Margit Sandemo: The Ice People 45 - The Legend

The Legend

The Legend of the Ice People 45 - The Legend

© Margit Sandemo 1989

© eBook in English: Jentas A/S, 2020

Series: The Legend of The Ice People

Title: The Legend

Title number: 45

Original title: Legenden om Marco

Translator: Anna Halager

© Translation: Jentas A/S

ISBN: 978-87-7107-719-3

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchase.

All contracts and agreements regarding the work, translation, editing, and layout are owned by Jentas A/S.

Acknowledgement

The legend of the Ice People is dedicated with love and gratitude to the memory of my dear late husband Asbjorn Sandemo, who made my life a fairy tale.

Margit Sandemo

The Ice People - Reviews

‘Margit Sandemo is, simply, quite wonderful.’

- The Guardian

‘Full of convincing characters, well established in time and place, and enlightening ... will get your eyes popping, and quite possibly groins twitching ... these are graphic novels without pictures ... I want to know what happens next.’

- The Times

‘A mixure of myth and legend interwoven with historical events, this is imaginative creation that involves the reader from the first page to the last.’

- Historical Novels Review

‘Loved by the masses, the prolific Margit Sandemo has written over 172 novels to date and is Scandinavia's most widely read author...’

- Scanorama magazine

The Legend of the Ice People

The legend of the Ice People begins many centuries ago with Tengel the Evil. He was ruthless and greedy, and there was only one way to get everything that he wanted: he had to make a pact with the devil. He travelled far into the wilderness and summoned the devil with a magic potion that he had brewed in a pot. Tengel the Evil gained unlimited wealth and power but in exchange, he cursed his own family. One of his descendants in every generation would serve the Devil with evil deeds. When it was done, Tengel buried the pot. If anyone found it, the curse would be broken.

So the curse was passed down through Tengel’s descendants, the Ice People. One person in every generation was born with yellow cat’s eyes, a sign of the curse, and magical powers which they used to serve the Devil. One day the most powerful of all the cursed Ice People would be born.

This is what the legend says. Nobody knows whether it is true, but in the 16th century, a cursed child of the Ice People was born. He tried to turn evil into good, which is why they called him Tengel the Good. This legend is about his family. Actually, it is mostly about the women in his family – the women who held the fate of the Ice People in their hands.

Chapter 1

Five lonely people in the wilderness.

Spring had followed the holes in the ice northwards, gliding silently around the summits that encircled the Valley of the Ice People. On the other side of the lake, high in the air, the raven shrieked its loneliness.

The wind tore at their hair and clothes as they stood in the barren, rugged mountain pass with the glacier behind them, looking out over the valley of their relatives; a place where nobody dared to go.

Spring and the warmth of the sun always came early to the Valley of the Ice People. Nevertheless, the five hikers were unprepared for the sight they encountered.

After days of trudging through the snow, it was almost a shock for them to look down into a valley whose entire northern side lay parched and seemingly very hot. They couldn’t see the lake and its shore because the fog banks were dense. The southern side was still covered in snow. But this didn’t matter because it wasn’t where the hikers wanted to go.

As they took in the view of the valley, they felt fear mingled with respect. Finally, they were here. This time, the descendants of the Ice People had brought their chosen relative, Nataniel, with them. The stricken members of the Ice People had waited for him for centuries. Many had attempted to reach the source of evil in this wilderness, so that their people could throw off its yoke, but nobody had succeeded. They hadn’t been strong enough.

Now the time had come. Nataniel had all the qualities needed for the task. What was more, he had brought Tova with him, of whom it had been prophesied that she would be born at the same time as him, yet in a different generation.

Quite unexpectedly, another member had joined them. He was a healer so powerful that they had no idea of his full strength: the enigmatic Marco.

Young Gabriel, who was twelve years old, was also there. He didn’t possess any particular qualifications. He was with them only so that he could tell posterity about their bitter struggle with Tengel the Evil, the scourge of the Ice People.

Ellen had been the fifth member to be chosen. But Lynx, the mysterious helper of the Ice People’s evil ancestor, had caught her and she had disappeared, engulfed by the Great Abyss.

A quite ordinary man who had chanced to cross their path now replaced her. He was an Irishman called Ian Morahan. All those who supported the chosen members of the Ice People in their quest had accepted him and had given him the protection he would need in the shape of the potion from the Demon’s Mountain.

The five chosen ones stood for quite a while without saying a word. They gazed at the steep cliff wall and couldn’t fathom how Tengel the Good and Silje had managed to pull their horse across it in the late 1500s when they fled from the scorched valley. It must have been a struggle. Along with the shock and the sorrow. It had truly been an incredible feat.

“What should we do first?” asked Ian Morahan.

The others were happy to note that he counted himself as one of them and that he accepted everything that was happening.

“We’ve no time to waste,” said Nataniel in his pleasant voice. “We need to begin looking immediately for the place where Tengel the Evil’s vessel is buried. Can we establish the direction from here?”

“We’re standing in an awkward place,” replied Marco. “We know that the vessel is buried at the foot of a tall cliff with two pinnacles that look like monoliths. But the nearest mountain ridges here cast their shadows over vast parts of the higher plateaux. The most significant landmark in our search – the promontory from which Kolgrim plunged, and where Heike and Tula later met Tengel the Evil – is enveloped in fog.”

They all felt it: when Marco mentioned Tengel the Evil’s name, the ground under the rock trembled. This was his valley to a much greater degree than it was theirs.

Or was it the reason for the roaring in the mountains? They looked in amazement at Marco’s gaze, which suddenly turned watchful.

Then everything was quiet and Marco didn’t look so intense anymore.

The five hikers felt pretty small, face-to-face with the enormous panorama in front of them. Young Gabriel was clutching his notebook under his arm, trying to appear brave. He doubted that he was succeeding, because the Valley of the Ice People was so intimidating. So beautiful and desolate. Far away from the world of humans, hiding a horror whose scope and strength they didn’t yet know.

It was a cold day. The ice-old wind from the glacier rushed past Gabriel so that he shivered from head to toe. He turned around to take in the glacier one last time.

Then he started, because he saw a black dot far out on the Arctic Ocean. He hoped it was not a new danger. Then he saw that the figure was moving away. It was limping.