I first fell in love with Ireland when I was just a little girl, and my mom would excitedly tell me of our family ancestry—her side of the family was nearly 100 percent Irish. The superstitions, folklore, and mythology of the Emerald Isle always captivated me, and I absorbed everything I could about the creatures my ancestors once believed in. Irish history is fascinating, particularly in the early centuries, when it was wild and untamed and full of more kings, queens, and princesses than a fairy tale. I couldn’t resist setting a story in a country full of rich legends and folklore. I just had to decide when I wanted it to take place. So when my parents returned home one year from a trip to Dublin with pictures of an ancient Viking village that once made up Dublin, I knew. Vikings and Ireland? I couldn’t think of a better combination.
I love the history of Ireland, but I also love Celtic and Norse mythology, and I used both of them as inspiration for this historical fantasy. Though I took some creative liberties. The Wild Hunt, for example, wasn’t led by Flidais in the old legends but usually by Odin. Fenrir, the wolf that guarded Valhalla in the book, is actually bound by an enchanted fetter and not in Valhalla at all. Despite these deviations, I found both Celtic and Norse mythology to be remarkably similar and to complement one another well, despite being from two different parts of the world. The Morrigan and the Valkyrie, for example, played the same sort of role on the battlefield. And even though Ireland during the eleventh century was almost entirely Christian, the superstitions, legends, and folklore always remained. They still feared the sluagh and the each-uisce; talked of the Fey and the Little People. The Norse and the Danes—the Northmen—came with their own set of beliefs of powerful gods and monstrous j?tnar, further contributing to a land steeped in legend.
For the historical element, I tried to stay true to what life was like in Ireland and Norway in the eleventh century. The battles—both the armor (or lack of it in the Celts’ case) and the tactics—were representative of how Viking raiders and Celtic warriors fought. Leif’s village and longhouse were fairly typical of Viking life, and the same could be said of Ciara’s castle. And as I fell into the endless wormholes of researching that history, probably the most exciting thing was when I could make a piece of history work in the story. King Sigtrygg, for example, was real. He was King Sigtrygg Silkbeard, and he was half-Irish and half-Norse. He really did raid other kingdoms of Ireland, just like a Northman. And worst of all, he really did burn two hundred men in a church after a raid of Mide. So he probably did deserve what happened to him in my version of the story.
Dubhlinn, though it really irritated Ciara, really was known as Dyflin to the Norse. They took over Dublin in the ninth century, and you can still see remnants of their wooden settlements today in Ireland. Because of this, the Norse and the Irish often intermarried, so there was this bizarre situation where the Norse raiders were feared and hated, but then they were also forming alliances with the Irish by marrying their princesses.
The myths and historical setting of Beyond a Darkened Shore combined to form a rich tapestry that lent itself as the perfect backdrop for Ciara and Leif’s world. As with the mythological aspects of the book, I took some creative liberties, and I hope my readers—particularly those who specialize in Irish history—will indulge me.
For more information on the specific myths in this book, please read on!
Glossary
Celtic Mythology
Brigid: Brigid was a Celtic goddess of fire—of the forge and the hearth—among many other things. She was generally seen as a motherly healer type of goddess. She was the first daughter of the Dagda, who was the chieftain of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and also the wife of the Irish King Bres, making her a queen among the goddesses.
Each-uisce: This is a water spirit similar to the Scottish kelpie, but far more vicious. As Ciara tells her sisters, it can take the shape of both a horse and a handsome man to lure victims to their deaths.
Flidais: As with so many things in history, there’s a debate as to what her actual role was as a goddess, but for my purposes, I chose to focus on the belief that Flidais was the goddess of the woods—much like Artemis in Greek mythology.
Morrigan: Also known as the Phantom Queen. She is as mysterious as she appeared in the book. Sometimes portrayed as a triple goddess—made up of three separate sisters—I chose to focus on her main role: as war goddess and keeper of fate on the battlefield. She is often shown flying over the battle in the form of a crow.
Sluagh: A term for the “restless dead” who hunt for souls in a flock of shadows. They were said to appear when someone was on their deathbed, waiting to steal their soul.
Tuatha Dé Danann: Translates as the “tribe/people of the goddess Danu” (the mother goddess of Ireland) or as the “tribe of the gods.” These were an immortal race of people with supernatural power who lived in another realm—the otherworld—in pre-Christian Ireland. The Morrigan, Flidais, and Brigid were all examples of such goddesses.
Wild Hunt: A folklore known all over Europe, where a powerful god would lead a hunt through the woods, riding a horse as black as midnight, with ghostly hounds racing ahead. The old myths never really say what they’re hunting, but the implication (and fear) is generally that they’re hunting living people or souls.
Norse Mythology
Einherjar: Warriors who have died in battle and are brought to Valhalla by the Valkyrie.
Fenrir: The third son of Loki by the female j?tunn Angrboda. He was a giant, terrifying wolf that was kept bound (the legends never really specify where) by an enchanted fetter created by the dwarves because he would eventually bring about the end of the world and the gods (see Ragnar?k below).
Huginn and Muninn: Translates to “thought” and “memory” from Old Norse; these are the names of Odin’s ravens that fly all over the world and bring him information.
J?tunn/J?tnar: A race of giants who were banished from Asgard (the realm of the gods) to live in J?tunheimr, one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology. As Leif mentions, they have a complicated relationship with the Norse gods—sometimes antagonistic, sometimes friendly or neutral. Many of the gods, including Odin, descended from the j?tnar, and some of the gods even intermarried with them.
Midgard: One of the nine realms, or worlds, in Norse mythology, where mortals reside.
Odin: I could spend a page on all the many beliefs about Odin in Norse (and Germanic) mythology, but a simplified version is that he was one of the principal gods, a warrior god who was also talented in magic and runes. He is usually portrayed as an old man with a long beard and only one eye because he traded the other for wisdom.
Ragnar?k: The Norse version of the apocalypse. When the wolf Fenrir escapes, a great battle takes place and many of the gods are killed.
Seidr: This belief is as complicated as Leif and the seer make it seem, but a very simplified way of defining it is that it was shamanism that could alter fate.
Valhalla: Heaven, Viking-style, where warriors who died in combat can eat and drink and fight for eternity.
Valkyrie: Usually portrayed as winged female figures, these warrior goddesses chose who lived or died on the battlefield.