Missing Half
Madison “Maddy” Star is an out-of-work stage actress. All of her previous children have left with her divorced husbands, except for her youngest daughter Isa. Isa is the youngest child of nine (counting stepsiblings) and had to grow up with an increasingly insane and needy mother. Luckily, her mother found a wealthy recluse in Norway who was open to online dating and had even once been a fan of Madison Star.
Feeling unwelcome, like extra luggage when Madison Star moves into the mansion of her newest husband, Isa is given to episodes of bleak depression and anxiety. She doesn't know who to turn to when she sees the ghost of a Norse tribesman walking the woods around her mansion and even inside the house sometimes. The spectacle is so horrifying because the man can only be seen from the front, like a masque for the full body, behind which is thin air. For him to turn around is for him to vanish completely, except for the direction that he is facing.
Isa also sees a golden eagle that no one else can see. Maddy accuses Isa of ruining Maddy's latest marriage with her attention-seeking insanity. Maddy locks Isa up in Isa's own room. Fearing that she has truly gone insane, Isa interrogates the man when he appears. He tells her that he is Huldrekall. When Isa researches the Huldrekall, with the help of the wealthy Norwegian, she finds Norse folk legends of people who have nothing behind them. They are usually female and called Huldra, but rarely does a male version appear.
The Huldrekall introduces himself and his motivations properly after a more confident Isa encounters him. He says that his name is Bruno and that he feels sorry for Isa because she is born with the gift of seidhr—the ability to see and travel through other worlds. Bruno himself developed some natural abilities with seidhr, but in his tribe it was a craft left exclusively to women and instead of being trained, he was killed for naturally breaking the taboo. He sees that it is impossible for Isa to be trained, which is nearly as bad as what he himself suffered for his seidhr abilities. Isa wonders how to help Bruno because Bruno is not an ordinary ghost with unfinished business. Bruno agrees to tell Isa what he knows of seidhr.
First, the mundane world that Isa and everybody who Isa knows of is called Midgard. There are at least eight other realms in which giants, dwarves, elves, and the spirits of the dead reside. When Isa sees Bruno and the golden eagle it is because she is on the bridge between the worlds.
While there are real-life animals in Midgard, separate beings from human people, there are also spirit-animals that can be found on the bridge and in the realms beyond. These are connected with the sprits of people, like a personal animal totem. Bruno calls them fylgja and says that he is only half a man because the trauma of his death caused his fylgja to flee from him.
Isa thinks that if her own insanity is caused by a potential talent with shamanism—seidhr—then, perhaps her mother is also mentally unstable for that reason. Bruno agrees telling Isa that trauma can tear a person's spirit apart in many ways. Bruno himself had lost the back half of his body. Perhaps when Maddy Star lost her fylgja, she also lost her heart. Bruno also tells Isa that Isa herself lacks a fylgja, which he knows because a person can only see other people's fylgja on the bridge or when they're dying or after they're dead.
Isa draws upon her innate talent with seidhr to track down the eagle fylgja. As it turns out, the golden eagle that nobody else can see is indeed Maddy Star's fylgja—and, the eagle finally speaks to Isa, saying that it does not want to return to Maddy because Maddy has lost all of her virtues. This is something that Isa, who has begun to greatly resent her mother, can understand.
Isa wonders if a person can create a new fylgja when this happens, This is something that Bruno believes is impossible because the root word of fylgja means “afterbirth” meaning an animal guide is as unique to a person as the placenta to which he or she is attached.
When Isa's siblings come to visit, Isa crosses the spirit-mind bridge while she is physically joining the party and sees that her entire family—the wealthy Norwegian included—are wolves, by their fylgia. Isa's distraction causes Maddy to become very irritated and lock Isa up in her attic.
