Meet Angerborda
When it comes to stories about witches, the moment of being burned at the stake is rather the end of the adventure, and in this case it is just the beginning. Angerborda did not want to reveal what would happen in the future and for this Odin punished her, and she had to escape from Asgard. In order to hide, he escapes to the edge of the world, where he meets Loki in a remote green area. At first she is distrustful, withdrawn and has many fears, slowly begins to convince to him, and their acquaintance turns into love. Their relationship gives birth to three children, each with their own destiny. They live peacefully until the vision of Angerborg returns and they know that their future lives are under severe threat. Now the heroine has to decide whether to come to terms with her fate or fight for a better tomorrow.
In the novel The Heart of a Witch , the image of women in Norse mythology is very well presented. Genevieve Gornichec shows the nuances of the described reality with charm and a great deal of humor. The struggles of the main character add color to the canon and diversify the Nordic stories. The whole thing is very often surprising and it is impossible to detach from it, as if someone had glued a person to a book.
Time for a strong woman
Angerborda is a woman who knows what she wants to achieve. Her adventure goes back to the founding of Asgard, where she saw the future. She was supposed to pass on the secrets of magic for the knowledge of runes, but she fraternized with the Wan family. For treason, she was subjected to constant torture, and since, as an all-powerful witch, she was reborn, the situation lasted and lasted. After Odin’s heart cut out and running away, he tries to build his life anew, on his own terms, without asking for help unnecessarily. Her meeting with Loki turns reality one hundred and eighty degrees. The heroine becomes the mother of three children who will be important in myths in the future – Hel, Fenrir, Jormungand.
The title forces the reader to reflect on their own thoughts and actions. Are our fates written in advance, or maybe we create them ourselves? It questions many certainties, and this condition persists in the recipient even after the book is finished.
Unpredictable things happen
A witch’s heart is not an obvious title. You can try to predict the further plot, but the author can surprise you every time, and although her actions are logical, it is not entirely clear when reading specific fragments. The farther into the forest, the more and more it all makes sense. All connections between heroes and events are discovered in an interesting way. Written myths can lead you a bit, but not always.
Divine Authority
As the story unfolds, the author reveals more and more details of the relationship between gods and people. Some character traits appear in both. Point of view depends on the point of sitting. Best of all, when it comes to strong emotions like anger, love, passion, they can both be uplifting or equally destructive. Ultimately, it can be said that, apart from power, nothing separates them.
As for the plot …
The Witch’s Heart is an action-packed novel in which the slower moments are intertwined with the dynamic ones. There is no unnecessary downtime or lengthy scenes. The story of Angerboda is the basis of the whole book, and all the side plots connect logically and smoothly with the main one. Most importantly, you don’t need to know Nordic stories to understand the whole message. The author writes in an accessible manner and explains all the nuances and doubts on an ongoing basis. Genevieve Gornichec pays attention to every detail, but does not introduce unnecessary crowds of texts. When reading, you feel constant tension when you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Through such a procedure, the reader wants to know what will happen next and does not want to postpone reading until later.
There are many things to recommend in Witch’s Heart , and I found no faults in it. Angerboda’s story is captivating, and it’s really good to know her fate. For this, it is a novel about love, hate, friendship, family, children and the power of motherly love. Of course, it’s also a title about magic and how it can be upbuilding, but also destructive. I highly recommend The Witch ‘s Heart because it draws you from the first to the last page.
