Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Half-Drowned King
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.linneahartsuyker.com/
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
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PERSONAL
Born in Los Angeles, CA; married.
EDUCATION:Cornell University, B.S.; New York University, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Linnea Hartsuyker is an author of historical novels. Her debut, The Half-drowned King, opens a planned trilogy set in ninth-century Norway, in the time of the rise of Harald Harfagr (Fairhair), the first king of a unified Norway. She became interested in the era after finding out that Harald was one of her ancestors. “As I attempted to write various novels in my 20s, I had in the back of my mind that one day, when I was a good enough writer, I would tackle Harald’s story,” she told a Qwillery blogger. “I was never able to finish any of those other novels because, I think, I didn’t care enough about the stories I was trying to tell. Eventually, I decided that even if I wasn’t a good enough writer, I still needed to attempt this story.” In another online interview, at Barrelhouse, she noted: “I spent a long time trying to write what I thought was easy and what would sell, but it wasn’t until I wrote what I wanted to write, without worrying about whether anyone would read it besides me, that I was able to finish a novel.” That novel was The Half-drowned King.
The story focuses on Ragnvald Eysteinsson. a historical figure who was one of Harald’s allies. As the novel opens, Ragnvald, age twenty, is a Viking warrior, sailing home from a raid when he is thrown overboard by his captain, Solvi. Ragnvald’s stepfather, Olaf Ottarsson, had ordered the attempt on his life in hopes of seizing his inheritance, one of many minor kingdoms that existed before Norway was united. With the help of a fisherman, Ragnvald survives and makes his way home, seeking revenge on his stepfather. He also plans to choose an appropriate husband for his teenage sister, Svanhild. It turns out that Olaf has promised her to a man she hates, and when she runs away, she is captured by Solvi, who takes her as his wife. Solvi is an adversary of Harald, to whom Ragnvald has pledged his support, after earlier embracing a rival, Hakon. As Ragnvald fights to reclaim his lands and help Harald create a new nation, Svanhild must decide if her loyalties lie with her brother or her husband. Hartsuyker alternates the viewpoints of brother and sister.
Several reviewers found The Half-drowned King not only action-filled but well-written and marked by solid character development. “Hartsuyker takes us into a world of danger, secrecy, revenge, and glory, as well as savagery and romance,” Leslie Wright observed online at BlogCritics. “Her characters are amazingly likable with both their own faults and shortcomings as well as a solid dose of common sense.” The story “draws from bits and parts of history, tales, imagination and superstitions,” Wright continued. Matthew Jackson, writing in BookPage‘s Web edition, noted that “everything you want from a medieval saga set during this crucial period of Norwegian history is here, from massive battles to honor-fueled duels to rituals and supernatural visions.” Hartsuker’s “tales of great Viking deeds are given all of the epic gravity they require, but the character drama is what makes this novel addictive,” he added, explaining that the author “has captured an era with precise, powerful prose imagery, but she’s also vividly envisioned two enduring characters” in Ragnvald and Swanhild. Wall Street Journal critic Tom Shippey remarked: “Hartsuyker captures the sense of saga times and saga heroes: violent but litigious, treacherous but honorable, impetuous but crafty. Ragnvald, Harald and Hakon all play off one another, as do the striking Svanhild, her stepmother Vigdis and—only just coming into the picture—Gyda, whose proud refusal of Harald created Norway.”
In the online magazine Paste, Jason Rhode delivered a mixed assessment. He commended Hartsuyker’s “insights about Viking folkways,” but faulted her as “sacrificing specificity for an ambiguity that coats its audience in a quilt of names and strange words.” The Half-drowned King will appeal primarily to readers already fascinated by the Vikings, he commented. Historical Novels Review contributor Xina Marie Uhl thought it rather slow-moving, although she allowed that Hartsuyker “does an excellent job of evoking a vibrant society from years past.” She recommended the novel to those who “are patient and in the mood for a period piece.”
Still other critics, though, praised The Half-drowned King without reservation. Steve Donoghue, writing online at Open Letters Monthly, called the female characters a strength of the novel, as “the women of the Viking sagas are easily more compelling than the men, and Hartsuyker is alive to their dramatic possibilities.” In her sequels, “it’ll be at least as much fun to read the adventures of Svanhild and her sister-characters as it will be to soak up the more conventional swashbuckling of Ragnvald and Harald,” he related. Others had positive words for the women characters as well. “The book is replete with exciting battles, duels, and sieges, but the author makes Svanhild’s domestic tribulations equally dramatic,” a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted, and a Kirkus Reviews contributor reported: “In an era so dominated by the tales of men, it’s nice to see a complicated, cunning heroine like Svanhild swoop in and steal the show.” The story, this critic added, “is as deliciously complex as Game of Thrones.” Donoghue summed up The Half-drowned King as “a fantastic debut,” while Booklist commentator Sarah Johnson concluded: “This is how tales from the old sagas should be told.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June, 2017, Sarah Johnson, review of The Half-drowned King, p. 66.
Historical Novels Review, August, 2017. Xina Marie Uhl, review of The Half-drowned King.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2017, review of The Half-drowned King.
Publishers Weekly, June 12, 2017, review of The Half-drowned King, p. 36.
School Library Journal, March, 2018, Connie Williams, review of The Half-drowned King, p. 128.
Wall Street Journal, Septembe 22, 2017, Tom Shippey, “The Song of King Harald Fairhair.”
ONLINE
Barrelhouse, https://www.barrelhousemag.com/ (July 18, 2017), “My Big Little Break: Linnea Hartsuyker on Her First Publication.”
BlogCritics, https://blogcritics.org/ (September 17, 2017), Leslie Wright, review of The Half-drowned King.
Book Club Central, http://www.bookclubcentral.org/ (February 23, 2018), review of The Half-drowned King.
Book Culture, http://www.bookculture.com/ (August 16, 2017), review of The Half-drowned King.
BookPage Website, https://bookpage.com/ (August 1, 2017), Matthew Jackson, review of The Half-drowned King.
Library Journal Website, https://reviews.libraryjournal.com/ (February 26, 2018), Barbara Hoffert, review of The Sea Queen.
Linnea Hartsuyker Website, http://www.linneahartsuyker.com (April 18, 2018).
Open Letters Monthly, https://www.openlettersmonthly.com/ (August 9, 2017), Steve Donoghue, review of The Half-drowned King.
Paste, https://www.pastemagazine.com/ (August 3, 2017), Jason Rhode, “The Protagonist in Linnea Hartsuyker’s The Half-drowned King Deserves to Be Stabbed.”
Qwillery, http://qwillery.blogspot.com/ (August 1, 2017), interview with Linnea Hartsuyker.
Smart Bitches Trashy Books, http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ (August 29, 2017), review of The Half-drowned King.
Washington Independent Review of Books, http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/ (August 18, 2017), Carrie Callaghan, review of The Half-drowned King.
About Me
I am a full time writer of historical fiction living in New York City with my husband. I have an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU and a BS in Material Science and Engineering from Cornell University. I was born in Los Angeles, but my parents moved to Ithaca, New York when I was very young. I grew up in the middle of hundreds of acres of forest outside Ithaca.
When I was in my teens, my family embarked on a project to trace our ancestry and identify our living relatives. Through church records in Sweden and Norway, we found that Harald Fairhair (Harfagr), the first king of Norway is one of our ancestors. Those explorations gave me the seeds of my first novel, The Half-Drowned King.
I am also an avid knitter, strongwoman competitor, traveler, and cook, and a reader of all genres of fiction and non-fiction, and you will see posts about all of those things on my blog.
Here is an interview I did for HarperCollins’s Genre Bending Youtube show:
Contact Me
The best way to contact me is to email linnea dot hartsuyker at gmail dot com. I am represented by Julie Barer at The Book Group. For US publicity and appearances, please contact Heather Drucker at Harper Collins (Heather dot Drucker at harpercollins dot com).
