It’s been years since I’ve read Beowulf. I remember when Seamus Heaney’s translation came out and the hoopla over him being a poet and not a scholar. His version is known for being both poetically beautifully and historically accurate, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bang-up job. I’m no stranger to the lore, though I am a but rusty on it.
When Redhook sent me an early copy of Sharon Emmerichs’s Shield Maiden (Publication date: 10/03/2023), I nerded out just a bit; how awesome is it that an anonymous poem written sometime between 700 – 1000 AD is still having new life breathed into? But Emmerichs changes things up just a bit; in her story of the slave who stole the cup that triggered the awakening of the dragon that ultimately resulted in the death of Beowulf; she gives us Fryda, Beowulf’s crippled niece who longs to be Shield Maiden, is in love with a slave, and who has just hint of fiery magic from days long gone by inside. This is her story, despite claims it is Theow’s.
The novel has the hallmarks of YA fantasy, and I recognize I’m not its intended audience; however, I’m not sure it knows who it wants its intended audience to be. It reads like YA, and I think it should squarely be YA, but then you have a sex scene between Bryce, a secondary character (albeit a very important one to both Fryda and Theow) and his partner. Bryce is a second father to Fryda and well in his fifties, if not older. It is a touching and sweet scene between two characters who care a lot for each other, but it does nothing to move the plot and is extremely out of place. Also out of place are the random POVs from Bryce and Wiglaf (Fryda’s brother).
Some of my other issues are that character decisions seem not based on character development but on how the plot needs to be driven, and that Fryda is bold and brave and attentive to reading a room, but when it suites the plot, she’s entirely blind and naïve to the true intentions/hearts of others. It is beyond frustrating to watch her interactions with Wiglaf. I also struggled with not being annoyed by the pacing, and I wanted far more Hild, Olaf, and Bjorn.
In short, I know I was not this book’s intended audience. And while I may have been dissatisfied with some of the story-telling elements, I did enjoy the meat of the story (even if I had to carve a bit to get there). To be fair, I think I’m at the point in my life where it’s the dragon’s story I want.
A Girl Named Tommi 