When Isa decides to open the windows and die voluntarily from the cold, Bruno stays with her and panics. He realizes that what Isa lost, when she lost her fylgja, was the willingness to continue living. Bruno uses his own seidhr talent to create a bear fylgja, which he bonds to Isa. While Isa has fainted and would not be able to save herself if she could, the bear roars in a way that all the wolf fylgja can hear although their attached humans do not. The rest of Isa's family realizes that Maddy had been cruel to Isa and locked her up. Isa's older sister, Deirdre, finds her in the attic and brings Isa to the hospital. Afterwards, Deirdre adopts Isa.
Bruno and the goddess Freya appear to Isa in a dream. Bruno says that he remembered the form of his fylgja when he gave it to Isa—that of a large brown bear, so while Isa was gone he was able to find his fylgja again and become a whole, real human. Freya adds that the gods were watching Isa and Bruno and were very touched by the display of camaraderie. As the goddess of seith-workers and love, Freya would grant them both a wish. Isa does not know what that is until her first day at school where Bruno returns to Isa as a human being.
SETTING: Most of the story takes place in a mansion in the Norwegian wilderness, during wintertime in modern day. Many terms referring to the metaphysics of the world come from Norse folklore. The creature known as the huldra or the huldrekall, is a humanoid sort of creature with a hole where their back should be. For purposes of this story, the huldrekall Bruno takes the form of a ghostly huldrekall after death. Every healthy living person has a fylgja, or an animal guide, like a personal animal totem. This carries the life force and certain qualities of the person and these will differ from person to person. Finally, the talent of seidhr allows an ordinary person to see spiritual things, such as other people's fylgja, ghosts, beings from other realms, and even to receive the presence of the gods in their dreams.
CHAPTERS:
Chapter one: Teenaged Isa and her emotionally unstable mother arrive at the wealthy and elderly Grettir Larsen's house in Norway in some estate whose surrounding forests are currently snowed over. Isa wordlessly makes for her own room, having been warned by her mother not to ruin it for anybody, despite Isa having been pulled out of her school in the middle of the year so that her mother could move to Norway “as a family”. During the day, Isa leaves her mother and stepfather alone so that she can explore the woods outside her house. There, she encounters a strange man who seems to know the forest very well, but is surprised and then horrified when he shows her an angle of his face and body that is not head-on and he vanishes.
Chapter two: When Isa returns home, she appears troubled, earning her stepfather's concern. Just as she's telling them about the half-man, an eagle perches itself onto the table, which Isa sees but nobody else sees. Madison takes her daughter into her room and scolds her for taking Grettir's attention away from Madison with Isa's “pretended” insanity. The next morning, Grettir unlocks Isa's door, knocks, and leaves a book on her doorstep about Norse mythology that includes folklore as well as “high” mythology. Isa identifies the thing that she saw as a male huldra—a rare huldrekall.
Chapter three: The next day, Isa goes out to the woods again and again she encounters the strange man. He introduces himself as Bruno. Bruno denies having anything to do with the golden eagle that Isa saw indoors, but tells Isa that she might have psychic abilities and can see other people fylgja (Norse totem animal). In Bruno's time, this was called seidhr and it was a great taboo for men to have that gift. At least women would be trained. Isa tells Bruno that in modern times nobody believes in that anymore, let alone to make it a part of formal education. Bruno says that he is concerned for Isa. Isa points out the house and invites him to go there any time, even though it probably won't hurt Bruno as a ghost to go there.
Chapter four: As Isa continues reading her book Bruno tells her about what he knows of seidhr. The realms other than Midgard— where the giants, elves, dwarves, and gods are said to live— are fruits on a metaphorical tree, the branches of which are traversed by the mind of a seidhr-worker. Isa goes into her imagination, with the help to Bruno to tell her when something is real or imagined and negotiates with the golden eagle, which is Madison Star's fylgja. The eagle speaks to Isa, rejecting the idea that it would re-integrate with Madison because Madison has too much pain within her for the eagle to roost comfortably. Isa gets a hint of this when she is interrupted by Madison with the news that Madison had invited all the other children of previous marriages to spend Christmas with them, so that they see how happy Isa is and what they've been missing since they left her. Isa is less than excited.