Quoted in Sidelights: “I spent a long time trying to write what I thought was easy and what would sell, but it wasn’t until I wrote what I wanted to write, without worrying about whether anyone would read it besides me, that I was able to finish a novel.”
MY BIG LITTLE BREAK: LINNEA HARTSUYKER ON HER FIRST PUBLICATION
July 18, 2017 in Series
A BARRELHOUSE INTERVIEW WITH LINNEA HARTSUYKER
In My Big Little Break, we ask authors to talk about the first piece they ever had published, how it felt to finally break through, and what they’ve learned since then. This week, writer Linnea Hartsuyker, author of the novel The Half Drowned King, shares her answers.
half drowned.jpg
What was the title and genre of your first-ever published piece?
The Half-Drowned King is actually the first piece of creative writing I've ever submitted for publication on my own. However, my first professional publication was co-authoring paper when I was doing my undergrad work in Materials Science and Engineering in 1998: "Magneto-optical properties of nanocomposite films obtained by partial reduction of (Ni,Mg)O and (Co,Mg)O solid solutions" published in The Journal of Applied Physics.
When I was getting my MFA in Creative Writing at NYU, Rick Moody had all the responses to one of his class assignments published, and one of them was my story, "The Saga of Gordon Taylor", published in The Golden Handcuffs Review in 2014.
Who published it? Are they still around?
Both The Journal of Applied Physics and The Golden Handcuffs Review are still putting out new issues.
Give us some context: how old were you? How long had you been writing and submitting? How many times had the piece been rejected? Anything else we're missing.
I've always liked to write novels much more than short stories, so I haven't followed the typical writer trajectory of writing short stories for a while before tackling a novel. When I started to take writing seriously as an adult I tried writing some short stories, but it wasn't until I gave myself permission to write novels that I was able to finish anything or find more fulfillment than frustration in what I was doing. I was 20 in 1998 when the physics paper came out, 35 in 2014 when I finished my MFA, and was 37 when The Half-Drowned King was accepted.
Did getting that acceptance feel as triumphant as you'd always hoped? Walk us through the moment when you found out.
When my agent called with the first offer for The Half-Drowned King from Ullstein in Germany, I had a terrible cold and could barely get up off the couch. I was thrilled, but also crying, making gross noises, and coughing. It was not beautiful or dignified, but very joyous. I am lucky to have had the first major work I wrote accepted, but still had many setbacks along the way, from in finishing it in the first place, to finding the right agent, and getting it ready for publication.
For the other two pieces, the process was so much out of my hands, involving professors who led the editing and submission process, that it was only mildly pleasing to learn that they had been published.
Are you still proud of that piece? Have you re-read it recently?
The assignment that led to "The Saga of Gordon Taylor" was to write a story in the style of an Icelandic Saga, but about modern New Yorkers. I wrote mine about a contest of strength in a gym, because the protagonists of the Icelandic Sagas sometimes remind me a bit of my modern-day meathead friends. I re-read it just now, and found it very silly, which is pretty much what I thought when I first wrote it.
Now that you've been doing this for a while, collecting plenty of rejections and acceptances along the way, what advice do you wish you could give your younger self?
I spent a long time trying to write what I thought was easy and what would sell, but it wasn't until I wrote what I wanted to write, without worrying about whether anyone would read it besides me, that I was able to finish a novel. So I would probably tell my younger self to write what she loved earlier. On the other hand, a great writing teacher, Diana Spechler, told me that no words are ever wasted because you need to write them to get to the words that come after, so perhaps that was something I needed to figure out for myself through trial and error.
Linnea Hartsuyker can trace her ancestry back to Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and a major character in THE HALF-DROWNED KING, her first novel. She grew up in the middle of the woods outside Ithaca, New York, and studied Engineering at Cornell University. After a decade of working at internet startups, and writing in her spare time, she attended NYU and received an MFA in Creative Writing. She lives in New York City with her husband.
Tags: My Big Little Break, Linnea Hartsuyker, Interview
Quoted in Sidelghts: “As I attempted to write various novels in my 20s, I had in the back of my mind that one day, when I was a good enough writer, I would tackle Harald’s story,” she told a Qwillery blogger. “I was never able to finish any of those other novels because, I think, I didn’t care enough about the stories I was trying to tell. Eventually, I decided that even if I wasn’t a good enough writer, I still needed to attempt this story.”
Tuesday, August 01, 2017
Interview with Linnea Hartsuyker, author of The Half-Drowned King
Please welcome Linnea Hartsuyker to The Qwillery as part of the of the 2017 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. The Half-Drowned King is published on August 1st by Harper. Read Linnea's Guest Blog - Some of my favorite Genre-Bending Historical Fantasy Novels - here.
Happy Publication Day to Linnea!
TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?
Linnea: I’ve always written, off and on. When I was 9, I wrote and bound a little book called “Eleanor and the Great Nail polish Disaster”. In middle school I tried to write a gothic romance novel, having never read one. I believe the heroine’s name was Laetitia. But as I got into high school I thought I should concentrate on skills that were likely to get me a good job. I studied engineering in college, while taking creative writing and literature classes for fun. A few years after graduating, I wasn’t finding creative fulfillment from the opportunities that my engineering degree gave me, and I starting writing again in my spare time. I began writing more and more seriously and eventually took up the project what would become The Half-Drowned King.
TQ: Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?
Linnea: I’m more of a plotter, but definitely a hybrid—plans can and do change, and often I outline as much to figure out where I am as where I’m going. The Half-Drowned King and its sequels are based in history and myth, so there are certain events I know need to be part of the plot. I start by making a very rough, high level outline that includes those events, and how I think I’m going to get the characters there. I write until I get stuck, and then go back to the outline, or re-outline from scratch to figure out new and dramatic ways to get the characters where they need to be. With all three books, I’ve found that after writing about 70% of the rough draft, I need to do a full re-outline to make sure all the plot threads connect. By that time point there is so much I want to change that I usually go back to the beginning and start rewriting, and writing new material until I get to the end.
TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?
Linnea: I think it is being patient with myself, and being comfortable with uncertainty. Writing requires dedication, but also inspiration and serendipity. Sheer perseverance, the kind that works in other areas of life, does not always work for me when I’m writing. If I get stuck, or if a scene isn’t working, I need to step back and find a new way in. I’ve also had to learn that even if I’m capable of writing 10,000 words in a day, I probably shouldn’t, because I’ll feel burned out for a while. I have to stop while I still have lots of ideas for what to write the next day.
TQ: What has influenced / influences your writing?
Linnea: I grew up in the middle of the woods in upstate New York, and my family that is very into doing things by hand. We baked our own bread, and did fiber arts like weaving, sewing, and knitting. We heated the house with wood and coal fires, and had to split and chop wood all summer. I think that is why I’ve always been drawn to history, eras which required more physical labor than our own, and making things from scratch. My father also read to us, frequently myths and legends from various cultures, including Norse. When I was 12 or so, I discovered The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and The Mabinogion Tetralogy by Evangeline Walton, which retold Arthurian and Welsh legends in novel form—and that has been my favorite genre ever since. I’ve always read widely, in many genres, literary, speculative, popular, and everything in between; some of my favorite writers are Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Emma Donoghue, C. S. Friedman, Janet Fitch, and Sharon Kay Penman, but I think The Half-Drowned King owes the most to those very early influences.
TQ: Describe The Half-Drowned King in 140 characters or less.
Linnea: A saga about a brother and sister’s struggle to fulfill their ambitions in Viking-Age Norway, balancing revenge, love, freedom and safety.
TQ: Tell us something about The Half-Drowned King that is not found in the book description.
