The Claiming Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gyric dies of fever.

It is terrible but representative of life in the 9th century that one bout of illness could destroy a settlement. Ceridwen becomes ill after Gyric and their daughter Ninnoc die. She nearly succumbs herself, but she recalls Gyric's words at the end of his life that he wants her to live, a connection to years earlier when he was on the brink of death after being maimed and starved: she said, "Gyric, I want you to live." We do not read of the illness directly; we only hear Ceridwen recount it early in the book.

Answer: She will have to remarry.

Just as she felt it her duty to provide Godwin an heir, she feels obligated to remarry, and it will be to a man chosen for her. She will leave the sea, Kilton, and everyone there (except Ceric) for an unknown man she feels no passion for. All she wishes is to live the rest of her life at Kilton, but she is too young for that (she is now five-and-twenty years old).

The reality of what awaits her when she returns from Four Stones begins to inform her decision about whether to attempt to return there when she is taken far from Angle-land.

Answer: A beacon on a shore

The mere knowledge that he is alive and well brings her much joy and peace; when she hears of Yrling's death in the first book, and that his nephews were with him, she is very distraught until she hears that Sidroc lives. Yet as a spot on a far shore, she cannot hope to get to him. I thought that was a very poetic way to describe her feelings about him.

Answer: Danes attack the ship and Sidroc fights with them.

The Idrisids are not interested in ransom, which throws out Sidroc's plan to free them. Luckily for them, Danes attack the Idrisid ship, and Sidroc starts fighting with the Danes. The Idrisids were a dynasty that ruled Morocco from the late 8th to late 10th centuries.

Answer: Not revealed in this book

The Saxon, whose name is revealed in "The Hall of Tyr", says he is a thegn of Wessex. Sidroc keeps him around to help them until they find horses. The Saxon offers to take Ceridwen with him back to Angle-land, but she refuses, even though at this point she would still like to return there with Sidroc. While they do not know who he is, he knows who they are and is on his way back to Wessex...

Cerd is Ceridwen's father's name.

Answer: Bull

Sidroc calls the bull an aurochs, which is a now-extinct species of cattle. Both he and the Saxon are hurt by it, but not gravely. Sidroc is even temporarily blinded, possibly as a callback to Gyric.

Answer: He thinks she has been abducted.

He thinks something is terribly wrong with Ceridwen's situation, having seen many similar scenarios in his time, but she refuses his offer to put her on a ship to Frankland. She had begun to realize that her current situation is better than the one that awaits her at Kilton.

While she will lose her best friend (whom she admittedly cannot see much) and son if she stays on the continent, all Ceridwen has to look forward to in Wessex is an arranged marriage. Sidroc has land, treasure, warriors, and children, but all he truly wants is to wed Ceridwen, and says early in the book that men like him tend not to live long due to their violent lives. Retiring elsewhere with the woman he loves would extend his life and fulfill his dream.

Answer: She copies a letter he wants to send.

The monk scribe fails to arrive, so she volunteers her skills. She cannot understand the Latin but knows how to form the letters. In exchange, she receives a map and, from a spice merchant, a stick of very expensive cinnamon, which will prove useful in the next book. In those days, salt and spices could be worth more than gold.

Answer: Gold pieces

This much wealth gives her and Sidroc a great start in their new land. She gives every bit of it to him as a dowry; he returns most of it as a morning gift, which historically was given by a husband to his wife the morning after the wedding. She loses the emerald brooch on the Idrisid ship, never to see it again. According to the author on a Q&A video, Ceridwen carries this much hidden gold to ransom herself and her son should they be captured at sea or on the road.

Answer: Gotland

Sidroc is ecstatic with their location, an island off the east coast of Sweden where the people govern themselves (no king and thus no wars) and speak a language similar to his own. As well, his father went there once and loved the place, a sequence we see in "Sidroc the Dane". He plans to give up fighting and become a trader. With the distance between them and Angle-land, as well as the treacherous seas, they seem quite safe from discovery and are happy to begin a new life together.

I am pleased that they ended up together in this book. I do not think Ceridwen was ready for Sidroc at fifteen. I think that Gyric is the right husband for the teenaged Ceridwen, and Sidroc is the right one for her ten years later.