Runemarks

Runemarks is a fantasy novel published in 2007 by British author Joanne Harris. It appeared on 2 August 2007 from Doubleday and is set in a world where the Norse gods survive as outlaws, their powers greatly diminished, while a new and more severe religion, the Order, seeks to wipe out magic. Harris has said she was inspired by her childhood love of Norse mythology and that the book loosely draws on a novel she wrote in her late teens. A sequel, Runelight, followed in 2011.

The heroine is Maddy, a lonely young woman shunned by her village because of the rust-coloured rune mark on her left hand. In her society, animals born with such a mark are seen as cursed and are usually killed at once; Maddy is spared only because she is human, yet she is always met with suspicion. The Order has forbidden any acknowledgement of the old ways and the use of magic. After helping clear goblins from the cellar of the local inn, Maddy discovers her own latent powers. Throughout the story she recalls her childhood, when a traveller known as One-Eye taught her about runes and Norse legends; he eventually reveals himself as Odin and draws her into a quest for a treasure buried beneath Red Horse Hill. Along the way they meet other gods and are drawn into a confrontation with the Order and its leader.