Linnea: I’m very interested in the ways that women could navigate the challenges of a pre-modern society. I wanted my women characters to be plausible for the time-period, while reflecting the fact that women are people, every bit as much as men, and would rebel, have ambitions, and struggle against their limitations. I’ve tried to represent different ways that women would deal with a violent society in which they had fewer rights than today: Hilda goes along to get along, Ascrida is nearly broken by what she’s endured but still tries to make choices to keep her family safe, Vigdis uses her sexuality to further her ambitions, and Svanhild, the heroine, makes rash and idealistic choices, and then has to face the consequences.
TQ: What inspired you to write The Half-Drowned King? What appealed to you about writing a saga about the Vikings?
Linnea: When I was in my early teens, my family began tracing our ancestry. Because the Scandinavian countries have church records going back to the coming of Christianity (around 1000 CE) we could track at least some lines of descent to then, and before that, we followed the genealogies in the sagas, all the way to Harald Harfagr (Fairhair), the first king of Norway in the 9th century CE.
As I attempted to write various novels in my 20s, I had in the back of my mind that one day, when I was a good enough writer, I would tackle Harald’s story. I was never able to finish any of those other novels because, I think, I didn’t care enough about the stories I was trying to tell. Eventually, I decided that even if I wasn’t a good enough writer, I still needed to attempt this story. Later, a writing teacher gave me a piece of advice I’d been in the process of discovering for myself: if you’re going to write a novel about something, you should be obsessed with it, because you’re going to be spending so long with it—especially in the case of writing a trilogy! The Half-Drowned King and its sequels combine many of my passions: sea battles, retold myths, pagan legends, sword fights, and women’s stories, so I never tire of this world and characters.
TQ: What sort of research did you do for The Half-Drowned King?
Linnea: I did a great deal of reading: sagas, histories, and archeology, but I also visited Norway a few times, including kayaking the fjord in the opening chapters. At the Viking Ship museum at Roskilde, I got to help crew a small viking boat. I also learned how to spin yarn from fleece using a drop spindle—which is something that Viking women would have spent an enormous amount of time doing.
TQ: Please tell us about the cover for The Half-Drowned King.
Linnea: It’s been so fun to work with the editors at my publishers in the US and Europe to come up with different cover ideas. All of them have wanted to show a balance of masculine and feminine imagery, since the book follows both Ragnvald and his sister Svanhild. The US cover, with the crown sinking under the waves was actually the very first idea that HarperCollins’s in-house designer Milan Bozic came up with. We talked over some other ideas, but settled on this one, and it was fully illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith. There is little evidence that Viking kings wore crowns, but I love how this cover it illustrates the title and evokes the mood of the novel, with the crown sinking into the waves and the ship in the background.
TQ: In The Half-Drowned King who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?
Linnea: It really varied depending on my mood! I would go weeks only writing Ragnvald sections, then want to switch to Svanhild for a while. Svanhild is really fun because she does whatever she wants—she tends to be people’s favorite character. Ragnvald can be a bit more trouble—he’s more careful, less friendly and winning, and because he’s an ambitious Viking warrior, he commits acts of violence that can be troubling for modern readers. Solvi, who is identified with the trickster god Loki, was also one of my favorite characters to write, though he had his challenges as well.
TQ: Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in The Half-Drowned King?
Linnea: I don’t think it’s possible to write a book that doesn’t comment on social issues. Novels express the values of the writer whether we want them to or not. The characters in The Half-Drowned King deal with issues of their time, but even these are expressions of timeless questions: how do we balance freedom and security, what do we look for in our leaders, how far will we go for justice or vengeance? I’ve tried to show both the rewards and costs of different ways of answering those questions.
TQ: Which question about The Half-Drowned King do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!
Linnea: You originally wanted to write about Harald Harfagr, your ancestor. Why did you choose to make Ragnvald and Svanhild your main characters?
As I was doing my early research about Harald Harfagr, I started to find him a little dull. He has one interesting episode with Princess Gyda but other than that, he doesn’t face enough serious challenges. In many retellings of the Arthurian legends, Arthur is the least interesting character—he’s the fixed point around whom others orbit. So as I read the sagas, I grew more interested Ragnvald, who becomes Harald’s closest adviser, and suffers for that closeness. Ragnvald’s decisions and eventual fate in the sagas made me wonder about what kind of man he was, and how he would grow and change over his lifetime.
The dawn of the Scandinavian kingdoms was a time when some local kings and chieftains were giving away some of their power to a high king of a much larger area, while others fled to Iceland to retain their freedom. The question of freedom versus security became a guiding theme, and I decided to make Ragnvald’s sister Svanhild the other main character—a woman’s choices about freedom and security would be even more difficult and circumscribed than a man’s. And then, because Ragnvald often makes more cautious choices, and follows a king, I was able to give some of the bolder, more rebellious choices to Svanhild.
TQ: Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from The Half-Drowned King.
Linnea:
“Above the plain stretched an ice field whose meltwater fed all the river systems of the Sogn district. Ragnvald and Oddi walked up to it, over a steep slope. A great mouth of ice, dark and blue in its recesses, opened where the ice field began. It looked as though a frost giant had been frozen there, about to take a bite big enough to consume a herd of cattle. Cold air issued from it, the giant’s breath. Ragnvald walked along the opening behind Oddi. He did not want to turn his back on the great maw, so he tossed a pebble into its depths. It skittered for a moment, then fell into a pool of water far below.
Inhuman spirits lived in places like this. It might be the mouth of not a giant but Niflheim, one of the lands of the dead. Oddi peered in and would have climbed in, but Ragnvald held him back.”
TQ: What's next?
Linnea: I just turned in the final draft of The Sea Queen, which is the sequel to The Half-Drowned King, and am currently working on the first draft of The Golden Wolf, the final book in the trilogy. After that, I have a long list of interesting periods of history I’d like to tackle. During my MFA program, I wrote the rough draft of a novel I wrote about a priest dealing with church politics during the early 12th century when there were two popes and clerical celibacy was just starting to be enforced—I’d like to dust that off. And I have a huge and sprawling fantasy world in my head that I would someday like to put down on the page.
TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.
Linnea: My pleasure! Thank you for these interesting questions.
Quoted in Sidelights: “This is how tales from the old sagas should be told.”
Print Marked Items
The Half-Drowned King
Sarah Johnson
Booklist.
113.19-20 (June 2017): p66. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* The Half-Drowned King. By Linnea Hartsuyker. Aug. 2017.448p. Harper, $27.99 (9780062563699).
In mid-ninth-century Norway, power was dispersed among many petty kingdoms, while sea- kings gained wealth and status through plunder. Chronicling the time that saw Harald Fairhair's rise as eventual king of a united Norway, Hartsuykers terrific historical epic, first in a projected trilogy, beautifully evokes the period and the mind-set of its warring peoples. After his stepfather's attempt on his life fails, Ragnvald Eysteinsson pursues revenge and a plan to regain his hereditary lands while finding his place amid the Norse kings' shifting alliances and blood feuds. Meanwhile, his teenage sister, Svanhild, too strong-minded to be a peace-weaver bride, moves through challenging emotional territory after evading an unwanted marriage. Posing thoughtful questions about the nature of honor and heroism, and devoting significant attention to women's lives, the novel takes a fresh approach to the Viking-adventure genre. Hartsuyker also shows how the glorious deeds in skaldic songs can differ from their subjects' lived experiences. The multifaceted characters are believable products of their era yet relatable to modern readers; the rugged beauty of Norway's farmlands and coastal landscapes likewise comes alive. The language is clear and eloquent, and the action scenes will have the blood humming in your veins. This is how tales from the old sagas should be told.--Sarah Johnson
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Johnson, Sarah. "The Half-Drowned King." Booklist, June 2017, p. 66. Book Review Index Plus,
1 of 5 3/26/18, 3:18 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498582749/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=9a74cd20. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498582749
2 of 5 3/26/18, 3:18 PM
Quoted in Sidelights: “In an era so dominated by the tales of men, it’s nice to see a complicated, cunning heroine like Svanhild swoop in and steal the show.” The story, this critic reported, “is as deliciously complex as Game of Thrones.”
