Octavia Randolph Trivia

1. Over what years does "For Me Fate Wove This" take place?

From Quiz For Me Fate Wove This

Answer: 893-896

We have been in 893 since "Silver Hammer, Golden Cross". "Wildswept" mostly takes place over a few months of 893; its final chapter takes us to winter for the birth of Ceridwen's daughter Rodiaud, whose name is exclusive to Gotland. In this book, we go back to Angle-land in 893 to watch three years' worth of shattering events unfold.

From Quiz Wildswept

Answer: A ring

It symbolizes the marriage he hopes to make with her. After so many years of thinking she would join a convent after her children marry, she has hope she will marry a man she holds affection for and who loves her in return.

From Quiz Sidroc the Dane

Answer: Jorild

Ingirith, Hrald's wife, is angry that Hrald, whom she has no love for, slept with another woman (and a serving girl) so close to their handfasting and hates Sidroc from the beginning. Ingirith sends Jorild away when Sidroc is a year old. Sidroc does not see his mother again, though she sees him before he leaves Jutland and chooses not to tell him of their relationship.

From Quiz Silver Hammer, Golden Cross

Answer: Raedwulf

Ælfwyn thinks that had she met him instead of Gyric, perhaps she would have fallen in love with Raedwulf instead. Now that Ælfwyn is officially separated from Sidroc, she may marry again, and Raedwulf seems to want to either take advantage of this fact to marry her or at least tell her how he feels. This plot thread is left open in this book.

From Quiz Tindr

Answer: His boat is stolen by pirates.

Sea travel is very perilous for the characters in this series, is it not? Pirates take his boat, let Halle stay to pilot it, and make Dagr jump overboard. He survives by clinging to a featherbed--an unexpected medieval flotation device. He makes it back to his homeland, where he weds Rannveig. Personally, I thought this section, the time before Tindr's birth, was the least engaging part of the series. "Tindr" is the first book in the series not to be told in first person.

From Quiz The Hall of Tyr

Answer: Deafness

He is an excellent hunter, a compassionate man, and very tuned to nature, but because of his deafness, few women want to marry him, though his mother Rannveig the brewster believes he would be a wonderful husband. He invented his own sign language and can easily communicate with anyone he or his mother teach it to. He has a special sign for each person he knows: his mother's alludes to her ring of keys, Sidroc's to his scar, Ceridwen's to her fiery hair, and so on. I found myself inadvertently making the signs as I read. According to the book's glossary, a brewster is a female brewer and a baxter is a female baker.

From Quiz The Claiming

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.

From Quiz Ceridwen of Kilton

Answer: A combination of their names

I picked up on that detail before it I saw it explained late in the book. Ceric's name is pronounced "CARE-itch." Ceridwen is pregnant with him at the end of "The Circle of Ceridwen".

From Quiz "The Circle of Ceridwen": Part the Second

Answer: He is the man Ælfwyn wanted to marry.

Ælfwyn was in love with Gyric and wished to marry him until her father brokered peace with Yrling. The girls immediately start a plan to help him escape. Although I agree that freeing him ended up being the right thing to do, I still think that their plan is rushed and foolhardy and could have led to Ælfwyn's death, although they do the best they can in the little time they have, and I admire Ceridwen's proactivity. "Gyric" is pronounced "GUY-rich" after Old English rules.

From Quiz "The Circle of Ceridwen": Part the First

Answer: A goddess

Ceridwen is named for a Welsh goddess of rebirth and abundance. Throughout the book, Ceridwen experiences personal conflicts between her heathen and Christian faiths, seeing value in both and accepting the existence of many gods. She is a heathen in childhood, then is baptized into Christianity, but, while she considers herself Christian, continues to observe various heathen rituals. She is surprised to discover that the Danes follow a very similar religion to her childhood one: her Woden is their Odin, her Thunor is their Thor, and so on.

From Quiz Wildswept

Answer: There has been past violence between the families.

Godwin killed Yrling before Ashild's birth. As well, her step-father/cousin Sidroc killed Godwin. She considers all the death that Kilton and Four Stones have dealt each other an insurmountable block to marriage between her and Ceric. This besides, she would greatly miss Four Stones. They sleep together once, but she says she will not be his wife, which puts Ceric in an odd position, as he considers her his wife and feels he cannot consider another. The families of the two welcome such an alliance--even King Ælfred desires a match between Kilton and Four Stones--but none will force Ashild to wed. Ashild's name comes from words meaning "god" and "fight".

