The year is 865. Audur the Wise, independent and headstrong Viking woman, raises her son on her own in Caithness, Britain, where the heathen Norse have settled and driven out the Christian natives. Afraid that her chieftain father in the Hebrides will marry her off again for political gain, Audur has stayed away from her kin since her divorce from Olaf the White, the Norse king of Dublin. Yet, after more than a decade in Caithness, she now shows up at her father’s hall in the Hebrides to attend her brother´s wedding. As customary in the beginning of winter, the women sacrifice a boar to the gods and godesses and look into the future, foretelling blood red skies above the British Isles: The Norse are fated to yet again go viking in the Western Seas. And indeed there is unrest and strife in the north of the British Isles. The natives are becoming more defiant with each passing day and the ambitious Earl of Orkney hungers for power on the mainland. Then, to the astonishment of all, the warrior king of Dublin invades Scotland in mid-winter and it soon becomes inevitable that the paths of Audur and Olaf the White shall cross again…

At the same time tales are told of a new and unsettled country in the far north, where the mountains breathe fire, glaciers adorn the skyline, and rivers and lakes swarm with fish. Maybe the best option is to leave the battlefields in the lands of the hostile Picts and Scots, set sail and seek this island of fire and ice at the edge of the world…

Crimson Skies is a sequel to the best-selling novel Aud the Deep-Minded, nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize in 2009.

Interview with the author, about the trilogy: https://www.islit.is/en/promotion-and-translations/icelandic-literature/interviews-with-icelandic-authors/nr/3480

See also: https://www.davidsdottir.is/english-aud-the-deepminded.html

R E V I E W S

“Broad and high story…very large setting and big story.”
Egill Helgason, Kiljan National TV

“The book is extremely well written, the storyline interesting and all the descriptions done so one can see the characters and the events vividly. If anything I found it stronger and more interesting than Audur, maybe because the character Audur is now older, more experienced and mature than the girl in the previous novel.”
Eyja M. Brynjarsdottir, Druslubaekur og dodrantar, bokvit.blogspot.com

“The book is very well done and there obviously is a lot of research and work behind it. …Carefully done and well written story about the leading up to Audur the Deepminded settling in Iceland.”
Fridrika Benonysdottir, Frettabladid daily