Margit Sandemo: The Ice People 34 - The Woman on the Beach

The Woman on the Beach

The Legend of the Ice People 34 - The Woman on the Beach

© Margit Sandemo 1986

© eBook in English: Jentas A/S, 2018

Series: The Legend of The Ice People

Title: The Woman on the Beach

Title number: 34

Original title: Kvinnan på stranden

Translator: Anna Halager

© Translation: Jentas A/S

ISBN: 978-87-7107-674-5

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 Asbjørn 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

The Ice People knew that many dangers lurked. They were a vulnerable clan because they had links to both the real and the shadow worlds. It was their own ancestor, Tengel the Evil, who posed the greatest danger, but others were also after them for various reasons.

Somewhere deep inside a forest, something was waiting for a very special member of the Ice People. The evil had waited for years in the dense forest, brooding on revenge in a yet-to-be-accomplished vendetta. The evil deeds of the fathers. An unforgivable offence that had to be accounted for.

There was a small, swampy forest lake, almost overgrown – a pool that reeked of evil because of what was hidden at the bottom.

It was virtually impossible that that particular descendant of the Ice People should find the way to this very spot deep in the forest ...

And yet it happened.

A hundred and fifteen years had passed since the offended party had suffered the deep humiliation that led to the vendetta. It was many hundreds of years since the first offence, which triggered it all, was committed. The Ice People hadn’t been involved, at least not from the beginning. A century ago, however, a mere coincidence had brought them to this spot to take almighty revenge.

And now, in 1912, another member of the Ice People was to be led here, not so much by coincidence but out of curiosity.

Precisely the person whom Tengel the Evil was out to get!

André, the son of Benedikte and Sander, wasn’t exactly one of the brightest of the Ice People at school matters. This was something that upset Benedikte, because in Sander’s family there were a great many professors.

“Now you’re talking nonsense,” said Sander. “There are sharp minds among the Ice People, too. What’s so special about being intellectual? It often leads to snobbishness, as I’ve seen among the members of my family. André is fine as he is. If he enjoys working with cars and engines, then let him! I’m really proud of him – aren’t you?”

Yes, she was. Absolutely! They put André’s miserable school report aside and let him do as he wanted.

In 1912, when André was twenty years old, there was much unrest in the world. Relations between Europe’s five superpowers – England, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany – were extremely tense. Norway was fairly calm at the time, a relatively new nation busy getting itself in order as best it could. The emphasis was on social responsibility. There was so much that had to be restored after six hundred years under foreign rule: industry, agriculture, fisheries, cottage industries in danger of dying out, alcohol policy, the women’s movement, religion, language, schools, party politics, culture, children’s welfare ... There were thousands of loose ends to tie up before the country could be united in one whole. The Norwegian people had plenty of restored patriotic pride.

The people of Linden Avenue did what they could to help create an orderly community. Nevertheless, the Ice People had always lived on the outside. They had stuck together. They had their own heritage, which they preferred not to talk about to others because it hampered their relations with the outside world. It wasn’t that they thought they were more interesting than other people. Rather, they felt that they were slightly vulnerable. Despite the fact that they were very proud of their clan, they felt that they weren’t fully accepted. Perhaps they were over-sensitive, because the truth was that they tended to be thought of as decent and honest but perhaps ... slightly eccentric?

That was something they would have to live with.

André had often thought about Imre’s prophecy that he would be the one who would find the stricken descendant of their generation. Now and then, it had occurred to him that it might be himself. However, he had reached the conclusion that this was out of the question. So had Vanja’s young daughter Christa, whom André had seen far too little of, sadly, because her stepfather Frank insisted ruthlessly on his parental rights. The only exceptional thing about her was the insignificant cleft in her tongue. Otherwise, she was human; nobody would ever have suspected that her real father was a demon.

Least of all Frank ...

Frank sometimes managed to annoy some of the Ice People. They were aware that they could kill his joy in being a father with just a few words. But they didn’t do so. It was a pity for Frank. It had always been a pity for Frank. And they had to admit that he had brought up his daughter Christa very well indeed.

André observed Vetle closely. He was the son of Christoffer and Marit. The boy was now ten years old and a scamp, full of mischief. But was he one of the stricken or chosen? No, it didn’t seem so. André waited for a long time before passing his final verdict.