Literature / Maiden Crown

Maiden Crown is a 1979 Historical Fiction Young Adult novel by Meghan Collins.

In the twelfth century, sixteen-year-old Princess Sophie is made to leave her Russian homeland and everything she has ever known to marry King Valdemar of Denmark in order to seal his alliance with her half-brother, Knud. Though she initially adores Stig Halvarsen, the messenger sent to represent Valdemar in the marriage negotiations and escort her to her wedding, she sets her feelings for him aside to vow to be a faithful wife and queen to Valdemar.

But unbeknownst to her, Valdemar already has a lover in the form of Tove, a charming peasant woman who has borne his child, and he has no intention of sending her away or ending their relationship. In the face of court intrigues and omnipresent Double Standards, Sophie's sense of self-worth is constantly tested—and leads her, Valdemar, and Tove to a tragic mistake.

Maiden Crown provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Tove's mother, Sigrun, often slapped and screamed at her when she was a child, and Tove only learned to avoid her wrath when she was older by sucking up to her at all times.
• Accidental Murder: Sophie locks Tove in the bathhouse by impulsively slamming the door in a fit of rage, and a combination of stress and exhaustion from the cold rain and almost accidentally drowning herself in the lake afterwards are what cause her to faint at the door before she realizes what she's done. By the time she awakens, Tove is already dead.
• Adaptation Expansion: The story is based on the medieval Danish ballad "Valdemar and Tove", which is only a couple stanzas long. The novel adds more depth by fleshing out Sophie and Tove's backstories and relationships with Valdemar, as well as adding the character of Stig as a second potential love interest to Sophie to complicate the ballad's Love Triangle between Sophie, Valdemar, and Tove.
• Adaptational Heroism: Unlike the original ballad, Sophie's murder of Tove is a complete accident. She slams the bathhouse door shut without knowing it will trap Tove inside to be steamed alive; in the ballad, she did it deliberately to kill her.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the ballad "Valdemar and Tove", Tove is characterized as little more than Valdemar's One True Love and a saintly Too Good for This Sinful Earth murder victim of Queen Sophia. The novel portrays her as a catty and passive-aggressive Gold Digger (albeit a sympathetic one) who seduced Valdemar for the pragmatic reason of wanting to escape her miserable home life and spreads malicious gossip about the queen.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the ballad, King Valdemar is a mere philanderer who shamelessly cheats on his wife with Tove. The novel gives his relationship with Tove more context by establishing that they were lovers for years before he married Sophie, and characterizes him as a fair and good king who genuinely falls in love with his new queen.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • In the ballad, King Valdemar and Queen Sophia's relationship is nothing but acrimonious, and he exiles her from their marriage bed forever in retaliation for her murder of Tove. In this novel, Valdemar and Sophie grow to love each other after their Arranged Marriage despite their initial misgivings. After Sophie accidentally kills Tove, Valdemar is furious and swears never to speak to her again like he did in the ballad, but he eventually reaches out to her and they reconcile.
  • The ballad only depicts Tove and Queen Sophia as rivals and nothing else. Here, they initially become friends for a while and Sophie regards Tove as her favorite lady-in-waiting until she sees Tove's son with Valdemar, which causes the end of their friendship.
• Age-Gap Romance: Comes up several times, due to the time period.
  • Valdemar is nine years older than Sophie, as he's twenty-two and she's thirteen when they're first betrothed. It's in part because of this that he postpones their wedding until she's sixteen. Stig is also a fair bit older than Sophie by six years.
  • Near the end, Anna tells Sophie about her past arranged marriage to a younger man named Count Casimir, who was nineteen to her thirty-four when they were wed. She describes the difficulties of their relationship and her jealousy over his relationships with other women, but also describes how they cared for each other and the grief she felt when he died young in a horse-riding accident at a tournament. This leads to her giving Sophie advice about her relationship with Valdemar and encouraging their reconciliation.
• Age Lift: The ballad featured Tove and Valdemar's son, Christopher, as a teenager or young adult. In the novel, he's a three-year-old boy.
