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Historical person
910–980
Gunnhild, remembered by the epithet “Mother of Kings”, was a tenth-century Scandinavian queen associated with Eric Bloodaxe and with the sons who later competed for power in Norway. Most information about her comes from sagas and later narrative sources written long after the events they describe.
Those traditions portray Gunnhild as politically ambitious and influential during periods of exile and dynastic conflict in Norway, the British Isles and Denmark. The dramatic details of her life, including stories of sorcery and intrigue, are difficult to separate from literary hostility and later legend.
In Robert Low’s Crowbone, Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, and her surviving allies pursue the same secret and intend to destroy Olaf before he can challenge their dynasty. Further fictional perspectives on Gunnhild, Mother of Kings can be found in Cecelia Holland’s The Soul Thief (the Life and Times of Corban Loosestrife) and Cecelia Holland’s The Witches’ Kitchen (the Life and Times of Corban Loosestrife). In Egil’s Saga, translated by Leifur Eiriksson, Queen Gunnhild is a persistent royal enemy of Egil Skallagrímsson, and her hostility alongside Eric Bloodaxe repeatedly places the poet and warrior in danger.
Series
The Oathsworn series follows Orm Rurikson from an inexperienced Norwegian youth into the leader of a feared Viking brotherhood in the later tenth century. Bound by an oath made before Odin, the crew travel from Scandinavia and the Baltic to Constantinople, the eastern Mediterranean and the Eurasian steppes…
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The six-volume Corban Loosestrife saga begins in tenth-century Ireland when a Viking raid destroys Corban’s family and carries away his twin sister, Mav. His pursuit takes him through Dublin, Jórvík and Denmark before the family attempts a new life across the Atlantic. The later volumes shift much of…
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Standalone books
