Maddy
Smith has always been an outsider. Born with a rusty-coloured rune on her hand
– what the villagers call a ruinmark – she is scarred by this symbol of the old
gods, a sign of magic.And everyone known that magic is dangerous. Except for Maddy who thinks it’s rather fun. Until now. For suddenly her friend One-Eye, a rascally Outlander, want her to open Red Horse Hill and descend into World Below – a world filled with goblins and far worse – to retrieve a relic of the old gods…
So far I have read about vampires, werewolves, heavenly angels, hells demons, the Greek Pantheon and many other pantheons created by authors themselves. But I haven’t read anything about Norse mythology and the accompanying pantheon. I found this one of the most appealing aspects of Runemarks. I did have some reservations about the Norse mythology, where all the other themes have been proven to work in the majority of the cases. Introducing this whole new theme could have backfired since not many people are familiar with it. Well… I have to say that this was no problem at all. Instead with Runemarks, Joanne Harris has ventured a new direction, providing a book with freshly new ideas.
Runemarks picks up pretty lightly with the introduction of Maddy in the village of Maldry. She is put down as an outsider and marked as a scapegoat. Her ruinmark frightens the other villagers. With the other villagers being scared of Maddy there is hardly any dialogue featured between her and other villagers. This is corrected by her adventurous spirit, where she meets up with goblins. The goblins proved early on to be a nice addition and in the end it was just funny and brilliantly plotted on how the goblin, Sugar-and-Sack, pulls it off.
With already a few hints thrown into the story about runes and magic, the introduction of One-Eye really sets the pace for Runemarks. One-Eye teaches Maddy more about runes and their uses as he comes back once a year to the village of Maldry. However he always asks one question: Has anything happened in the past year? While progressing in the book this question becomes more clear and gives more feeling to the past and what is hidden underneath Red Horse Hill.
An integral part of Runemarks is the addition of the Norse pantheon into the story. I’m not that familiar with the Norse gods so I did a quick Google search and I do think that the major players are all present in the story. From the quick reads I could make out a general personality sketch but if they are as true to their historical personalities I do not know.
In Runemarks the gods: Odin, Loki, Thor, Skadi and Njord and others make their appearance. The Norse gods are also divided into the Aesir and Vanir. Odin, Loki and Skadi play a more important role than the others. Loki in the myths is a trickster and joker and this personality is just perfectly reflected into Runemarks, in the ending I did get a feeling that even though being a trickster he showed compassion. Odin, having an important job in the plotline, is portrayed as an old and weary wanderer, and he shows that the runic magic cannot save you from every situation. Odin and Loki are both Aesir, in the myths there was a war between Aesir and Vanir and this struggle is also partially shown in Runemarks. Skadi, a Vanir, is trying to kill both Loki and Odin. But from the Vanir she is actually the only really persuaded to fight Odin and Loki, and in this she is characterized as a evil villain pretty nicely. This feeling for me was bolstered by her ability of being able to shapeshift in a large white wolf. But Skadi is not the ultimate villain here. There is more.
In the advent of Ragnarok, a new group came to power, “the Order”. This group lives and dies by the “Good Book”. One cool aspect was the “the Word”, everyone fears this even the gods… Using the Order integrated with something totally unexpected, The Whisperer, gave a grand plotline that was riddle with twists.
There is just one more thing that I just have to highlight. Magic. As I mentioned before I’m always a big fan of magic. Being it flashy theatrical or mind nudging obscure, but new ideas are always welcome. Recently I got to know the Sattva magic in Land of Hope and Glory. What would the Norse gods be without their own sort of magic? This time created by runes, drawing them and even throwing them. Just marvelous. Although it sometimes felt that there was a bit too much casting or drawing going on. The describing of how they came to life with the resonating and glowing was – maybe not original – but it is how it should be.
With Runemarks Joanne Harris has written a great addition to the fantasy books that integrate mythology. Norse mythology is something that I was not that familiar with but I was pleased with how everything came together in the end. In Runemarks you are invited to travel between the Nine Worlds from the World above to the Netherworld