• All Women Are Prudes: Exploited. Tove made a great show of chastity to ward off her suitors while biding her time for a greater prospect for her to marry, and only dropped it when she succeeded in getting Valdemar's attention.
• Altar Diplomacy: Sophie's betrothal and subsequent marriage to Valdemar are to consolidate his alliance with her half-brother, Knud, with whom he shares a joint kingship over Denmark.
• Angst Coma: Sophie falls into a version of this after her newborn son dies, becoming withdrawn and sickly while bedridden. She only recovers when she begins to go outside again and goes to Gavngaard, the castle Valdemar ordered built for her.
• Animal Motifs: Sophie is associated with birds used for falconry, such as goshawks and falcons. Oleg's falconer, who first teaches her to take care of her goshawk when she is a child, tells her that a goshawk is an affectionate bird when treated well, but can be moody and unforgiving when wronged. When she has her future divined by the wizard Heikki, he states while pronouncing her destiny (she will live a long life, and have many children) that a royal heart is like a falcon, and "can only love where it is loved and trust where it is trusted". Valdemar also gives her a pet merlin as a wedding gift.
• Arc Words: "How does the proud heart learn to forgive great wrongs?", the question that the wizard Heikki poses to Sophie after divining her future. The answer, "By being forgiven", comes true at the end when Valdemar reconciles with Sophie after Tove's death—Sophie learns to forgive Valdemar for his transgressions against her when he forgives her for what she did to Tove after she finally broke from her misery. Sophie herself realizes this, and tells Valdemar she will perhaps tell him about it, one day.
• Arranged Marriage: The story begins with Princess Sophie being betrothed at thirteen to King Valdemar to consolidate his alliance with her half-brother and his co-ruler, Knud Magnussen (the historical Canute V). Due to her young age, Valdemar allows three years to pass before sending for her.
• Attempted Rape: A manservant in Tove's household, Ask, tried to molest her when she was eleven. Though he immediately backed off and claimed he was just trying to have "a bit of fun" when she rejected him, she made clear she would tell her mother if he ever tried it again and avoided being alone with him from then on.
• Bash Brothers: Valdemar has this relationship with his two foster brothers, Absalon and Esbern, who grew up alongside him in the same household. In adulthood, Esbern is one of Valdemar's chief ministers and Absalon becomes the bishop.
• Bastard Bastard: Downplayed. Tove is the illegitimate daughter of a minor nobleman, and though she's not evil, she has an obvious catty, spiteful streak.
• Betty and Veronica: Kind, down-to-earth messenger Stig Halvarsen and dashing warrior King Valdemar are respectively these for Sophie, as she crushes on the former but is meant to marry the latter. This also applies to Sophie and Tove for Valdemar, but it is interestingly not as clear which is which (Sophie is initially sweet-natured, naive, and virginal enough to be Betty and Tove is a charming seductress akin to Veronica, but Sophie is also a foreign princess from a faraway land—representing the "exotic" part of the Veronica role—and Tove is Valdemar's already established and familiar lover from his homeland like the Betty role).
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tove acts lively, charming, and pleasant to hide her bitter, spiteful streak and capacity for Passive-Aggressive Kombat.
• Bittersweet Ending: Tove dies after Sophie locks her in the bathhouse like in the original ballad, and Stig leaves for the countryside, likely never to see Sophie again. However, Sophie and Valdemar reconcile after being encouraged by their respective confidantes—Anna for Sophie, Esbern for Valdemar—to forgive each other, and it is implied they will have a loving marriage from then on.
• Break the Cutie: The events after her marriage take a deep toll on Sophie, who starts off as a gentle and kind princess and becomes increasingly embittered and miserable from the oppressive atmosphere of court intrigues, where her every move as queen is watched and criticized, and the humiliation of her husband Valdemar openly having a lady-in-waiting she initially befriended as his mistress. She hits her lowest point when she is forced to watch the man she initially loved, Stig, be trialed over accusations of an affair with her and be horribly injured by it, the stress of which causes her to give birth prematurely to a newborn who dies. All of the pain from this is what leads her to cause Tove's death. In the end, however, she gradually recovers and is able to find reconciliation with Valdemar.
