a pair of brother viking-jarls cosseting their shared wife
I bought a jewelry box via Ebay on the 4th of December and paid it promptly. It was sent out on the 14th, via Airmail. Or so the seller told me at first. Then when the package doesn't arrive, I contact the seller and suddenly he tells me that it wasn't shipped via Airmail, although I had paid for it. And that he can't find the code, so that I could track the package. But he said he would find it. I try to ask for more info, and he said he'd look for the customs number. I get tired of waiting, and ask again for some sort of tracking number when the seller doesn't contact me. Suddenly the seller's wife (?) contacts me and tells it was shipped via Airmail after all. But no tracking number. And now they still haven't answered my message that I sent three days ago. Fuck. I paid by Paypal, so I guess I need to contact both Paypal and Ebay and start sorting this mess. I just wish they would actually answer me.
I finally read
A Companion to Wolves
Contains spoilers, just so you know.
This book was like a drug. I just couldn’t put it down and ended up finishing it at one am. So yeah, it is good.
I loved the world of the Iskryne. I was born up north and know full well what it is like to live through summer nights when the sun doesn’t set and winter days dark and fiercely cold. Bear and Monette made the world feel real and believable, even with the trellwolves, trolls and svartalfar.
The story seems like your average coming-of-age tale. Fantasy is full of them, and to be frank, most of them are boring and clichéd. This wasn’t. The main character, Isolfr, is the heir of a lord, until he is given as tithe to the nearby wolfheall. There he bonds with a konigenwolf, which pretty much dictates the rest of his life. With Viradechtis, his shieldmates and friends Isolfr learns how to become a wolfsprechend, the man responsible for the wolves and the relationships of a pack.
Isolfr is an interesting main character. I usually don’t care much for main characters in high fantasy, because fantasy as a genre is choke-full of these young men growing into heroes and then finding a wife and more or less settling down. They are all so honest and somewhat naïve and smart and tall and sorta handsome and so damn clichéd. Isolfr is interesting, because he has to juggle with so many roles. He is a warrior bonded to a bitch wolf, which means that he is courted along with his wolf. As the brother of a konigenwolf, he will need to found and run his own heallan. Aside from a soldier, he is also a caretaker. Wolfsprechends take care of relationships, which is typically seen as women’s work. He helps Viradechtis when she gives birth to her puppies. His is the responsibility of tutoring other men who are bonded to bitches so that they make it through the mating time. He is also a father, something I haven’t too often seen in the genre. Isolfr is a nurturer and a killer, and seems to switch from one role to the next with beautiful ease. He is not gay or straight, for the words and concepts don’t belong in this world. Sure, he has had sex with both women and men, but he never stops to ponder whether he is a lover of men, women or both. He just lives his life.
The plot is rather standard stuff, though I can’t but feel that the ending was a bit too rushed. I would love to read a sequel, as at least I was left with a bunch of unanswered questions and a hunger for more. I want to know what happens to the wolfhealls without trolls to fight. Will they just fight wyverns? Bears? Wild wolves? Will the lords continue to pay tithe?
Could the wolves be bonded to women? I can see how it would cause a lot of trouble, say during the mating period if the women were pregnant or something like that. Still, inquiring minds and all that.
The language is beautiful. And finally the years upon years I’ve spent studying German and Swedish paid off. Also while on the topic of language, the idea of scent names was brilliant.
Other things I liked:
The relationships between Hrolleif, Grimolfr, Vigdis and Skald.
Skjaldwulf's love for Isolfr. His willingness to kill and even become a wolfjarl if that is what it takes to have Isolfr in his life.
Svartalfar and their mothers and smiths.
I couldn’t point which writer had written which part.
Isolfr praying not to Othinn, the god of wolves and war, but to Freya, goddess of witches, smiths and whores. I think one of the moments I most loved in this book is when Isolfr understands that Othinn, the god he as a man and soldier should pray to, isn’t the one who will help him. Instead he prays like a woman. Like a nurturer and a mother he, if only momentarily, gives up his honour and pride as a man.
Isolfr, Skjaldwulf, Vethuld, Viradechtis, Mar and Kjaran all sleeping in the same huge bed.
The gritty reality. Bloody war, deaths, and losing people you love. And of course the sexual side. I don’t read the mating frenzy fuelled orgies as gang rape, though there are some doubts about consent. Then again Isolfr could walk away and give up Viradechtis. Instead he thinks she is worth it, worth it all. And that is the kind of love I like to read about.
Continuing on the topics of wolves and USA:
From pellaz
The Bush Administration has just issued a new rule that will allow the slaughter of hundreds of gray wolves in Greater Yellowstone and across the Northern Rockies - while they're still on the endangered species list. Both Wyoming and Idaho are planning to use aerial gunning, as well as baiting and trapping, to exterminate wolves.
Private citizens get in planes and shoot wolves for fun
I don't have much faith for humanity left anymore. And news like that doesn't help. At all.
Avantasia - The Scarecrow #2
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