I think I never liked Maud, but maybe Elfleda could have change though she was having a very bad influence on poor Egelric and maybe he will have ended drunk like Sigefrith had been. And I love Egelric too much to allow him to suffer so I'm not so sad she is no more. As for Maud, she had the same effect on Sigefrith but she was more crazy than Elfleda. I won't say I'm happy they died because who knows ? They might have changed with a good influence or with someone like father Aelfden (who's hard but beloved)...

I don't think Elfleda ever was likable, though she was not always as bitter as when we knew her. That was after the death of her first baby, and her growing idea that it was Egelric's fault somehow, at least for bringing her into the valley against her mother's advice, if not for an actual curse. Elfleda was rather proud and stand-offish, so I'm not sure she would ever have gained a great many fans. But if I had had more time with her, I might at least have earned a few pitying reactions with her such as I got with Hilda at the end.

Maud was a little different. She was very childish at times, but unlike Elfleda she did not choose her husband, and even once she started to love him, she did not want to be a queen and did not want him to be a king. She had no control over her life at all. If she had been allowed to fall in love with a good, simple gentleman, and go off to a quiet, woodsy place and have lots of babies, she would have been very happy, I think. Perhaps she would not have gone mad so soon or so utterly.

However, I do not think Malcolm was the right man for her, either. He was just the only sort of man who would dare aim so high as a married queen.

I think Egelric would have been good with Elfleda if they hadn't started out in the valley on the wrong foot. Her pride would have been eased if she had been allowed to become a knight's lady. And Egelric at forty was confident and strong enough a man to have stood up to her if she got shrewish. Of course, we'll never know what sort of man Egelric would have been at forty if she had lived... perhaps nasty and bitter as she was.

While I hated their actions, I found both characters quite fascinating (that sentiment applies for other characters as well). It is so outside of my character to be as openly cruel as Elfleda could be that I found her to be particularly interesting. Sending Egelric out to get boots just to have him get mocked and mistreated... Quite ballsy. I also did have some pity for her at the end of her life as it has become my natural feeling toward anyone who believes suicide is the answer.

Maud often reminded me of children I've taught. The fact that she had little control over the way her life went did help her case. And you know, Malcolm just has that je ne sais quoi... it'd take a strong woman to walk away from him!

I think Eadie is a complex character, too... so worried about being a "great lady" that she often fails to be... trying so hard to live up to what she thinks Sigefrith wants her to be that she often isn't... And her worries about religion and about Sigefrith's blasphemies, and her worries about not getting pregnant, and the stress she suffered when she lost her daughter...

She is like a female version of her big brother -- a somewhat inferior version of her parents, and conscious of her inferiority. Except, unlike Sigefrith, she's a lot more anxious about it. Sigefrith just shrugs and carries on being his slightly dull but wonderfully big-hearted self. Eadie is a little neurotic. And she is totally blind to the many faults of her ill-behaved children. (Young Sigefrith can be too, though Haakon generally does get a spanking in the end.)

And then there is her complex relationship with her father, with her mother, with Leila, with her half-siblings...

I do not find Eadie boring and forgettable. She is one of my more well-developed characters, in fact. She is just less spectacularly, cinematically tragic, and more like people we all know in real life.

Nice to see you mention Matilda in there! She certainly had spunk, and she wasn't "wicked" like Elfleda. Well, she was no better than Maud in the end, I guess, since she had an affair too. But somehow it was different with Matilda...

Anyway, as it happens, we will see poor Eadie trying to show some spunk in a few "days". I'm afraid she's going to learn spunk doesn't pay, though.

Although both women were tragic, I just can't bring myself to like either one. Maybe because I sympathize more with their husbands because they were mistreated and (in Elgeric's case) abused.

What did poor Lili do that you should be relieved she was dead? She wasn't causing anyone any harm, was she? Poor Lili... poor Egelric... they were so cute together.

Its not like that Lothere, you hinted on Mhalwae that someone in Lothere who was pregnant might die. This was after Lathir's death, so I was thinking who was pregnant at the time; there was Hetty but she was in the early stages of her pregnancy, then there was Matilda and Lili. I had this feeling that Lili was the one, but I was trying to shrug it off.
The post before we found out that Lili passed, I asked you how she was doing and I think you said that we'll find out in the next post. I was relieved to finally have the answer that "she infact did die." I wasn't relieved to see her die I just wanted to know if this hunch that I had was really true and it was. The only character that I will be happy to se go is Lar, but not Lili I was genuinely sad that she did die.

You weren't an eeny weeny bit happy that Bastien and his green robe were put to rest too Devin?

Thinking back I can't think of a single character that I have been happy they died. Hmmm... actually I guess I was kind of happy that Hilda died but only because I wanted Young Sigefrith to be happy and there was no way he could with her alive. But I still felt sad when she died and if there was another way to make Young Sigefrith happy without her dying then I would have preferred that. But also I think the deaths are an interesting part of the story so I guess I am "happy" they happen in that respect, though sad. If that makes any sense at all.

