Troll Blood

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Troll Blood
Troll Blood cover.jpg
Author Katherine Langrish
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series Troll Trilogy
Genre Children's, Fantasy novel
Published5 Feb 2007 (HarperCollins)
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages400pp
ISBN 0-00-721486-3 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC 144767008
Preceded by Troll Mill  

Troll Blood is a children's fantasy novel, the third volume of the Troll Trilogy written by Katherine Langrish. [1] It follows the events of Troll Fell and Troll Mill.

Contents

Synopsis

In contrast to the first two books in the trilogy, Troll Blood opens far from Viking Scandinavia, across the ocean in Vinland, where a young Native American boy, Kwimu, and his father Senumkwe, see two Viking ships in the bay and witness the massacre of one crew by the other. As the victors sail away, leaving the other longship scuttled and burning, Kwimu and his father find the sole survivor, a little boy called Ottar, whom they adopt.

Back in Norway, Peer's friend, Hilde, is impatient with life and longing for adventure, so when a Viking ship arrives at their village looking for crew, she and Peer set sail. They soon find plenty to occupy them. The sailors believe the ship is haunted by the ghost of a murdered man. The captain's handsome young son Harald Silkenhair is a dangerous psychopath who becomes Peer's deadly enemy. And the voyage is taking them far away to Vinland, where the dark forests are full of mysterious creatures, and where danger and treachery awaits.

Background

Both the US and the UK editions of Troll Blood carry an explanatory note on the historical interaction of Vikings and Native American people in the 10th century. The US edition of Troll Blood also includes a bibliography listing primary and secondary sources for the Native American culture references in the book, most of which were based on the Mi’kmaq of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Related Research Articles

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Erik the Red Norse explorer

Erik Thorvaldsson, known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard. According to Icelandic sagas, he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson. One of Erik's sons was the well-known Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson.

Leif Erikson 10th century Norse explorer

Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson or Leif Ericson, also known as Leif the Lucky, was a Norse explorer from Iceland. He is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental North America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, which is usually interpreted as being coastal North America. There is ongoing speculation that the settlement made by Leif and his crew corresponds to the remains of a Norse settlement found in Newfoundland, Canada, called L'Anse aux Meadows and which was occupied 1,000 years ago.

Freydís Eiríksdóttir

Freydís Eiríksdóttir was a Norse woman said to be the daughter of Erik the Red, who figured prominently in the Norse exploration of North America as an early colonist of Vinland, which her brother, Leif Erikson, is credited in early histories of the region with discovering. The only medieval and primary sources that mention Freydís are the two Vinland sagas: the The Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red. The two sagas offer differing accounts, though Freydís is portrayed in both as a masculine, strong-willed woman who would defy the odds of her society.

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<i>Troll Fell</i>

Troll Fell is a children's fantasy novel written by Katherine Langrish, the first in the Troll Trilogy which comprises Troll Fell, Troll Mill and Troll Blood. It is set in Viking Scandinavia and is centred about the eponymous mountain, which is infested with trolls.

<i>Troll Mill</i>

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Katherine Langrish is a British author of fantasy for children and young adults. She was brought up in Yorkshire and Herefordshire, and wanted to be a writer from a young age. She was encouraged by her parents, and by the fact that her grandmother was a Yorkshire novelist and playwright of the 1930s, Leonora Thornber.

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References

  1. Langrish, Katherine (2020-01-01). Troll Blood. Harper Collins. ISBN   978-0-06-204389-4.