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Hartsuyker, Linnea: THE HALF- DROWNED KING
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 1, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Hartsuyker, Linnea THE HALF-DROWNED KING Harper/HarperCollins (Adult Fiction) $27.99 8, 1 ISBN: 978-0-06-256369-9
Steeped in legend and myth, Hartsuyker's debut is a swashbuckling epic of family, love, and betrayal that reimagines the Norse sagas.At 20, hotheaded Ragnvald is old enough to be a warrior "and counted a man"--but not old enough to see betrayal coming. After he's nearly killed in a plot orchestrated by his stepfather, Ragnvald swears allegiance first to King Hakon, then to King Harald, hoping to win enough power to take back the land that's rightfully his. Meanwhile, his sister, Svanhild, abandons the protections of family and friends to escape an arranged marriage-- only to find herself at the mercy of her brother's betrayer, Solvi. Hartsuyker bases Ragnvald's tale on the epic of King Harald Fairhair, one of her possible ancestors. The historic figure of Ragnvald rose to prominence as one of Harald's fiercest warriors during the unification of Norway in the ninth century. In the gaps of recorded history, Hartsuyker weaves a tale of myth, magic, and superstition, where "the chilly fingers of Ran's handmaidens" can pull a sailor to his death or an undead draugr can terrorize a village. The contours of Ragnvald and Svanhild's reality are equally dangerous, and Hartsuyker doesn't shy away from depicting the slaughter, rape, and deception that marked the raids and battles of the Viking age. While Hartsuyker's prose is straightforward, the plot is as deliciously complex as Game of Thrones. And, in an era so dominated by the tales of men, it's nice to see a complicated, cunning heroine like Svanhild swoop in and steal the show. Hold on to your helms and grab your shields--Hartsuyker is just getting started.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Hartsuyker, Linnea: THE HALF-DROWNED KING." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2017. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A493329284/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=7f4ca70d. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A493329284
3 of 5 3/26/18, 3:18 PM
Quoted in Sidelights: “The book is replete with exciting battles, duels, and sieges, but the author makes Svanhild’s domestic tribulations equally dramatic.”
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
The Half-Drowned King
Publishers Weekly.
264.24 (June 12, 2017): p36. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Half-Drowned King
Linnea Hartsuyker. Harper, $27.99 (448p) ISBN 978-0-06-256369-9
In her first novel, Hartsuyker brings to life the savage world of the Viking warriors of ninth- century Norway. Ragnvald Eysteinsson is on his way home from a raiding expedition across the North Atlantic when he is betrayed by his captain, Solvi Hunthiofsson, and flung overboard. Rescued by a fisherman, Ragnvald eventually returns home to his beloved sister, Svanhild, who is miserably betrothed to an older man, Thorkell. The source of both their unhappiness is their stepfather, Olaf Ottarsson, who plotted to have Ragnvald killed and Svanhild married off. Exposing his stepfather, Ragnvald goes off to fight alongside Harald Halfdansson, the future king of Norway. At the same time, strong-willed Svanhild finds escape in the form of Solvi, the self- confessed instrument of her brother's betrayal, who takes her as his latest bride. But Solvi is a sworn enemy of Harald, so what will happen when Ragnvald ultimately meets his brother-in-law in combat? The author, who can trace her lineage back to Harald Halfdansson, recreates the half- civilized, half-primitive landscape of his time, where a dragon boat sailing up a fjord struck dread in all who saw it. Befitting its subject matter, the book is replete with exciting battles, duels, and sieges, but the author makes Svanhild's domestic tribulations equally dramatic. In the end, this novel can stand proudly with Edison Marshall's The Wiking and Frans G. Bengtsson's The Long Ships as an immersive fictional recreation of a bloody moment in Scandinavian history. Agent: Julie Barer, the Book Group. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Half-Drowned King." Publishers Weekly, 12 June 2017, p. 36. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495720635/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=4002e4df. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495720635
4 of 5 3/26/18, 3:18 PM
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HARTSUYKER, Linnea. The Half-
Drowned King
Connie Williams
School Library Journal.
64.3 (Mar. 2018): p128. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
HARTSUYKER, Linnea. The Half-Drowned King. 448p. HarperCollins/Harper. Aug. 2017. Tr $27.99. ISBN 9780062563699.
In the ninth century, in the northern lands we now call Norway, lived fighting men who warred with one another and raided the southern lands. On the way home from one of these raids, Ragnvald Eysteinsson is unexpectedly attacked by Solvi, his convoy leader, and left for dead. Saved by a local fisherman, Ragnvald returns to his homeland, intent on revenge. He is also determined to demand his birthright from his stepfather, Olaf, and to make a good match for his sister Svanhild. When Olaf chooses a man Svanhild despises, she runs away in desperation only to be caught by Solvi, her brother's nemesis. Chapters alternate between the brother and sister, of whom custom demands much. Ragnvald must align with others in order to defeat Olaf, gain his kingdom, and exact his revenge, while Svanhild has to choose between her brother and his sworn enemy. Ragnvald and Svanhild bring Old Norse legends to life, immersing readers in the fjords and valleys of the north. A solid beginning to a saga well grounded in the culture of its time. VERDICT Hartsuyker's novel should attract those who enjoy "Tire Lord of the Rings" or other fantasies that draw heavily from Scandinavian and Northern European legend and culture.-- Connie Williams, Petaluma Public Library, CA
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Williams, Connie. "HARTSUYKER, Linnea. The Half-Drowned King." School Library Journal,
Mar. 2018, p. 128. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc /A529863664/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=d366fa99. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A529863664
5 of 5 3/26/18, 3:18 PM
Hartsuyker, Linnea. The Sea Queen. Harper. Aug. 2018. 464p. ISBN 9780062563736. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062563750. HISTORICAL
In The Half-Drowned King, Hartsukyer’s debut and the first in a trilogy vivifying Norse history, Ragnvald Eysteinsson threw in his lot with Harald of Vestfold, who would become king of a unified Norway. Here, Ragnvald is king of Sogn and still serves Harald as he battles with recalcitrant noblemen to create a larger country. The Half-Drowned King was a star catcher and a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick. With a big library push.
The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
by Redheadedgirl · Aug 29, 2017 at 3:00 am · View all 13 comments
The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
The Half-Drowned King
by Linnea Hartsuyker
August 1, 2017 · Harper
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B+
Genre: Historical: European, Literary Fiction
The Half-Drowned King is the first in a planned trilogy that is a heavily fictionalized retelling of the Saga of Harald Fairhair, which is one of the parts of the Heimskringla, an Icelandic Saga written in the 13th Century by Snorri Sturluson.
The trilogy charts the rise of Harald and how he became the first king of Norway in the 9th century. It’s told from the point of view of one of Harald’s dudes, Ragnvald, and his sister, Svanhild. It’s a Viking saga of revenge, politics, and nation building. Basically, I loved it.
It’s decidedly dark in comparison to the Viking romances that wax and wane in popularity. The book opens with Ragnvald coming home from raiding and nearly getting killed by the captain of his ship (on orders from Ragnvald’s stepfather). Ragnvald’s father was killed when he was but a kid, and while by law he should have the petty kingdom his father ruled, he and his sister have been living mostly by sufferance with their stepfather. Obviously, Ragnvald survives this assassination attempt (otherwise this would be a short book), and ends up with a young Harald Fairhair as he begins to consolidate power.
I loved the detail. Hartsuyker did a LOT of research and uses details to make the world more textured. From landscapes to how the buildings worked to the legal system- it’s all working in service to the story. It’s very immersive.
