The Witch's Heart
Genevieve Gornichec's The Witch's Heart, published in 2021, retells Norse mythology from the perspective of one of its most overlooked figures: Angrboda, the witch of the Ironwood, longtime lover of Loki, and mother of the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Jormungandr, and the half-dead Hel. The novel opens after the Aesir have already burned Angrboda's heart on a pyre as punishment for her witchcraft. She wakes alone in a forest with no memory, only the slow return of a fragmented self. As she rebuilds a life on the edges of the world, she meets Loki, who comes to her cave first as a curious traveler and then as something more. From this fragile domestic peace grow the three monstrous children whose existence the Aesir will not tolerate, and the long, intricate tragedy that ends in the prophecy every reader of myth knows is coming. Gornichec writes with great tenderness for characters the old sagas treated as plot devices, and her Angrboda is sharp, weary, fierce, and deeply human. For readers who loved Madeline Miller's Circe or Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls, The Witch's Heart is essential.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Witch's Heart
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
After the Aesir burn her three times for refusing to read Odin's future, the witch Angrboda runs to a cave at the edge of Ironwood with her own scorched heart in her hand.
The Witch's Heart was written by Genevieve Gornichec and published in 2021. It was Gornichec's debut novel, retelling Norse mythology from the perspective of Angrboda, Loki's witch wife.
Yes. The Witch's Heart draws on Norse mythology, particularly figures from the Eddas. It has been compared to Madeline Miller's Circe in conversations about feminist mythology retellings.
The Witch's Heart is 368 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Witch's Heart takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The Witch's Heart is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
The Witch's Heart is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.