Book Review

Georgia Summers’ Trollheim: Tale of Sýstir announces itself in its opening pages as something different from the usual Nordic-flavoured fantasy. This is folk horror rooted in genuine Huldra mythology, the figure from Scandinavian folklore whose name derives from the Old Norse huldr, meaning “covered” or “secret.” When Sýstir’s mother is accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake, Summers is not using the witch trial as backdrop decoration. She is placing her story inside a specific, historical horror that resonates because it never entirely stopped being present. Sýstir, half-human and half-Huldra, escapes into the Dark Forest known as Trollheim, taken in by the rogue troll Agagkantor and accompanied by a wildcat companion named Fulgir, building a found family from the materials of loss and displacement.