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Charlotta's avatar

Gah... sorry about the odd spelling. My phone auto corrects everything into non-sensical French and I don't always catch the changes until after posting...

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Charlotta's avatar

Well, it's Ylva. Traditional Swedish names are sometimes very literal, like Björn is literally 🐻, Ulf is 🐺 and Ylva/Ulva is female 🐺. My sister's name is Åsa (also from that book) and it just means godess (the Nordic gods being asar). The book's original title is "Röde Orm" which translates to "Red Snake/Serpent", but I think it's called "The Long Ships" instead ? The main character is Red Snake/Serpent - red because of his hair and temper and Snake/Serpent because that's his name... 🐍. Quite the story, but written in an old-fashioned way that everyone might not enjoy 😄. It begins with him trying to protect his mother's farm, but being taken into slavery instead (they did that). He's force to row long ships for awhile, but then becomes a galley slave (Andalusien muslim), then part of Almansur's bodyguard, then has to escape (friends are more important). Stops in Demark, the court of Harald Bluetooth, gets into trouble (and is injured), falls in love with Harald's daughter Ylva, tries to prove he's worthy, but one of Ylva's brothers decides to try to overthrow and kills the king and she has to flee. Red Serpent starts looking for her, ends up raiding etc in England, but actually finds her there. In order for them to get married he has to convert and that is the cause of many more aventures, but basically they live happy ever after. There's an interesting side story about a priest that gets transferred further and further north as a punishment because for getting ladies pregnant wherever he goes😄. Their paths will cross and it'll be a bit of a mess. Åsa, is Red Serpents Mother.

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