• Caged Bird Metaphor: A subtle example—Sophie is a talented falconer and has a pet merlin that she often sets loose to hunt. The emphasis on her freeing her bird to fly is also paired with her being a miserable and unhappy queen who feels trapped in a foreign court with few friends.
• Canon Foreigner: Stig Halvarsen and Rolf Bjørnsen are major supporting characters with no equivalents in the original ballad "Valdemar and Tove". Stig exists to add another complication to Sophie's relationship with Valdemar; Rolf serves the purpose of causing drama that leads to the events in the ending.
• Career-Ending Injury: Stig's hand is burned severely from his trial to prove his innocence of treason, which involved him being forced to carry a red-hot piece of iron for nine straight steps. Because of this, he retires from fighting and Valdemar's court in general.
• Clashing Cousins: Yaropolk, Sophie's cousin, is such a cruel and hateful bully towards her that she considers leaving him behind a benefit of her departure for her betrothal. She hopes because of this that Knud, her half-brother from her mother's previous marriage whom she has never met, will be nicer towards her. Her hopes go unfulfilled, as Knud is killed when she arrives.
• Death of a Child: Sophie and Valdemar's first child is born prematurely and dies shortly after birth, much to their devastation.
• Deuteragonist: Tove is this to Sophie's protagonist, having a detailed backstory and getting nearly equal narrative focus. Notably, she is the only other character besides Sophie whose childhood is shown.
• Disappeared Dad: Sophie's father, Prince Vladimir, died when she was a baby.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Sophie rejects all comfort after the death of her firstborn, especially from Valdemar. When a priest takes the entirely wrong way of consoling her by claiming she should be glad that the baby lived long enough to be blessed before dying because it at least died a Christian, Sophie understandably explodes at him and everyone present to leave her alone.
• Double Standard: Discussed. Sophie is deeply bitter at the unfairness of the fact that Valdemar is allowed to openly have a mistress and have a child with her while his queen is present, and she is expected to tolerate it (and is publicly scorned if she shows resentment), but the mere (false) rumor that she might be having an affair with Stig is serious enough to be treated as treason and could cost them both their lives. When she asks why that is, she's just told that's the way things are.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After being forced to accompany Valdemar as one of the groomsmen to his bedding ceremony with Sophie, Stig immediately goes downstairs with the other guests to "drink until he [can] sleep like a hibernating bear".
• Everyone Can See It: A very non-comedic example that's Played for Drama. People at court notice Sophie's affection for Stig and how she seems happier when he's around. Tove exploits this to spread untrue gossip about Sophie having an affair with Stig, and Rolf outright accuses the two of betraying Valdemar. This leads to Stig being trialed for treason, Sophie giving birth prematurely and losing her baby out of stress, and Sophie and Tove's confrontation at the end that results in Sophie accidentally killing Tove.
• Evil Redhead: Downplayed; Tove has red-gold hair and, while not evil by any means, causes trouble because of her desire to hold on to Valdemar.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Tove's end is not a pleasant one. She is essentially steamed alive from being trapped inside the bathhouse, while pregnant, and dies shortly after being taken out of it.
• Flowers of Femininity: Sophie wears flowers in her hair twice, snowdrops the first time and a circlet of golden daisies the second time, during the proxy wedding ceremonies for her engagement to Valdemar.
• Foreshadowing: When Valdemar first shows Sophie around the castle of Gavngaard, his wedding gift to her, he shows her the bathhouse and notes that the door on it tends to jam and not open properly because its wood often warps. This is what leads to Tove's death; when Sophie slams the door, it stays trapped and leaves Tove locked in to die.
• Forgiveness: This is the focal point of Sophie's relationship with Valdemar. In the end, Sophie is able to forgive Valdemar for keeping the truth of his relationship with Tove from her and putting Stig on trial for false adultery charges when he forgives her for accidentally killing Tove. By forgiving each other, they are implied to be able to have a loving marriage from then on.
• Freudian Excuse: Tove grew up in near poverty with an abusive mother who often slapped and shouted at her; her father abandoned her after she was born and never once bothered to see her, and a household servant she once trusted nearly molested her when she was eleven years old. This all made her desperate to get out of her miserable station and find security by any means necessary, which to her meant using all her charm to ensnare a powerful man like Valdemar.
