Title: Freja Ennobled
Author; Kaitlynn Clarkson
Date: 2020
Quote: "Marrying her off was going to be hard work indeed."
When Halvar succeeds their late father as village chief, it becomes his job to find a husband for his sister Freja. But how can he, when the only man who interests Freja at all outranks him so badly that it would be considered an insult for him to mention that Freja likes their childhood friend Jerrik? Jerrik's family expect him to marry a daughter of wealth and rank.
But this is a sweet historical romance of a period when Norway was making the transition from Viking to Christian. Love, assisted by good handwork and red-blonde hair (drawn as ash-blonde on the cover), will find a way. Freja will marry up.
Some real historical research went into this novel. One tidbit knitters will enjoy has Freja nalbindning, rather than knitting, socks for Halvar. Nalbindning is a simpler, yet at the same time more difficult, method of producing an effect similar to plain knitting. Exactly how Northern Europeans managed this craft--did they use waste fabric as a base?--has been lost to history. Nevertheless the Vikings had fabric made in patterns that look more likely to have been produced by nalbindning than by modern-style knitting. Knitting as we know it seems to have spread very slowly, a "trick of the trade" closely guarded by textile guild members, north and west from the Middle East in the Middle Ages.
Though the conclusions of romance novels are always foregone I found myself reading this one with real interest in how Clarkson would work hers out. This novelette is not Anya Seton's Avalon or John Gardner's Grendel by a long stretch, but it's pleasant bedtime reading. If you like the "romance" of far-off times and places, this one's for you. There is a sequel, too, about what happens when Halvar stops hiding his own insecurities behind concern about his sister's future and finds a bride of his own.
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