The Viking and the Witch [Halfdan The Black]

The Viking and the Witch

Hey friends,
As a writer I constantly reflect my work and since I frequently get notifications about this book I contemplate it a lot.
Some books on this platform have the tendency to romanticise toxic relationships and glorify them.

The Viking and the Witch portrays a sexist and misogynist worldview that- as far as we know(be aware of historian biases)- was normal at the time. Not neccessarily the vikings but the anglosaxons. I wrote Halfdan in the way I see him portrayed in the show. He is an extremely violent and often a frightening character.

Mary's story is horrible. All the things done to her in the book are absolutely destestable and I hope I have never portrayed them as something achievable or positive. She accepts the derogatory life of a slave because at that point she is severly psychologically damaged. At the same time I dont want to stigmatise mental health! This is the response of the character Mary, a fictional character, and is not to be correlated to real people that struggle with mental ilness.

I realise that the majority of the readers are 18+ so I am more comfortable because I believe you understand that the events in the story are tragedies.

This note is extemely close to my heart because I dont want to celebrate this book as an ultimate lovestory.

Thank you so much for reading this.