Margaret Elphinstone, The Sea Road
Stories have a life of their own. They grow, just as children grow, and perhaps we forget the small thing they once were. But we nurture them just because we respected what was there in the beginning. -- Gudrid Thorbjornardottir
The Sea Road is a version of a saga of an Icelander, a visitor to the New World that the Norse called Vinland, centuries ( Read more... )
The Sea Road is a version of a saga of an Icelander, a visitor to the New World that the Norse called Vinland, centuries ( Read more... )
My favorite passage from the book is this one (but as you say, I liked a lot of passages from the book).
"Let me tell you how we built our ship... there was a period where it just seemed to be chaos. As I say, you have an outline, and you imagine a ship, and it seems quite possible. But then you try to bring all the pieces together, and there's a long time where there seems to be far too much of everything... So you want to get the rope for a block, for example, but you don't know the thickness you need because the block isn't made, and you can't carve the block because you don't know the thickness of the rope.
We launched her on a fine spring day... it was only when she was out to sea riding the waves as if that was what she'd been born to do, that I really believed in her. As soon as she was in the sea she was something more than we had made.
...
She was a ship, and ship can go anywhere; it can take men wherever they choose, out of one world if they like, and into another... On Ascension Day we barred the doors of Leif's Houses... and sailed home with the richest cargo anyone ever brought out of the wilderness that lies beyond the world."
I loved how Gudrid articulates relationships with the environment, and how "in the mortal world" and "beyond" it are so different from how we think of these things.
I also love when she describes the ghosts being banished from the houses of the living, and vanishing into the light and eternal ice. *shiver*
In addition, the way she describes human relationships are so honest. She loves Karlsefni, but she doesn't paint him as perfect. He always made sure he got what he wanted. He wasn't that interested in the things/people that weren't his, or that he didn't stand to gain from. He didn't have patience for womens' tears most of the time. But he loved her, and trusted and respected her, and was a good chief and community leader. I loved that about her voice as a character.
I also love her book Voyaguers, which has a lot of the same qualities.
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You'll be unsurprised, I'm sure, to hear that I underlined that entire passage as well.
She is so wonderfully three-dimensional. I loved that in the meeting with the skraelings, she articulated preconceived prejudice. It's sad, but also realistic, that she was just beginning to overcome it when the fragile, tentatively friendly interaction the two groups had imploded into violence.
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Here is a cool thing. I sent Margaret Elphinstone an email a while back, because I think sending mildly well known people letters telling them you like them is a good thing to do.
And she wrote me the nicest letter back! It was such a cool exchange. So Margaret Elphinstone is both a good writer and evidently as lovely as she is talented.
ETA: I should say, both books were favorites in the years I read them. I liked how familiar the landscape was in Voyaguers, especially how much I recognize the perspective of land from canoe-eye-level, and the feeling of North Woods. The Sea Road stayed with me for the reasons you identified, especially Gudrid's insight and deep perspective.
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