The Voyage of Freydis by Tamara Goranson was published in 2021 and it’s a retelling of an Icelandic saga from the beginning of the 11th century, so some parts of the tale were familiar to me.

The story begins in the year 996 AD but quickly the action turns back to the year 996. Freydis Eriksdottir has been married off to Thorvard, the leader of his community. Freydis’s father had paid a large dowry to Thorvard, but it isn’t long before Freydis realises that her husband is a wife abuser, he beats her up and tells everyone that her bruises are the result of her clumsiness. She lives a long way from her family home, but she does manage to get back to her family home when she hears of her father’s death. But after some time Thorvard follows her there and to Freydis’s horror he sweet-talks her mother, it seems that everyone is against Freydis.

Her brother Leif had voyaged to Vinland (Newfoundland) earlier and Freydis escapes to lead an expedition to Vinland, planning to trade there. She’s well warned to be careful of the native ‘skraelings’, but when she encounters them in a snowstorm they save her life.

I can’t say that I enjoyed this book, there’s just so much ‘domestic’ violence in it, it was relentless, and I felt about that just as I feel about historical fiction which has far too many battles for my liking. The Vinland part was the most interesting for me.

The original saga paints Freydis as being evil, and I suppose that the author wanted to rehabilitate her reputation, after all, history is written by the winners. I read this one because I asked for the sequel from NetGalley, before I realised it was a sequel, so I’ll be reading that one anyway at some point in the near future.