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Welcome to day six of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Awilda: The Runaway Royal

The full story of Awilda might be a legend, although she is mentioned in a historical book, the Gesta Danorum (A History of the Danes or Deeds of the Danes).

Awilda (or Alwilda, Alvild, Alfhild) was a princess who was meant to marry, but instead runs off to sea. During an onboard battle, she fights someone who turns out to be her intended. Mutually impressed with the courage the other has shown in close combat, they decide they might be a good match for each other, after all.

A full version of Awilda’s story is told by medieval literature scholar Carolyne Larrington in her book Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook, for anyone
who’d be interested in additional details about this legendary Nordic princess and some background about her life and times. If anyone just wants a quick summary of the story, a sketch is included here.

You can read more about Awilda at vvb32 reads on May 19th, as part of the Queens of the Sea series. (I’ll update the link after it’s been posted.)

I do like her story, whether she is just a legend or not! I was talking to Brian about her, and he said “So this is a few centuries before Beowulf, right? Yeah, those were good times. You meet someone, you fight with them, then you kind of know where you stand with them, whether you’re going to get along or be enemies or what.”
“What if you and I met and had a fight?” I asked.
“You’d win, of course.”
“But if you’d never met me before, you wouldn’t care about me. I’d say ‘Ow! My foot!’ and instead of saying ‘Oh, what a poor delicate little foot’ and letting me win, you’d stomp on the other one, too.”
Happily we met in a more genteel day and age…

Don’t forget to enter my contests! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

Apparently the Good Ship Paperdoll is filled with the strong, silent type! I’m not complaining. I’m the shark food type, so I would appreciate a lot of more capable people around to have my back.