I went to an author event with Hartsuyker earlier this month where she talked about how she wanted to include supernatural elements in ways that the characters would understand as the work of the gods or witches, but which could also be explained by nature or science. One of the podcasts I listen to religiously is Hardcore History with Dan Carlin, and in the most recent episode (five hours on the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar), he talked about something one of his history professors said: you have to take magic into account when studying cultures that believed in it. That belief will have an effect on their actions and their decisions, and I think Hartsuyker did a REALLY good job with that aspect. Yeah, there are zombies and witches. Of course there are. Your mind makes it real.
Ragnvald’s character trajectory is the classic “you gotta grow up to deserve your birthright” thing that happens with so many heroes. The various people he falls in with teach him a lot about leadership, and how to manage interpersonal politics. There’s a scene where a king asks him to read the room: what do you think is going on with all of these men? Who’s going to be useful? Who’s a problem?
Svanhild’s journey is based on figuring out what she wants and what kind of power she can have as a woman in the world. Sure, free women in the Norse world had more rights and freedoms that many other women of the same time, but they were by no means equal to men. What Svanhild wants more than anything is a say in her own fate. She wants agency. Given that this is the first book in a trilogy, I know her story isn’t done (Svanhild is also a character in the original saga, which I have not read, so I don’t actually know how her story ends in the Sagas).
And that’s where I would give a bit of a warning for readers. The Norse world in the 9th century wasn’t a kind one. There was slavery, and raiding, the occasional murder, and rape. None of the rape is described, just as a “this is a thing that happened to this periphery character.” I don’t want anyone to be surprised by it.
Hartsuyker also has a good facility with language. The prose she uses very faintly echoes the rhythms of Norse poetry:
Then the great doors flew open, and in strode a great wolf, golden-furred and blue-eyed. Sparks flew from the ends of its fur. It stalked slowly down the length of the hall. Where it touched its muzzle, some men burned, but others grew burnished, losing the green cast of seawater. Ragnvald watched as it weaved between the men, wondering if it brought him ashy death or shining glory.
Isn’t that lovely?
I read this as an ebook, and I think it would be a better experience reading in print. There are a LOT of people, and one of the things I know about my brain is that it doesn’t hold well to names that aren’t familiar names. There is a cast of characters (at the end of the book) and I read through it before I even started so I at least knew who was who (I also had to do that with Game of Thrones). It would have been nice to be able to flip back to it easily as I was reading. Also, the cover is GORGEOUS.
I liked this a lot. It’s a bit heavy and there’s a lot going on, but if you’re looking for something to scratch that Game of Thrones itch (but with real history), I think you’ll like this one.
The Half-Drowned King: A Novel
By Linnea Hartsuyker Harper 448 pp.
Reviewed by Carrie Callaghan
August 18, 2017
A rollicking tale of monarchs, murder, and mayhem in long-ago Norway.
Think, for a moment, about what a poorer place this world would be without betrayal. We would have no Odyssey, Othello, or The Count of Monte Cristo. We would lack the enemies we love to hate, like Benedict Arnold or Judas Iscariot.
Without the allure of betrayal, loyalty has no meaning. Caesar’s “Et tu, Brute?” would elicit only disdain for the ruler’s foolhardy trust, not pity at his all-too-human disappointed affection.
It’s no coincidence, then, that many epic myths begin with a betrayal. Linnea Hartsuyker, in The Half-Drowned King, her white-knuckled retelling of the protohistory of Norway’s Harald Fairhair, channels that same emotional power when she opens her novel with the attempted killing of her protagonist, Ragnvald.
Ragnvald and his comrades are sailing to the Norse lands, returning from a season raiding in Ireland, when their charming captain, Solvi, turns on Ragnvald. Solvi slashes his dagger at Ragnvald and lets the younger man drop into the frigid coastal waters. No man could survive such wounds and the heavy embrace of Ran, the goddess of sea and shipwreck.
Indeed, Ragnvald finds himself in a ghostly underwater hall sitting at a cold bench amid silent, drowned sailors. But just as he is about to surrender to his fate, a strange vision of a golden wolf bursts into the hall. When Ragnvald touches the shining creature, strong hands grasp him and pull him from the water.
We soon learn that Solvi’s betrayal is only a smaller piece of a larger sin. Ragnvald’s stepfather, Olaf, arranged the murder, and Olaf may have killed Ragnvald’s father in the first place. Svanhild, Ragnvald’s fiery sister, struggles to figure out what happened to her missing brother, and then to help him avenge himself.
But matters soon grow complicated when Svanhild discovers that the dashing man who makes her heart race is Solvi, the one who attempted to kill her brother. Though she tries, Svanhild cannot hate him, particularly when she sees how Solvi behaves honorably and works to make amends for his crime.
The legendary Harald, a 16-year-old boy-king with a swift sword and sweet smile, doesn’t appear until over a third of the way through the book. By then, Ragnvald has decided to swear himself into the service of one king who has promised to help him exact revenge on Olaf. But Ragnvald looks at the sparkling boy and wonders if it is his golden hair that the undersea wolf represented. Or was the omen another man — the ambitious son of Ragnvald’s sworn king, perhaps?
Alliances form and tear apart in the bleak world of ninth-century Vikings. Ragnvald, Svanhild, and Solvi each anchor a thread of this narrative, and their interests are so opposed that the reader, enchanted by all three, dreads the inevitable clash that will presumably cause at least one of them to suffer terribly.
Hartsuyker’s twisted plot and her characters’ strained loyalties keep the reader fretful until the end. In this world of casual murder, matter-of-fact raiding, and incentivized rape (if a rapist impregnates his unmarried victim, he can claim her and any land she might hold), no one seems safe.
Amid such mistrust, the bonds that do form are even more precious — and even more tragic when they break. Harald promises to forge a kingdom where monarchs swear fealty to a greater state, and his sword can protect and unify them all. But Ragnvald, Solvi, and Svanhild aren’t sure they can believe that one man, no, child, could fulfill such a wild promise.
As with the finest historical fiction, it’s a question worth asking ourselves today. Do we trust one another enough to throw our lots in together? Can these laws that we have agreed upon truly hold? The form of society is, after all, not predetermined, but rather constantly shaped by its members.
The novel is the first in a trilogy, but it stands well on its own. The later books will benefit from shedding this inaugural volume’s greatest weakness — the annoying immaturity of Ragnvald and Svanhild at the beginning of the story. They whine and pine and fail to see beyond their own noses.
Happily, that phase soon passes, and all three characters grow into themselves and the reader’s heart. This is a delightful novel, one that manages to summon the musty halls of a seemingly distant past and populate them with the complex heroes of our age.
The titular king is, after all, only half-drowned, only half-beholden to the greedy sea goddess. His living half still has loyalties to weave and betrayals to inflict, in the manner of the best epic fiction.
Carrie Callaghan’s fiction has appeared in Silk Road, Floodwall, the MacGuffin, the Mulberry Fork Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Maryland with her family, or in the Internet on Twitter at @carriecallaghan or at www.carriecallaghan.com.
2018 Reading List: The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
February 23, 2018
At ALA Midwinter, the Reading List Council announced the 2018 selections of the Reading List, an annual best-of list comprising eight different fiction genres for adult readers. The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker (Harper, 2017) was selected as the winner of the Historical Fiction category.
In The Half-Drowned King, Viking raider Rangvald seeks revenge and his inheritance, while his sister Svanhild’s path to freedom lies with Rangvald’s mortal enemy. This epic tale of uneasy alliances, set in 9th century Scandinavia, offers action, intrigue, and historical detail. Click here to read an excerpt.
Below, check out the shortlisted titles for the Historical Fiction category, as well as read-alike titles for The Half-Drowned King.
Sara's Review of The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
Sara, from Book Culture on Columbus, reviewed Linnea Hartsuyker's The Half-Drowned King! Read her review to learn more about this exciting adventure story!
