About 1000 years ago, the Viking Leif Erickson became the first European to land in North America. That’s the story everyone’s heard. But most histories leave out what the Norse sagas tell us: that there was a woman--Leif’s bloodthirsty sister, Freydis--who led her own expedition and formed her own American settlement, before eventually fleeing back to Greenland. Because unlike most stories of European colonization, this time, the indigenous people won. Europeans would not return to the Americas for another five centuries.

 

The histories also forget that at the same time the Vikings were venturing westward, the ancestors of today’s Inuit were exploring eastward. They had followed the bowhead whale across the top of the world from Siberia to Alaska--all the way to the frozen shores of eastern Canada, where the Norsemen were struggling for their lives. There, the Inuit succeeded where the Norse had failed, establishing a vibrant culture that has thrived in one of the harshest environments on earth for a thousand years.

 

The Wolf In The Whale is a tale of adventure, magic, and mythology, set amid this history. It tells the story of Omat, an Inuit shaman fighting for a people’s survival, and Brandr, a Viking warrior from Freydis’s expedition who charges into Omat's life with a brown bear fast on his heels. Their meeting sets into motion a conflict not only between their peoples--but also between their gods. A conflict that will either shatter this new world...or save it.