Chapter five: Bruno tells Isa that, rather than being naturally extroverted, Isa might have lost her lust for life when Isa's own fylgja left her. It might have been driven away by Maddy's alternating neediness and harshness. Bruno says that his own fylgja had been gone for too long and that it was a sudden and violent rending. The resulting effect of that was that his ghost is now half a person—a huldrekall. Isa wonders if she can create a fylgja and make a person whole again if their original fylgja has been too far away for too long, which Bruno dismisses as nonsense because a fylgja is very personal. However, they bond over how to deal with missing parts of themselves.
Chapter six: During Christmas time, Isa watches for other people's fylgja and sees that everyone else in her family— including her newest stepfather— has wolves as fylgja. She wonders if that was why her mother could not fit in. However, Madison gets impatient with Isa's introspective introversion and quietly drags Isa away to be locked in the attic (the room is not far enough to distance the family from Isa's “unpleasantness”.)
Chapter seven: Isa, despairing at not being able to do anything right by her mother, opens the window to let the snow in, hoping to freeze to death. Bruno realizes that this lack of self-preservation is a result of Isa's missing fylgja and in desperation Bruno retracts his statement that a new fylgja cannot be created for a person. He does so himself, creating a large brown bear for Isa. It may be too late because Isa faints, but then Isa's bear roars and alerts the family's wolves. Deirdre, Isa's eldest sister, wonders where Isa is and demands to know from Madison what she did with Isa. Deirdre tells her mother, Madison, that she hasn't changed, and then searches Grettir's mansion for Madison's youngest daughter.
Chapter eight: Isa wakes up in the hospital, and Deirdre tells her that she is familiar with Madison's way of raising children and is profusely sorry that she had to leave Isa to that while she, Deirdre, was outgrowing that awful childhood. Isa's forgiveness is not enough as Isa will live with Deirdre from then on and the other siblings have pledged to help. That night, the goddess Freya appears to Isa in a dream accompanied by Bruno. The goddess tells Isa that many of the gods were watching with interest and as the goddess of both seidhr and of love Freya would like to grant them both a wish. The next day at school, Isa meets Bruno in the flesh. The gods have arranged to bend reality to accommodate Bruno's new life as human with Isa and he remembers Isa very well.
CHARACTERS:
Grettir Larsen
Age: 67 Height :6'4” Hair: gray Eyes: blue
Grettir Larsen is a wealthy recluse in Norway, who remains stately, not at all senile, and a generally good (although not overly perceptive) person.
Madison Star
Age: 52 Height : 5'10” Hair: curly, blonde Eyes: blue
Madison Star used to be a stage actress. A string of lovers and estranged children left her heartbroken. However, the one child she kept to love her has become a great burden. She is quite selfish, impulsive and even abusive at times to her only remaining daughter.
Isa Star
Age 16 Height 5'9”” Hair: straight, auburn Eyes: brown
Isa is a very troubled child, very anxious and prone to despair and melancholy. She is introverted, which her mother disapproves of as not being fun or pleasing. Isa also often sees things that are not there. She has a number of siblings who were too busy estranging themselves from their mother to take care of her. Half sister: Deirdre Star (26); half brother: Amos Star (22); twin step-sisters: Beatrix and Cecilia Olstrom (18); step brother: Emmanuel Cartwright (24); step brother: Ferdinhand Cartwright (17); step sister: Giselle Cartwright (21).
Bruno Frey
Age: ? (appears 16) Height: 6'3” Hair: straight, strawberry blond Eyes: hazel
Bruno is the ghost of an ancient tribesman who was born with the talent to see the realms of the dead and the gods. In that ancient time, this was considered a grave taboo for a man to do and his tribe put him to death for it. The trauma turned Bruno into a Huldrekall.