Honor, family, battle, these are the things that Ragnvald Eysteinsson lives by. He follows these standards on his very first raiding trip on a boat captained by Solvi Hunthiofsson, a man he believes will bring him to riches and fame. Unbeknownst to Ragnvald however, Solvi has entered into a deal with Olaf, Ragnvald's stepfather, to kill Ragnvald. By the grace of the gods Ragnvald survives and swears revenge on those that tried to harm him. With his desire for revenge and a vision of a golden wolf to guide him Ragnvald sets off on an adventure that takes him far from all he knows and puts him straight into a war between kings.
After Ragnvald survives the attempt on his life he decides that it is time he takes things into his own hands and promises himself that he will seek revenge for the wrongs done to him at the annual ting, the annual meeting of all the surrounding clans where all legal matters are settled, by taking his stepfather and Solvi before the jury. When Ragnvald arrives at the ting grounds he sees that king Hakon is there with his sons, including Oddi a baseborn son that is a dear friend of Ragnvald's. After things go bad at the trial and Olaf and Ragnvald agree to a duel Ragnvald decides to stay the night in Hakon's camp, to catch up and stay safe until the duel. However Olaf has other plans and sneaks into Hakon's camp that night and attempts to murder Ragnvald. When he is discovered and Ragnvald is saved once more, Ragnvald decides that it is too dangerous for him to go home to reclaim his lands right away. Instead he pledges his sword to Hakon and promises to serve him well and honorably until such time as Hakon feels he has fulfilled his duty at which point Hakon will provide him men to take back what is rightfully his. So begins Ragnvald's journey into a world of king's, war and ultimately revenge.
I have always been fascinated by Norse mythology, vikings and epic tales so I had a feeling that this book would be right up my alley. I was not wrong. The Half-Drowned King gave me everything I wanted in an adventure tale, namely adventure. Ms. Hartsuyker is a debut novelist that had a truly great idea and just ran with it. I thought that in general her ideas, story and characters were all really well put together. There were times however where her writing read very much like a first time writer. It was never anything that took too much away from the book but it was a little jarring. This, however did not make it any easier to put down or to stop thinking about it. I slowly fell into somewhat of an obsession with the story.
Because all you lovely readers out there don't know me let me explain what it takes to make a book great for me. It has to have a great story, great characters and great writing. If a book has two of the three I still consider it a good book, and if it has only one as long as that one thing is very strong I still view it as readable. For me The Half-Drowned King was a good book. The story was mesmerizing and the characters were fascinating. I had a hard time deciding who I wanted to root for because all of the characters were so dynamic. So easy to fall in love with while you followed their journey but so easy to hate when you saw things from the other side. Linnea Hartsuyker did a truly beautiful job with bringing her characters to life and giving them real personalities.
As an all around book The Half-Drowned King was pretty good. I think that it is one of those sleeper books that don't get a lot of press at first but is such a good book that it has to be read. This is a true adventure novel, the kind that takes you to another time and place and whisks you away, to battles on the high seas, tournaments on ice and great feasts overseen by kings. Is there really anything else that you need for a good adventure?
The book is well put together and makes for a truly intriguing tale that I really enjoyed getting lost in. I can't say that it was the most well written of books but I liked it and I think that with time Linnea Hartsuyker will polish out her writing and become a good writer as well as a great storyteller. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I really think that you will too. That is if you like adventure stories, or stories about vikings, or adventure stories about vikings, or boats, or Norway or adventurous stories about vikings on boats in Norway!
But don't take my word for it, go to your local Book Culture and pick up a copy for yourself. Happy reading!
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The Half-Drowned King (Hardcover)
By Linnea Hartsuyker
$27.99
ISBN: 9780062563699
Availability: On Our Shelves Now - Click Title to See Location Inventory.
Published: Harper - August 1st, 2017
Quored in Sidelighta: “does an excellent job of evoking a vibrant society from years past.” She recommended the novel to those who “are patient and in the mood for a period piece.”
The Half-Drowned King
By Linnea Hartsuyker
Find & buy on
It is 9th-century Norway, and the Vikings are sailing, raiding, battling, and attending the gathering of peoples known as the Thing. Ragnvald Eysteinsson, a young warrior, finds himself betrayed by the very men he fought alongside, and left to drown in the cold waves of the Viking seas. His sister, Svanhild, faces challenges of her own back home, where she must navigate the social waters of suitors. The mercurial Solvi juggles political alliances and personal attachments deftly, and the warrior Harald of Vestfold—King Harald—comes to claim the loyalty of Ragnvald in a move that will change the course of each character’s lives.
A first novel, this title is also the first book of a trilogy. The author can trace her own lineage back to King Harald and, inspired by this family history, she has studied Norse history and literature for many years. Her attention to detail is the most enjoying aspect of this book, which does an excellent job of evoking a vibrant society from years past. The opening scene, which finds young Ragnvald dancing across the oars while his ship sails, is evocative, dreamlike, and overwritten. The rest of the book follows this pattern.
This is the kind of book to sink into and enjoy for its beauty and atmosphere, not the kind to read for thrilling adventures or a complicated plot. The characters spend a lot of time debating things in their heads, and this trait serves to slow the narrative. However, if you are patient and in the mood for a period piece that brings to life a bygone era, you will find this volume satisfying reading.
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Quoted in Sidelights: “Hartsuyker captures the sense of saga times and saga heroes: violent but litigious, treacherous but honorable, impetuous but crafty. Ragnvald, Harald and Hakon all play off one another, as do the striking Svanhild, her stepmother Vigdis and—only just coming into the picture—Gyda, whose proud refusal of Harald created Norway.”
The Song of King Harald Fairhair
An American novelist puts flesh on the bones of the founding father of Viking-era Norway. Tom Shippey reviews ‘The Half-Drowned King’ by Linnea Hartsuyker.
By Tom Shippey
Sept. 22, 2017 2:16 p.m. ET
4 COMMENTS
Vikings are big business these days, with the History Channel TV series about to enter its fifth season, and Bernard Cornwell’s “Last Kingdom” sequence continuing both in print and on screen. Most modern stories about them, however, concentrate on Vikings going about their business of raiding in the British Isles, Ireland and mainland Europe. Linnea Hartsuyker’s novel “The Half-Drowned King” raises the question, what was happening back home in the Viking homelands? Especially in Norway?
She has a great deal of material to work with, for the Icelanders who wrote the sagas and preserved the legends were emigrants from Norway, and the stories of their ancestors were a major preoccupation. Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) in particular—writer, poet, schemer, politician—wrote a sequence of 16 sagas celebrating the kings of Norway from prehistory almost to his own time. This collection, long familiar to English-speakers as “Heimskringla,” is the world brilliantly re-created by Ms. Hartsuyker.
The title character is the ninth-century nobleman Ragnvald Eysteinsson, who gets his nickname by surviving an attempted murder treacherously arranged by one of the petty princes of Norway: Ragnvald has a sort of a claim to a few acres of land, which makes him a threat. He is only a minor character in Snorri’s long narration; the central character of the time for Snorri was King Harald Fairhair, who shows signs of taking over in Ms. Hartsuyker’s story as well.
Why Fairhair? Was he blond like Daenerys Targaryen? Or was it a Viking joke? According to Icelandic legend, Harald’s unification of Norway was triggered when, as king in the Vestfold in the south of Norway, he attempted to win a bride from another small kingdom. She turned him down, saying she would not waste her maidenhood on someone who ruled such a narrow realm.
Head of a Viking, ca. 900.
Head of a Viking, ca. 900. Photo: Bridgeman Images
The Half-Drowned King
By Linnea Hartsuyker
Harper, 431 pages, $27.99
Harald’s counselors advised him to carry her off by force and teach her a lesson, but he refused, saying she was right. He swore not to cut his hair or shave his beard till he had made all Norway subject to him. Ten years later, when his project was realized, and at last he got a haircut, his nickname was changed, admiringly, from “Tanglehair” to “Fairhair.”
He deserved the compliment, for Norway even after his time remained famously uncontrollable. Not only was its population warlike, heathen and independent, the country itself is immensely long and broken by innumerable fjords, each with its patch of habitable land, almost inaccessible except by sea.
