Wolfskin
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 First edition cover |
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| Author | Juliet Marillier |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Series | Saga of the Light Isles |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Released | 2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 560 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7329-1130-3 |
| Preceded by | - |
| Followed by | Foxmask |
Wolfskin is the first book of the Saga of the Light Isles series by Juliet Marillier.
[edit] Plot Summary
The story starts off with Eyvind, a young man who wishes to be a Wolfskin (a warrior of Thor) like his brother. Here he meets Somerled, a quiet boy of the same age who is very serious and has no love for his own brother, Ulf.
Somerled and Eyvind become blood brothers and uphold an oath of loyalty for each other.
By and by, Eyvind soon goes on a voyage to the Isles of Light after he becomes a Wolfskin. He goes with Somerled, Eirek (his brother), Ulf and many others. A treaty of peace is held between the newcomers and the island folk.
They spend days there in the Isles of Light until one of them is murdered most brutally.
Ulf is murdered by cunning knots that hold him in place on the cliff edge, with a seaweed that stoppered his mouth. Unable to free himself, the gulls swooped down and finished him off as food. When Somerled takes the throne as was his right, everything starts to go wrong. He scorns the treaty and sends out the Wolfskins to slay an army that approached them. Eyvind, one of the Wolfskins, stops just before and runs away, seeing that the army was just of young men and old men.
The beautiful princess and priestess, Nessa, finds him and cares for him, healing his wounds and coldness of spirit. In the confinements of the cave and alone from everyone else except Rona, an old Priestess, the two young people start to fall in love.
But he couldn't stay there forever and leaves to face Somerled with a truth that he himself just found out; Somerled killed his own brother Ulf.
In the Hall of Reckoning, everyone turns against Eyvind and his voice of truth is smothered, even leaving the Christian brother Tadhg silent against all the violence unleashed when he tried to help Eyvind.
In the end, Nessa brings back a harp made out of Ulf's bones, with Ulf's voice as the final voice of truth that cannot be ignored.
Somerled is banished from the Isles bound by an oath to Eyvind to live and Eyvind stays in the Isles.
[edit] Characters
Eyvind
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- A young Wolfskin warrior who later falls in love with Nessa
Eirek
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- Eyvind's brother
Nessa
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- The Princess of the Isles of Light and a Priestess-in-training. She later falls in love with Eyvind.
Somerled
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- A young man who is Eyvind's bond-brother. He is exiled from the Isles of Light at the end of the book.
