Margit Sandemo: The Ice People 24 - Deep in the Ground

Deep in the Ground

The Legend of the Ice People 24 - Deep in the Ground

© Margit Sandemo 1984

© eBook in English: Jentas A/S, 2018

Series: The Legend of The Ice People

Title: Deep in the Ground

Title number: 24

Original title: Djupt i jorden

Translator: Anna Halager

© Translation: Jentas A/S

ISBN: 978-87-7107-587-8

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 estabished 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

Deep in the ground dark water runs.

Deep in the souls of people run rivers of longing and yearning, love, hate and despair.

No one knows of the hidden waters of the earth. No one can read the lonely thoughts of another person.

Yet still they are there. Deep, deep down, veiled in secrecy.

There was a godforsaken place in Sweden called Ytterheden. It is now most likely incorporated into a larger district, and its old name is long forgotten. Much has changed in two centuries, and the wilderness that once flourished there has been destroyed. But in the year 1815, Ytterheden really lived up to its name, which meant “Outer Moor”.

There, at the outermost edge of the land, completely unprotected from the raging sea, lay the bare moor. A few stunted pines resisted the wind, leaning practically horizontally across the land. And the moor grass, of course, short and stiff, intermingled with bristly heather.

Farther inland, cold, barren cliffs lifted the landscape and beyond them a beautiful range of gentle hills rose up to the forest, which was majestic and inscrutable.

At that point lay the small community of Ytterheden. It was a tiny mining community. Most of the houses were concealed among the cliffs and hills, where they were sheltered from the eternal wind blowing off the sea. But there were also one or two houses out on the moor, where the curtains fluttered unceasingly in the draughts from loose window frames and where any tar or paint on the outside walls would soon peel off.

There were no fishermen in Ytterheden. The ocean was far too turbulent and full of rocks lurking just below the surface. The nearest fishing villages were situated miles down the coast.

In springtime the moor was a splendid sight, a place where one would long to go again and again. Amid the intense spring green of the grass, the coastal flowers sunned themselves under the light sky, and the birds flew low across the wide expanses. And for a brief period in late summer it was as though the heath was on fire. That was when the heather bloomed. But late in the autumn, when the heather was blanched to an ash-grey colour, storms whipped the ocean into white foam and semidarkness reigned everywhere, Ytterheden seemed more like an evil place. Then people would huddle together in their little houses tucked behind the cliffs and pray to the Lord to protect them from the raging elements surrounding them.

It was here, between the ocean and the great forest, that a descendant of the Ice People came that year.

This was Anna Maria, Ola Olovsson’s daughter, Ingela’s only grandchild.

She was born in September 1796, on Skenäs Farm in the Parish of Vingåker.

Her father, Ola, anxiously examined her face for signs that she was one of the stricken, but found none. Her features were even and delicate, and when, a little later, she opened her eyes, they looked perfectly normal, just like those of any other newborn. Perhaps they were a bit larger, a bit more astonished by the big, bright world surrounding her.

Her hair consisted of a fine little tuft on the top of her head and it wasn’t particularly dark. Her hands, feet, shoulders ... everything was perfectly shaped.

Her father gave a sigh of relief.

But you can never be entirely certain. His own uncle, Sölve Lind of the Ice People, had also seemed normal at first. The same had been true of Trond, a distant ancestor of the Ice People. But later in life both had developed the characteristics typical of the cursed ones.

They christened the girl Anna Maria, after a relative who had forgotten her real name and instead was called Gunilla.

This Gunilla had recently lost an unborn child. It was everyone’s hope that that child had been the stricken one of that generation.

Anna Maria grew up to become a lovable child. She didn’t have the dauntlessness of her relative Vinga, but there was a calm, omniscient strength in her smile. She was quiet and played by herself, but from time to time she would go to her mother, Sara, and place her head in her lap – a small, spontaneous declaration of love. Anna Maria never seemed at all unhappy. She was loved by everybody and easy to bring up, and she lived her young life the way she wanted.

The whole family attended her confirmation, both on her mother’s and her father’s sides. On her mother’s side of the family there was only one who would have an influence on her later life – Sara’s cousin, Birgitta. So we will pass over that side of the family and merely mention that they were friendly people who admired the fourteen-year-old and brought her fine presents.

On her father’s side there was, of course, Grandmother Ingela. She was very close to the girl and did her utmost to spoil her. But Anna Maria wasn’t the type of child to be ruined by such an obvious expression of love and compassion. She always maintained her calm smile and polite bearing.