Hush: A Slave Princess' Tale is a 2007 young adult novel written by Donna Jo Napoli. The young adult novel depicts the world of slave trade around the year 900 in Ireland.
Hush opens as fifteen-year-old Melkorka and her younger sister are shopping in Dublin with her family. A princess, Melkorka has lived a life of luxury made possible through slave labor. However, her younger brother, destined to be king, is injured by Norse men in Dublin, forcing Melkorka and her sister to go into hiding to protect themselves from the approaching battle.
While fleeing their kingdom, Melkorka and her sister Brigid—who subsequently escapes—are kidnapped by slave traders and transported throughout Europe. Refusing to speak to her captors, Melkorka gains power and well-being through her silence. However, it is not enough to protect her from being sold to an Icelandic man named Hoskuld. Hush ends on a semi-positive note where Melkorka resolves to speak to her unborn son to teach him about her homeland.
At the end of the novel, it is revealed in a note by the author that the story is based on the legend of Melkorka, the mother of the Icelandic gothi Olaf Hoskuldsson. According to myth and tradition, his mother was a slave assumed to be mute. One day the king overhears her speaking in Gaelic and she discloses that she was a kidnapped Irish princess.