From Quiz Sidroc the Dane

Answer: Toki calls Sidroc's mother a thrall

In the first book, "The Circle of Ceridwen", Sidroc says that Toki gave him the scar. That book was published in 1995; "Sidroc the Dane" was published in 2018. If you read the books as they were published, you had to wait 23 years to learn the story. The two argue and fight over Gunnborga's affection earlier, which inspires Toki to bring a weapon next time they fight to overcome Sidroc's physical advantage. Toki is quite dishonorable: he insults Sidroc's mother, brings a knife to a fistfight, and scars his cousin for life.

From Quiz Silver Hammer, Golden Cross

Answer: Hrald cuts Ceric's arm.

Sidroc tells them they could end up scarred like him if they do that, and he is correct. He jests in referring to his own scarring, as we find out in the next book, "Sidroc the Dane", that the fight that maimed him was not in fun. When they spar, they keep their swords sheathed, but Hrald's becomes worn away at the tip, accidentally slicing Ceric. In a type of penance, Hrald immediately slices his arm in the same place.

From Quiz Tindr

Answer: Fever

The fever spares his life, but leaves him deaf just as he starts to learn to speak. Because of this, he can never speak intelligibly, but he can easily communicate with his own sign language and likes to sing, which he can feel in his vocal cords. It takes a while for Ragnfast to explain to him that the fever killed his sisters.

From Quiz The Hall of Tyr

Answer: Hamingja

Everyone is born with one; if it deserts you, he says, it is gone forever. In Norse mythology, a hamingja is a female guardian spirit who endeavors to bring happiness and luck. Upon the person's death, it can pass from person to person in the same family. Yggdrasil is the world tree, and Ratatoskr is the squirrel that dwells at the tree to carry messages. A scop is a bard, a person who not only entertains with song but also carries cultural heritage.

From Quiz The Claiming

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.

From Quiz "The Circle of Ceridwen": Part the Second

Answer: His eyes were burned out.

I think that the way he speaks of it so directly and succinctly is frightening. The girls learn that Hingvar's brother Svein captured Saxons and was waiting to ransom them; to spite his brother, Hingvar killed or maimed many of Svein's prisoners so no ransom could be obtained. Ceridwen still wishes to free Gyric, but Ælfwyn learns of his maiming and says he would be better off dead. Ceridwen disagrees, and her compassion leads her to escape with him in defiance of her friend.

From Quiz "The Circle of Ceridwen": Part the First

Answer: Writing

She can read and write both Roman letters and runes, and can also make wax tablets. This scribing ability is very useful to her and others throughout the series, as many of the people she meets cannot read; even high-born daughters may be illiterate.

From Quiz For Me Fate Wove This

Answer: Swords and spear heads

As Guthrum left Dagmar nothing in his will, she has little dowry. Hrald does not care because he is enamored with her. Haward receives ten swords and twenty spear heads for giving Dagmar to Hrald. Dowry consists of goods a bride brings to a marriage. Part of its purpose is providing financial security for the woman should the husband die before his wife. Bride-price is offered by the groom's family to the bride's. A morning gift is given by a husband to his wife the morning after their marriage. This last practice was prevalent in Germanic tribal cultures, where it was called "morgengabe".

From Quiz Wildswept

Answer: Yrling's old ship

He finds his uncle's old ship, Death-day, in use as a fishing vessel. It had been stolen decades earlier as depicted in "Sidroc the Dane". Had the ship not been stolen, Yrling and his men may never have settled at Four Stones. Sidroc successfully gambles to get it back.

From Quiz Silver Hammer, Golden Cross

Answer: Ashild and Ceric

Both Yrling and Gyric never removed their necklaces while they lived. Now, their children wear them in memory. Ashild never knew Yrling and owned the hammer before beginning to wear it next to her cross. I thought that Gyric was buried wearing the cross Ælfred gave him, as it was described in "The Claiming" that he was laid out for burial wearing the necklace, but Ceric now has the cross. Either it was removed directly before his internment or this is a continuity error (I prefer to think it is the former).