In particular, the story of Norway for six generations was the contest between the southern kings of the Vestfold, and the jarls (chiefs) who ruled in the north, and also controlled Norway’s main source of wealth—the furs and feathers and walrus ivory extorted from the nomadic Sami people.
In Ms. Hartsuyker’s story, Harald is still a teenager, gathering strength for his future takeover of the little kingdoms along the west coast of Norway. Already, though, “tales had spread from Vestfold of his strength at arms. They said that he could best any man with any weapon, and with a sword he had fought off ten blooded warriors.” As for Ragnvald, her hero, he is caught between Harald and Hakon Grjotgardsson, king of Halogaland in the northwest. But Ragnvald’s own story is focused first on vengeance against Solvi of North Maer, the “trickster dwarf” who tried to drown him; then on retrieval of his ancestral property; and, confusing the issue (as so often in sagas), rescue of his sister Svanhild, married to Solvi at first unwillingly, but then loyally.
One might recall Signy of the “Volsung Saga,” who burns in their own hall the husband who captured her and killed her family, but then walks into the flames to die with him. Happy families in Viking times were not like they are now.
Ms. Hartsuyker captures the sense of saga times and saga heroes: violent but litigious, treacherous but honorable, impetuous but crafty. Ragnvald, Harald and Hakon all play off one another, as do the striking Svanhild, her stepmother Vigdis and—only just coming into the picture—Gyda, whose proud refusal of Harald created Norway.
There is much yet to come in what the author promises will be a trilogy: 10 shaggy years for Harald, up to the battle of the longships at Hafrsfjord. And then, perhaps, the war of the half-brothers and the coming of Eirik Bloodaxe. Like “Game of Thrones,” only more unscrupulous.
Quoted in Sidelights: “the women of the Viking sagas are easily more compelling than the men, and Hartsuyker is alive to their dramatic possibilities.” In her sequels, “it’ll be at least as much fun to read the adventures of Svanhild and her sister-characters as it will be to soak up the more conventional swashbuckling of Ragnvald and Harald,”
“a fantastic debut,”
Book Review: The Half-Drowned King
By Steve Donoghue (August 9, 2017) No Comment
The Half-Drowned King
by Linnea Hartsuyker
Harper, 2017
For Linnea Hartsuyker’s impressive debut novel The Half-Drowned King (new from Harper with a stunning cover design by Milan Bozic) certain literary comparisons are going to be inevitable, or at least inevitable when the book is considered by long-in-the-tooth reviewers who’ll take one rheumy look at her book’s setting – ninth-century Norway – and immediately flash back to the dewy days of their reviewing prime and the appearance of Frans Bengtsson’s epic novel about tenth-century Vikings, The Long Ships, a book that follows the rollicking adventures of its sword-wielding hero Orm from roughly 980 to roughly 1010 and was published in 1955 in an English-language translation by Michael Meyer (and, delightfully, just recently given a natty paperback reprint by the folks at the New York Review of Books Classics line, so it could reach a whole new generation of Upper East Side book reviewers). Much like Hartsuyker, Bengtsson unabashedly if a trifle unwisely admitted to owing a great creative debt to Snorri Sturluson, the 12th-century Icelandic historian who in the course of his writing career generated so much bullhooey that the whole of Scandinavia has been fertilized with it ever since. Snorri’s book Heimskringla tells the stories of the old Norse kings, interweaves all its high and low deeds with charged drama and supernatural shadings, and exerts a hypnotic spell as powerful as that of any hoard-guarding dragon.
This spell is extremely potent; it worked even on a hard-eyed realist like Bengtsson, so that by the end of The Long Ships he was writing in more or less full Snorri style:
Some of the crazy magister’s men escaped in boats: but not many, for they were hunted by men and dogs along the shore. Their wounded were killed, since they were all miscreants. Twenty-three of Orm’s men had been killed, and many wounded: and all agreed that this had been a good fight, and one that would be much talked about in the years to come.
The lure of that style is every bit as powerful today as it was half a century ago, and that presents a problem for sharp young writers like Hartsuyker, writing in the more clinical reading atmosphere of the 21st century, where if your Über driver doesn’t have a MFA, you’re legally entitled to a refund. Go ahead and suggest, in 2017, that it’s OK to kill wounded people as long as they’re “miscreants” – go ahead, and may the spinning Norns have mercy on you.
And as an antidote to Snorri style, The Half-Drowned King could scarcely be improved, even if the young author might not have intended any ingratitude (her brief biographical note mentions that she’s a descendant of one of her characters, the saga hero Harald Fairhair, so she’s got, as the saying goes, some skin in the game). The book tells the story of Ragnvald Eysteinsson, a feisty, opinionated fighter (“You stir trouble in many pots,” he’s told at one point, and although he instinctively denies it, the proof is all around him) who’s double-crossed by his scheming stepfather Olaf (there being, after all, only so much one can do with a stepfather named Olaf) and must fight his way back to a position from which he can defend his sister Svanhild from Olaf’s plans to marry her off to the nearest beer-bellied candidate. And along the way, Ragnvald encounters the charismatic Harald of Vestfold, foretold to one day unite all of Norway under one throne. And there’s Adisa, a fiercely spirited young mother who kills a man to save her child during a sudden raid and then gets a little help from Ragnvald to finish off the man’s accomplice:
“I dare you,” she was crying [at the accomplice, although she initially has her doubts about our hero as well]. “I will serve you the same.”
Ragnvald followed her sight line and saw another man waiting in the shadows of a smaller outbuilding. He was alone, Ragnvald decided. If more than two of them had come, this one would not be so hesitant. Ragnvald charged at him, crossing the courtyard between them. The man hesitated, made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a shout. Ragnvald’s face heated, and he gave chase as the man sprinted away. Ragnvald caught up with him at the fence that separated Adisa’s inner yard from the outer field, and slashed his throat so he toppled backward over it.
The lean, confident action-line of that passage runs all through The Half-Drowned King; it has a very knowing, very Nordic wry directness that gets more pleasing as the novel goes on. The reason the attacker makes a noise “somewhere between a laugh and a shout” is because Ragnvald has run to Adisa’s rescue straight from the bath and is fish-scale naked, but even plenty of seasoned professionals at historical fiction might have overdone the attacker’s reaction to that fact, or else accidentally overlooked mentioning the reaction at all.
And the portrayal of Adisa – and especially of Svanhild, the standout fictional creation of this book by a wide margin – as fully fleshed-out and starkly courageous characters is not some punctilious historical revisionism … in fact, it’s some long-overdue historical accuracy. As any reader of the Heimskringla can attest, the women of the Viking sagas are easily more compelling than the men, and Hartsuyker is alive to their dramatic possibilities. Bengtsson’s classic novel opened with the Kipling poem “Harp Song of the Dane Women,” in which the narrator complains about being forsaken by her Viking husband every roving season (“Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow:/And the sound of your oar-blades falling hollow/Is all we have left through the months to follow”). But that was always more Victorian sentimentality than hard reality, where these women had to be the equal of their men in courage and by far their superiors in resourcefulness. The Half-Drowned King is the first book in a projected series, and it’s clear from these pages that it’ll be at least as much fun to read the adventures of Svanhild and her sister-characters as it will be to soak up the more conventional swashbuckling of Ragnvald and Harald.
And all of those adventures can now be eagerly awaited. This is a fantastic debut.