• The Ghost: Queen Richiza, Sophie's mother, is often referenced but never actually appears.
• Girl Posse: Tove has one in the form of a group of young noblewomen in court, who gossip with her. They include Tove's lady-in-waiting Kirsten, Absalon and Esbern's sister Ingefred, and a Jutland thane's wife named Giermunda Aks.
• Gold Digger: Tove is a sympathetic version; her obsession with status is because she was born to an abusive mother in an impoverished household, and the only way she could escape her lowly station and find security was by seducing a rich and powerful man, namely Valdemar. When Valdemar is newly married to Sophie and spending all his attention on her, Tove frets about being abandoned and considers going to different noblemen in court if he leaves her.
• The Good King: Despite his flaws and hot-headedness, Valdemar is this. He sincerely cares for his people, takes his responsibilities seriously, and strives to rule well over Denmark after having fought for its throne.
• Gossipy Hens: The royal court of Denmark loves spreading around rumors at the slightest hint of scandal, mostly to alleviate boredom. Tove encourages this by helping spread an untrue rumor about Sophie possibly having an affair with Stig.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sophie has golden blonde hair and is noted to be beautiful, and is a kind and innocent young princess. Naturally, this doesn't last, and she becomes far more bitter and cynical after she's queen.
• Historical Domain Character: Sophia of Minsk and Valdemar I are the principal leads, and Esbern Snare and Archbishop Absalon are relevant supporting characters. Tove is a debatable example, as only ballads mention her existence, and many of the other characters, such as Stig Halvarsen, Rolf Bjørnsen, Oleg, Anna, and Heikki, are fictional.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Inverted; the entire point of the story is to undo the Historical Villain Upgrade given to Sophie in the ballad about Valdemar and Tove that the book is inspired by and portray her sympathetically. Sophie is shown to be a naive young princess who gets uprooted from her home and is expected to be a loyal wife to a king she has never before met, and constantly struggles to please others and stay true to herself in a foreign court where strangers are watching her every move. The stresses she endures are what lead her to commit her infamous act in the ballad of causing Tove's death; the afterword notes that though the ballad states Valdemar never had anything to do with Sophie again after she killed Tove, the historical Valdemar and Sophie had six children, so a reconciliation would have had to have taken place if the ballad were treated as history.
• Hot Consort: Sophie is noted to be beautiful several times, and becomes this to Valdemar when she marries him and is made his queen.
• Hunk: Valdemar is described as this, broken nose notwithstanding:
  The fresh-faced youth Absalon remembered had grown into a strong young man with a head of straight, thick, fair hair and brows that peaked in little roofs above his shining, blue-gray eyes. His bold nose had been broken in a wrestling-bout, and now slanted somewhat to one side of his face. From his Russian mother he had his high, Slavic cheekbones and a wide mouth that gave him a look of good humor even when he was not smiling.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Knud and Svend are respectively more well-known as Canute V and Sweyn III in most historical records.
• In-Series Nickname: Tove is nicknamed "Tovelille" for her small size.
• Jerkass: Rolf Bjørnsen, a soldier (or dreng) in the Danish retinue that escorts Sophie to her wedding to Valdemar, is an obnoxious and arrogant lout who repeatedly challenges Stig to fights, brags about his skills, and grates on Sophie's nerves. His troublemaking goes so far that he accuses Stig of having an affair with Sophie and thus committing treason against Valdemar.
• Kissing Cousins: Prince Oleg, Sophie's uncle, tries to find a way to keep Sophie home in Beregod Castle at the beginning by considering the idea of marriage between her and her cousin Yaropolk (the son of his late sister), whom he can make his heir because he has no children. Thankfully for Sophie, who hates Yaropolk, her mother doesn't agree to it when Oleg writes her about it and she's betrothed to Valdemar instead.
• Lady-In-Waiting: Sophie's main attendant is her uncle Oleg's old cousin, Countess Anna, who accompanies her on her journey to Denmark. She also gains several ladies-in-waiting in the Danish court, including Tove.