From Quiz Tindr

Answer: Falling from a bluff

This series displays a wide variety of ways in which the medieval world killed its people and how tenuous life was then. Though Tindr tries to save him, Assur falls while climbing and breaks his neck. Tindr thinks of him as Purple Neck because of his birthmark. Being deaf and having no way to learn names (as his culture lacks writing), he assigns his own names and gestures to others, typically by their most striking characteristic. Ceridwen is Bright Hair and Sidroc is Scar (I resist the urge to imagine Sidroc as a dark-maned lion; it does not help the the fourth book mentions the Circle of Life a couple of times).

From Quiz The Hall of Tyr

Answer: She plans to send a letter to Ælfwyn.

Sidroc tells her that if she sends a letter, everything they have done may be for naught, as their location could be traced. In "The Claiming", he tells her exactly what would happen should they return to Angle-land, or be discovered, in a section I think of as Sidroc's fan-fiction: Godwin will assume he has been intimate with Ceridwen and fight him over her honor, and the death of either man will have deep consequences. Fortunately, they make up afterwards, which apparently includes sex. Let us not forget that the Saxon knows their names and where they come from...

From Quiz The Claiming

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.

From Quiz Ceridwen of Kilton

Answer: To protect her

With both her father and husband dead, Ælfwyn has no protection from other Danes. Marriage to Sidroc will make her Lady of Four Stones again, so she accepts his proposal. While Sidroc loves Ceridwen still, he is very kind to Ælfwyn and raises her daughter with Yrling as his own. She shows her great nobility and integrity in holding no animosity towards Ceridwen for her marriage to Gyric, her former beloved.

From Quiz "The Circle of Ceridwen": Part the Second

Answer: Gwyneth

Gwyneth was once mistress to Lord Merewala (the late Saxon Lord of Four Stones) and bore him a son; she was sent away when they saw her son Holt was "odd". Ceridwen considers Holt fortunate, for he is alive and has a pleasant life living off the land with his mother. The same cannot be said for Merewala's other sons, who are all dead. Gwyneth saves Gyric but warns Ceridwen that, because he is a warrior and has been blinded, "Part of him will never forgive you."

From Quiz For Me Fate Wove This

Answer: She is discovered with another man.

The outlawed man she loves comes back for her, and Dagmar makes the rather ill-advised decision to speak to him in her bedchamber. When Hrald finds them, he casts her away, and her lover Vigmund is not pleased when she tries to convince Hrald to let her stay. In those times, a man could regain his honor or have his outlawry repealed, but a woman's lost reputation was gone forever. In a time when women had to come to a marriage with a dowry and be bought with a brideprice, I sympathize with Dagmar for wanting to keep her position rather than throw all away, as her choices are few. Though a wife never has to return the morning gift, Dagmar gives her ring to Ælfwyn. Historically, whether the dowry was returned upon marital separation depended on the culture; often a bride got it all back (i.e. medieval Iceland), but sometimes her husband kept some (Ancient Rome). Four Stones is a product of Randolph's imagination but she locates it near modern-day Oundle, North Northamptonshire.

From Quiz Wildswept

Answer: To have her daughter named.

Her daughter cannot be named or blessed until the Sami women perform their ritual. Her people welcome her; as she left in partial disgrace years earlier, she has redeemed herself with a respected husband and two children. In the book's notes, Randolph states that she invented the ceremony in which the babe is washed in a river and carried inside to receive her name: Jaske. However, the goddess Mattarahkka (also called Maderakka) is revered in Sami culture as the guardian of childbirth and menstruation. Her children Juksakka, Uksakka, and Sarakka also bring aid during pregnancy, birth, and after delivery.

From Quiz Sidroc the Dane

Answer: To let him sleep with a woman

Due to his appearance, Sidroc has trouble trying to bed a woman. His first time goes very well, and he shows his thoughtfulness by giving the woman a practical gift of needles. In Angle-land, Sidroc is appalled by the constant raping of women and never takes part, even chasing women to safety at least once. The same cannot be said of Toki.

From Quiz Silver Hammer, Golden Cross

Answer: Her weight in silver

Ashild thinks this is crude, clever, and something her father would have done. Hrald offers fifty horses as her dowry, imagining he is in a saga. It is as if nobody thinks that real humans with feelings are involved here and conceive of everything in grand terms to be recounted later. I want to know where the scale is that will determine her weight.

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