The Witch’s Heart

Angrboda is a witch in hiding. She survived being burned not once, not twice, but three times. Now she spends her time living in a cave at the edge of Jotunheim. Only a precious few know where she currently resides, another giantess who helps her market her potions for supplies and the giant who brought her lost heart back to her. Loki, the most mischievous god of them all, visits Angrboda now and again. Maybe, something happened for both of them the day he brought her back her heart.

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec is an account of the Norse giantess, Angrboda’s life. In fact, I think Gornichec did an excellent job with the setup and telling of this story. She has a great smooth and simple writing style that is easy to follow and carries the reader along large spans of time without being dull or leaving unaddressed gaps of time. The organization of the large sections instead of traditional chapters works very well for the plot and adds definition to the long tale. Though, I do like Norse mythology and am familiar with many of the main myths, I was not overly familiar with Angrboda’s role. Despite my lack of background knowledge, this book educated me and never lost me. So, readers who might worry about not knowing enough about the mythology to enjoy this book will have no problems.

The fact that this book does revolve around Norse mythology is one of its biggest draws. I think anyone who is interested in mythology or knows anything about Norse mythology will find this book a fun read. There are lots of little snippets of well-known myths interspersed in this story that is dedicated to understanding and experiencing a lesser known person in the mythology (at least from my knowledge of the mythology). It is also refreshing that the novel is exploring someone who is not part of the main group of Æsir. It is definitely an interesting perspective considering Odin, Thor, and Loki usually take the lime light.