Quoted in Sidelights: “Hartsuyker takes us into a world of danger, secrecy, revenge, and glory, as well as savagery and romance,” Leslie Wright observed online at BlogCritics. “Her characters are amazingly likable with both their own faults and shortcomings as well as a solid dose of common sense.” The story “draws from bits and parts of history, tales, imagination and superstitions,”
Also went with original publication on this: https://blogcritics.org/book-review-the-half-drowned-king-an-epic-novel-by-linnea-hartsuyker/
Book Review: 'The Half-Drowned King', An Epic Novel by Linnea Hartsuyker
By Leslie Wright, BLOGCRITICS.ORG Published 10:00 pm, Saturday, September 16, 2017
War and salvage have long been in the world. The days of these tales live on in songs and novels as well as history. In The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker, we are taken into the past as it pertains to the areas of Norway and its surroundings.
We are taken on an epic tale of danger, growth, romance and tragedy as we travel into a past full of Vikings and warriors, as they determine who will oversee the land and how it will affect them all. We follow Ragnvald, the son of a murdered king, and his sister Svanhild as they strike out each on their own to find their way, with each wanting nothing more than their birthright. While Ragnvald seeks fame and glory as well as revenge, Svanhild would like nothing more than to be loved.
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Ragnvald has seen a vision of a Golden Wolf, and is determined to make that vison come to pass. He is still both hurt and angered by an incident where his own murder was sought by his stepfather as well as that of a neighboring King. That King's son, Solvi, was tasked with the murder, and while he tried, he failed. Ragnvald cannot forget. Unbeknownst initially of this betrayal, his sister Svanhild meets and falls in love with Solvi.
When Ragnvald is away, preparing an army for war, Svanhild is taken and wed to Solvi. This is something the Ragnvald cannot allow, and he vows to kill Solvi, and take back his sister. How can revenge trump love, and how can there be any ending to such a task except further tragedy.
Hartsuyker takes us into a world of danger, secrecy, revenge, and glory, as well as savagery and romance. Her characters are amazingly likable with both their own faults and shortcomings as well as a solid dose of common sense. You are drawn to both sister and brother as their paths appear to merge, and you feel a hurtful tension knowing that both are in pain, and yet each has their own idea of what will set it right. In a world so set by visions of glory and revenge, who will prevail? This is a great epic tale that will play on for some time and you will be enthralled by the nuances.
If you enjoy history, epic tales of glory, romance, tales of courage, revenge and war you will find this to be a great read. Be ready to be drawn in and begin rooting for those you feel are in the right, which will be different for each reader.
You will enjoy this work of fiction that draws from bits and parts of history, tales, imagination and superstitions.
View the original article on blogcritics.org
Quoted in Sidelights: “everything you want from a medieval saga set during this crucial period of Norwegian history is here, from massive battles to honor-fueled duels to rituals and supernatural visions.” Hartsuker’s “tales of great Viking deeds are given all of the epic gravity they require, but the character drama is what makes this novel addictive,” he added, explaining that the author “has captured an era with precise, powerful prose imagery, but she’s also vividly envisioned two enduring characters
Web Exclusive – August 01, 2017
The Half-Drowned King
An epic saga begins
BookPage review by Matthew Jackson
When a book is billed as a historical epic set in ninth-century Norway, with the evocative title The Half-Drowned King, there are certain expectations. A book like that should deliver great deeds by hardened warriors, kings cloaked in furs, great feasts, harrowing sea voyages and brutal battles. With this novel, the first in a promised trilogy, Linnea Hartsuyker delivers all of those historical epic goods. Then, she digs deeper.
In the ninth century, Norway is still a fragmented land ruled by many kings, but a prophecy promises that one king will rise to rule the whole land. That king is Harald, an ambitious young warrior whose name rings through history and Hartsuyker’s narrative. Her heroes are two characters playing smaller roles in this saga of kinghood. Ragnvald, the titular half-drowned warrior, is a man driven by a quest to take back his lands from his domineering stepfather Olaf. Svanhild, his sister, longs for a life beyond Olaf’s farm, a life where she’s not promised to a man she doesn’t wish to marry. Everything changes for them when Ragnvald is nearly murdered in an attempt to wipe away his family’s claim to land and title. As Ragnvald fights for revenge, Svanhild fights for freedom, and both end up at the center of history.
Everything you want from a medieval saga set during this crucial period of Norwegian history is here, from massive battles to honor-fueled duels to rituals and supernatural visions. What sets The Half-Drowned King apart is the way Hartsuyker renders it all. Her tales of great Viking deeds are given all of the epic gravity they require, but the character drama is what makes this novel addictive. In Ragnvald we see the proud warrior beset by vulnerability, self-doubt and moral ambiguity, and in Svanhild we see a powerful spirit longing to break free, discovering her own cunning and intellectual ferocity in the process. As they trade off chapters and the story barrels toward clash after clash, the timelessness of the tale becomes clear. Hartsuyker has captured an era with precise, powerful prose imagery, but she’s also vividly envisioned two enduring characters.
The Half-Drowned King is an essential new novel for fans of the medieval novels of Bernard Cornwell, the character-driven Tudor novels of Hilary Mantel or the violent fury of “Game of Thrones.”
Quoted in Sidelights: “insights about Viking folkways,” but faulted her as “sacrificing specificity for an ambiguity that coats its audience in a quilt of names and strange words.”
The Protagonist in Linnea Hartsuyker's The Half-Drowned King Deserves to Be Stabbed
By Jason Rhode | August 3, 2017 | 5:14pm
Books Reviews linnea hartsuyker
The Protagonist in Linnea Hartsuyker's The Half-Drowned King Deserves to Be Stabbed
The most remarkable fact about Linnea Hartsuyker’s The Half-Drowned King is that Ragnvald, a ninth century Scandinavian warrior, is not stabbed multiple times for his mistakes. His sister Svanhild has so much more sense, and she seems to be the wisest member of the troubled Eysteinsson family. The Eysteinssons are not so much characters as pulsating packages of Norse names or receptacles for received facts about Northern life. Hartsuyker is on sure ground when she writes about Ragnvald’s world, less so when speculating about her puppets’ motivations.
The most valuable ships today are giant metal craft filled with dour metal rectangles, so it’s strange that pirates and scavengers’ exploits should take the prize in the collective imagination. Yet deep truths about human nature are revealed in how we treat the annals of our ancestors. The Half-Drowned King is the story of Ragnvald of Maer, sworn man of Norway’s first king Fairhair Harald—who, it turns out, is the author’s distant relative.
Ragnvald and Svanhild are the book’s nominal protagonists; the real drama exists in witnessing how the Northmen’s affairs fall into Game of Thrones-like territory. Ragnvald is in line for an inheritance, but he’s predictably betrayed as petty land-dukes squabble over land, unaware that a single great warlord will rise to make a hash of their designs. Ragnvald must choose between a pair of kings; it’s a real My Two Dads scenario of murder on the ice. During these passages, Northern life is depicted in brilliant flashes as golden wolves prowl beneath the waves.
The novel’s strength lies in its insights about Viking folkways, and Hartsuyker succeeds in capturing the Northmen’s mindset. Desire and vengeance feed an omnipresent shadow of violence that lurks over every gathering, like it must have during the Golden Era of the Vikings. But same element which gives The Half-Drowned King its curious appeal—its proximity to the ancient sagas—also makes it a boring read. Who really was Ragnvald’s stepfather, and what were his deep reasons for shafting his fearsome, man-devouring stepson? How could a man so slow have been any kind of formidable adversary? The problem with most of the characterization in this tale is that much of what our heroes do and say is ruled by that distant storm-god, The Plot.
The entire narrative has the hazy blur of legend, sacrificing specificity for an ambiguity that coats its audience in a quilt of names and strange words. A lover of Viking culture will feast freely; all others will be found wanting.
In the age of “peak Viking,” as pop culture proves increasingly fascinated by the Northmen, people pose many questions: What kind of men and women were they? Why did they bother to cleave treacherous seas countless times? What quirk of culture can unriddle their employment of Loki and Thor in day-to-day life? Hartsuyker answers these questions well; it’s everything else that’s lacking. Reading The Half-Drowned King is like riding in a longship to raid: the cargo might be worthwhile, but the journey requires patience.