• Laser-Guided Karma: For all the trouble he caused by falsely accusing Sophie and Stig of an affair, Rolf is cast out from court by Valdemar, declared an outlaw (a nithing) whose lands and possessions are all forfeit to the crown, and given five days to leave the country before all the freemen are allowed to hunt him without consequence.
• Last Girl Wins: After the death of Tove, Valdemar's first lover, Valdemar forgives Sophie for the part she played in it and they begin amends on their marriage.
• Living Prop: Valdemar and Tove have a three-year-old son named Christopher, who was born in the interim between Valdemar's betrothal and eventual marriage to Sophie. His only role is to prove Valdemar's relationship with Tove to Sophie, who feels discomforted by his existence.
• Love Triangle: Two of them, namely Sophie/Valdemar/Tove and Valdemar/Sophie/Stig. In the end, Tove dies and Stig leaves for his family in the country, and Sophie and Valdemar start to make amends on their marriage.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Near the end, Tove uses this to set Sophie off by passive-aggressively insinuating that Stig's family has naturally weak children who die young and talking about how Valdemar only sires healthy children—after Tove has already borne a son by him and Sophie's own newborn with Valdemar died after a premature birth. Sophie is livid, and this leads to Tove's death.
• Marriage Before Romance: Sophie and Valdemar are complete strangers when they get married, and agree on their wedding night to both do their best to love and care for each other from then on. After consummating their marriage, they genuinely fall in love and are devoted to each other for some time until Sophie finds out about his relationship with Tove.
• Mean Boss: Sigrun is an overbearing bully toward her servants at Havørneskov and is impossible to please, due to her demands to be treated like a noblewoman. Because of this, her servants don't put more than the bare minimum of effort into their work because they know she'll find fault with them regardless of what they do.
• The Mistress: A slightly unusual example. Tove becomes this to Valdemar after he marries Sophie, but they were already lovers before he and Sophie were even betrothed. Valdemar only resumes their relationship when his marriage starts going through a rough patch.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: A rare accidental version. Sophie unintentionally kills Tove, her husband's mistress, when she impulsively slams the bathhouse door shut while storming out after their fight without knowing it will lock Tove inside.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Valdemar is overwhelmed by remorse for going ahead with Stig's trial for treason after seeing Stig be permanently wounded by it. His guilt only gets worse when he sees that Sophie gave birth prematurely and lost the child because of it, and tries to comfort her, but she rejects him.
• Nasty Party: Svend ambushes Valdemar and Knud at a peace banquet, and Knud is murdered in the ensuing battle, known historically as the Bloodfeast of Roskilde. Svend is later defeated and killed in battle against Valdemar, who becomes the sole king of Denmark.
• Nephewism: Sophie was raised by her paternal uncle Oleg, who took charge of her care after her mother left her behind to remarry.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: No one dares mention any of Tove's faults again after her untimely death from being steamed alive in the bathhouse, with everyone focusing on how young and beautiful she was and mourning her because of that.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. There are two different characters named Knud mentioned in the narrative, Sophie's half-brother and Valdemar's late father. Valdemar's surname as a result is Knudsen.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Sophie's real name is Sophia Vladimirovna, but everyone usually calls her Sophie. In contrast, Tove's nickname, Tovelille, comes up less often.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • Sophie's uncle Oleg and aunt Gertrud had nine children together, all of whom died young. The grief of losing all her children sent Gertrud into a deep depression that caused her to hate the sight of Sophie and avoid her during the girl's childhood, as seeing her was a painful reminder that the only living child in her household wasn't her own.
  • This later happens to Sophie and Valdemar. She prematurely gives birth to their son out of stress, and the baby dies soon after being born. Like Gertrud, Sophie falls into depression and is too miserable to even get out of bed for a while. Her lady-in-waiting, Anna, notices the similarity and is alarmed by it.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • Sophie's father, Prince Vladimir, died some time after she was born. Her mother, Queen Richiza, left her to be raised by her uncle Oleg after departing for Sweden to remarry and has been away from her for almost the entirety of her life.
