Tuesday 20 October 2015

A Bird Made Of Fog

Gunnhild, projecting her soul as a bird and calling her future husband to her, reproduces a magical achievement of one of the Nine Witch Queens of Ys. The sunken towers of Ys are seen in the first of Poul Anderson's five Viking Era novels and Gunnhild is referenced in one of its sequels.

The Witch Queens needed Gratillonius to challenge and kill their King and thus to take his place. Gunnhild needs Eirik's men to kill her two Finnish mentors and then to take her to Eirik.

Mother Of Kings, about Gunnhild, is a culmination of Anderson's historical novels containing elements of fantasy and a prequel to The Last Viking, the historical fiction trilogy in which an expedition in search of Jotunheim - visited in an earlier novel - finds only icebergs and whales.

Guests at Eirik's and Gunnhild's wedding consume:

beef
pork
mutton
fowl
fish cooked with garlic
leaks
peas
turnips
herbs
wheat and rye bread
butter
cheese
honey
berries dried and stewed
ale
mead

It is quite a while since we have had a food list on the blog but this wedding is a suitable occasion. 

No comments: