figures such as Viking-turned-Christian Harald Bluetooth.
Northern Wrath is a delightful page-turner, and I found myself gripped, racing through at a speed that made those 600 pages feel like half that. It’s a book that is visually strong; take for example, a young woman on a dark horse, red leaves flurrying around her, her skin so white it’s almost transparent. Blood traces down her cheeks from fire ember eyes. She holds a floating chain attached to an invisible animal.
I love that image! There’s so many vivid images, this would look stunning on screen.
To me, Northern Wrath read more like historical magical realism than fantasy, like One Hundred Years of Solitude, Beloved, or Midnight’s Children. (magical realism tends to be post-colonial fiction wherein the “magical” events of the story are only seen as magical from the perspective of the Western/ Christian reader; to the characters and any readers native to the place it was written, these events are real and ordinary.) Northern Wrath almost seems to be pre-colonial fiction, with the Viking characters taking their beliefs as literally real, so they are real in the story. Christian characters don’t possess the spirit-animal fylgjur that the Vikings do, and there is a sense it would be an entirely different story, more historical and less fantasy, if told from a Christian perspective.
The only thing I didn’t like that much was the cover, though I know others love it. To me the cover places it firmly in the realm of standard epic fantasy. It is, of course, an epic fantasy with all the elements any fantasy fan will love – but in my opinion it stands out as having other literary qualities too. These qualities are not reflected in the cover. This is a personal preference; I can absolutely understand why its sensible to attract a core epic fantasy readership rather than a literary readership.
Read our interview with author Thilde Kold Holdt here