  • Tove's father, Anders Jorgensen, sent her and her mother away to live at a neglected manor of his called Havørneskov when she was a baby, and he completely ignored her existence afterwards because she was illegitimate.
  • Valdemar is mentioned off-handedly to be an orphan.
• Parental Substitute: Anna, Sophie's cousin once removed and lady-in-waiting, becomes the mother figure Sophie has never had and gives her much-needed support in her new life in Denmark.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Tove became a master at this to deal with her abusive mother, often making barbed comments under the veneer of polite questions (such as asking her if she was ever pretty when she was young, or suggesting she tie her coif further forward to hide her thinning hair in front). She continues to use this in court life to hide her true feelings from gossipy courtiers. When she uses it in her confrontation with Sophie in the bathhouse, it leads to her death.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Sophie and Valdemar affirm to each other on their wedding night that they hope to be companions and love each other as husband and wife, and during the rest of the celebrations and for some time afterwards, they are indeed happy together. This begins falling apart after Sophie finds out about Valdemar's relationship with Tove, and further deteriorates when Stig and Sophie are accused of having an affair and Stig is trialed for it. It almost completely collapses when Sophie kills Tove, but in the end, Valdemar forgives her and they begin to make amends.
• Perspective Flip: The novel is one for the Danish ballad of Valdemar and Tove, as it focuses on its villain, Queen Sophie, and shows her as a sympathetic and kind young woman who is only driven to what she does because of the pain she endures—first being uprooted from her homeland to marry a stranger, then being attacked by false accusations of an affair and losing her firstborn.
• Post-Stress Overeating: Sophie's aunt Gertrud spiraled into depression after losing nine children in infancy before she was even thirty, which she dealt with by staying bedridden and eating sweets every day to the point of growing fat and feeble.
• Princess Protagonist: Sophie is the protagonist, as well as a princess who marries a king and becomes his queen consort.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Valdemar is initially presumed dead when Absalon arrives at the castle Sophie is staying in, badly wounded, with the tragic message that Valdemar was killed in battle after he and Knud were attacked by Svend and his men. Valdemar turns up alive hours later, having escaped with Rolf's help. But it was Knud whom Absalon saw get killed.
• Romantic Runner-Up: Unlike Tove, who gets to remain Valdemar's mistress even after he marries Sophie, Stig is forced into this role by default because Sophie's hand in marriage was always meant for Valdemar. Though Sophie initially reciprocates his feelings, she makes it clear to him they can never act on them because she's marrying the king, and he's deeply unhappy once the deal is sealed.
• Serial Spouse: Sophie's mother Richiza was married three times. Her first husband was a Danish prince who was killed in battle, her second husband was a Russian prince named Vladimir who died after their daughter was born, and her third husband is King Sverker of Sweden.
• Sex Equals Love: Downplayed. Valdemar is dismissive of the idea of marrying Sophie and delays their wedding by several years to put off the marriage, and Sophie in turn doesn't look forward to marrying a stranger, but they vow to each other after their wedding to do their best to be a good husband and wife to one another. After they sleep together, they become genuinely affectionate and are happy together for a while.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: The chapter that shows Sophie and Valdemar's wedding night ends with him kissing her on the forehead and then her neck before she embraces him. The next chapter makes clear they slept together, and are awkward in the morning after because of it.
• She Is All Grown Up: Stig has this reaction to seeing Sophie again three years after he was first sent to be Valdemar's proxy in the ceremony for her betrothal to the king, as she is now sixteen and has become very beautiful.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Knud, Sophie's half-brother and Valdemar's ally, is a minor character who barely appears and is killed almost immediately after Sophie arrives in Denmark, but his order for Valdemar to marry Sophie to affirm their alliance is what sets the entire plot in motion.
• Smart People Play Chess: Sophie is a talented chess player from having played it with her uncle Oleg since she was eight. As part of the betrothal rites for her engagement to Valdemar, she and Stig play a ceremonial chess match where she must deliberately lose to him in order to symbolize the courtship.
