Margit Sandemo: The Ice People 06 - Evil Legacy

Evil Legacy

The Legend of The Ice People 6 - Evil Legacy

© Margit Sandemo 1982

© eBook in English: Jentas A/S, 2017

Series: The Legend of The Ice People

Title: Evil Legacy

Title number: 6

Original title: Det onda arvet

Translator: Anna Halager

© Translation: Jentas A/S

ISBN: 978-87-7107-335-5

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 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 cauldron. 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 cauldron. 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 the yellow eyes of a cat, 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.

Part One

Kolgrim

Chapter 1

Anyone who listens to the wind can hear many things in its sighs and whispers. But never had the wind seemed to moan so bitterly as it did when sorrow and grief came to Graastensholm.

At Linden Avenue, the son of Silje and Tengel, known as Are of the Ice People, listened to its monotonous whine as it swept through the tops of the linden trees. He was restless because of the turn of events concerning Kolgrim Meiden, the first-born son of Are’s nephew, Tarald. Kolgrim had arrived in the world in 1621 under dreadful circumstances, when his mother Sunniva, Tarald’s first wife, died giving birth to him. From the outset the rest of the family had been afraid that Kolgrim might be carrying the feared curse of the Ice People, which had been handed down by their ancestor, Tengel the Evil One. But as he grew up, Kolgrim’s personality seemed to change for the better and these fears had generally softened.

However, one rash remark from Tarald was all it had taken to trigger the full rage of Kolgrim’s inherently evil powers.

It had been Kolgrim’s secret intention not to take advantage of the open and innocent kindheartedness that everyone at Graastensholm showed him until he was older. All the members of his immediate and extended family had been very careful to show him only love and attention while he was growing up. They hoped that they could prevent any possible evil power from taking hold. This meant that his needs were mostly taken care of and he’d therefore been content with waiting. But then, all of a sudden, a torrent of emotion – pent up deep inside him for so long – had been released.

In 1633 he had turned twelve and he was a handsome boy in his own special way, but his amber-tinted eyes, which met any person’s gaze with childlike innocence, would change as soon as their back was turned. His look would become cold and scornful and with calculating sidelong glances, he’d watch and measure every move.

“You miserable little souls,” they seemed to say. “I’m strong, much stronger than any one of you – stronger than all of you. I’m nice only as long as it serves my purpose. But when I’m old enough to look after myself, then you should all be on your guard, each and every one of you!”

Kolgrim, like all the accursed children of the Ice People, was a very lonely character, but he never regarded loneliness as something negative. In fact, quite the opposite. He gladly sought solitude because he believed that it would increase his powers.

At that time, much had been happening beyond the peaceful borders of Norway. Although Sweden’s King Gustavus II Adolphus had led his army to a brilliant victory over Tilly at Breitenfeld in 1631, The Thirty Years’ War still dragged on. King Gustavus was killed the following year at Lützen where his amassed armies succeeded in crushing the might of the combined forces of Generals Wallenstein and Pappenheim. Tilly was fatally wounded at the Battle of Lech, in 1632, and a couple of years later Wallenstein was murdered by his own troops. Yet the war went on and on, now with other Swedish generals on the side of the Protestants. Lennart Torstensson, Johann Banér and Hans Christoff von Königsmarck would go down in history for their exploits in this long-drawn-out war.

Christian IV had finally gotten rid of Kirsten Munk after it came to light that her latest child, Dorothea, might not have be fathered by the king. Kirsten Munk had also tried to mix some medicine into the king’s food and had cartoons made of him as a cuckold. Christian could take no more. He told her that he hoped she would suffer at the hands of a thousand devils and had banned her from seeing any of their children. But this didn’t seem to worry Kirsten Munk unduly.

Nobody knows what her mother, Ellen Marsvin, had to say to her daughter once their lucrative association with the king was over. Regardless, she continued to put on a brave face in adversity.

Insult was added to injury for both women when Christian IV took a new lover – their very own lady-in-waiting, Vibeke Kruse, who was the epitome of vulgarity and simple-mindedness. However, she bore him a remarkable son, Ulrik Christian Gyldenloeve, who grew up to be a far better warrior than his father ever was. When Leonora Christina was nine years’ old, King Christian IV had arranged for her to become engaged to Corfitz Ulfeldt, an ambitious young nobleman. There was one unintended benefit from this – the tyrannical royal housekeeper, who had ruled the domestic scene at Court with an iron fist, was removed. She had continued her ill treatment of the children unopposed and on one occasion she’d beaten Leonora Christina so severely that the girl was unable to sit down for several weeks. In fact, the injuries were so bad that she continued to suffer from them for the rest of her life. Inevitably, Leonora had told Corfitz what had happened and at long last the housekeeper’s brutal rule over the children was brought to an end, once and for all. On the king’s orders, she was dismissed and never served at Court again.