• Succession Crisis: Knud and Svend Eriksen were rivals for the throne of Denmark, and appealed to the emperor of Germany to arbitrate. He decreed they rule different areas, but the crisis continued when Svend became tyrannical and his liegeman, Valdemar, fought with him and afterwards defected to Knud's side. Valdemar and Knud were then appointed to a joint kingship of Denmark, and to seal their alliance, Valdemar was betrothed to Knud's half-sister Sophie, which is what starts the plot. After Knud's death, Valdemar becomes the only king.
• Switching P.O.V.: The book alternates between Sophie, Tove, Valdemar, and Stig's perspectives in third person, with some short parts from other characters like Absalon and Rolf.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Discussed by Gunna, the household cook for Tove's mother, who tells the child Tove that she better learn how to sew if she wants to make a living because her options for a livelihood are limited. As a teenager, Tove heeds this advice and sews herself a yellow gown for her planned first meeting with Valdemar.
• This Is Unforgivable!: When Valdemar finds out about Tove's death and the role Sophie played in it, he calls Sophie an evil woman and swears never to speak to her again. It's only when his foster brother Esbern asks him to imagine himself in Sophie's situation—forced to leave home forever to marry a stranger and live in a foreign court, under the pressure of constant judgment and slander from other strangers—and understand her behavior that he relents and reaches out to Sophie for possible reconciliation.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: This treatment is given to Tove after her death, as predicted by Heikki. Because she died so young, only her beauty and charm are remembered, and the courtiers no longer talk about her sharp tongue, her tendency to gossip, or any of the flaws she had in life.
• Trial by Ordeal: To prove his innocence in his trial for adultery with the queen, Stig is forced to carry a red-hot piece of iron for nine straight steps without dropping it. He succeeds at the task, but his hand is left so horrifically burned afterwards that he immediately retires from his court career.
• True Blue Femininity: For the first proxy wedding rite to symbolize her betrothal to Valdemar, Sophie wears a new blue gown with flowers embroidered on the sleeves to accentuate her femininity.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Discussed. Sophie and Stig develop a mutual attraction when he acts as Valdemar's proxy for their betrothal and escorts her to her wedding, and Sophie admits to him on the journey to Denmark that she has fallen for him. They agree to never act on their feelings for one another because of her engagement to Valdemar, but other people notice it and start insidious rumors about them having an affair.
• Unwanted Spouse: Valdemar initially sees Sophie as this before they meet. He's required to marry to her to consolidate his alliance with Knud, but he doesn't care for the betrothal because he's happy in his relationship with Tove, who isn't eligible to be his wife because of her status as a peasant with no titles to her name. This goes so far that he initially has the castle that becomes Gavngaard built as a place for Sophie to live and be out of his way. He changes his mind significantly when he actually marries Sophie and becomes attracted to her, and gives her Gavngaard as a wedding gift with no mention of its original purpose.
• Uptown Girl: A two-fold example. Tove is a peasant woman and the lover of King Valdemar; Stig is a common court messenger who falls for Princess Sophie. It's deconstructed in that it's precisely because of this social status gap that neither Tove nor Stig can marry the royals they love, and are forced aside when Valdemar and Sophie marry.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: In-Universe. Knud is killed in battle almost immediately after Sophie arrives in Denmark for the wedding, which was arranged specifically because Knud was her half-brother from her mother's first marriage and allied to her betrothed. Because of this, while Sophie is shocked and saddened at her half-brother's death, she reflects that she can't actually grieve for him because they never met before.
• We Used to Be Friends: Sophie was friendly with Tove for a time and thought of her as her favorite lady-in-waiting, up until she found out about Tove's relationship with Valdemar by seeing their child, Christopher.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Tove's mother Sigrun, along with her associated servants, completely disappear and are never heard from again after the chapter showcasing Tove's backstory. In a similar vein, Sophie's uncle Oleg, aunt Gertrud, and cousin Yaropolk mostly vanish after she leaves for Denmark. There's also no mention of what happened to Tove's son Christopher after her death, or who took care of him.
• Wizard Classic: The Finnish wizard Heikki is described to have this kind of appearance, being a small old man with a silver beard, a long robe, and a tall staff with crystals and lapis set in the top.