I felt dreadfully sorry for both Maud and Elfeda. I didn't really like Elfeda ever as a person although I liked her as a characters. I don't really think it is her fault she ended up the way she did. So much sadness. There were a couple of times we got a glimpse at the real her but we never got to see her that much before she was terribly unhappy. I can't forgive her for the way she treated Egelric but I can begin to understand. Things would have been so different if she had found a way to share her sadness with Egelric so they could support each other rather than taking it all out on him.

Maud on the other hand is a character I really liked. She was a wonderful woman in her own special way and having a husband like Sigefrith just squashed that. I really think he only ever saw her as a pretty face when she was so much more. One of my favourite storylines was the Malcom and Maud one... I feel like with Malcom we got to see how Maud could have been if she had been allowed to choose her own man. Poor Maud, I sympathise so much with her, forced to marry a man who only wanted her at first sight for her looks and then in a position she didn't want to be in as Queen. And Sigefrith with his dreadful opinion of women, in a strange way Malcom respected her more than Sigefrith ever did... or at least he understood her more. Maud could be so petty and childish but if I put myself in her position I don't know if I would be able to make the best of it. I know so many people hated her for what she did to Sigefrith but I really think he didn't do a whole lot for her. He tried but it just wasn't the right life for her. That's why I didn't think she was terrible for having an affair with Malcom. He offered her something Sigefrith never could have.

One thing I always found interesting was that both Sigefrith and Malcom made always prefixed her name with some other m word... melancholy Maud, mad Maud, magnifecent Maud. She really was all of these things and more.

I was happy when Lothere put away that hideous robe, hopefully she deleated it.

Maybe someone should create a fashions of Lothere thread.

I've always liked poor Elfleda, mainly because I felt so sorry for her. It seemed like to me that Gunnilda was trying to take her place in the family, and for that reason I never really liked Gunnilda.

I definitely didn't like Maud because her behaviour was always childish and selfish. The one act that really got me to dislike her was when Matilda went up to her castle to reconcile with her, and Maud threw it in her face by laughing at Alred's illness. Sure, she didn't choose who she got to marry, but I think there has to be something inherently evil in a person for them to act like that.

I think Elfleda realized what was happening, especially when Iylaine started calling Gunnilda Mama. So really, she had a point when she exclaimed that Finn was the only one who loved her.

I guess Maud's not inherently evil, per se, but she does lack empathy for others. She was too immature to understand how deeply her words wounded Matilda. Maybe she was thinking, "Well, are you here to flaunt the fact that my husband's not back and yours is? Well, he might to be here for long anyway! Nyah nyah nyah." That scene bugged me much more than her affair with Malcolm did.

I never liked Elfleda. She was too cruel to Egelric and to Iylaine. I was pretty content when she killed herself. I have to argue in Gunnilda's favor, though: she wasn't trying to takeover Elfleda's role, but she stepped in to be helpful. And even if Gunnie was Elfleda's only friend, you can't quite say that Elfleda never did anything to her. Remember that she was trying to trick poor Alwy into impregnating her since she blamed Egelric for giving her weak babies that she couldn't carry full-term.

Maud, on the other hand, I liked for the most part. She drove me nuts (ha ha) when she was cruel to Matilda and Siegfrith and others; I hated that she cheated on him; and I disliked her selfishness. I felt sorry for her for so many reasons, though, that I was able to overlook those things. Once she went crazy, it was time for her to die so that Eadie could get Seigfrith.

I know that Eadie isn't terribly spunky, but I just think of how adorable she was when she was a sweet teenager in love with a king and still able to withhold innocent kissing from him. I think that took some work on her part!

Are you kidding me? I don't find it creepy after Maud. I'm sure he liked knowing that his wife was too innocent to cheat on him. And perhaps he thought she'd be too timid to deny him after their marriage, unlike Maud.

And, wow, I forgot about her kidnapping Wynna. Man, Elfleda was pretty nuts, too.

It will only be creepy if he stops finding her attractive when she gets a little older and goes after some other innocent little thirteen-year-old.

However, Sigefrith has always been very good about sticking to his wedding vows, except for those unchaperoned but chaste visits to Eadie's bedroom. And Eadie is the last woman to cheat on her husband, so perhaps they will go on contentedly together until Sigefrith is simply too old to be interested in ladies of any age.

Or until he dies. I still have the feeling Sigefrith will be the next to go out of the first batch of men.

I somewhat regret killing Cenwulf. He deserved more time in the spotlight, not death. I think I am going to have to do something interesting with that crusty old Baroness, now, to make his death worthwhile. Or perhaps with Edris, or poor little Baldwin. My feeling is that the future is not looking too bright for Baldwin though.

I hadn't realized I had killed all the original ladies but one. Women did have a lower life expectancy than men but still. However, I think Gunnilda is the type who will live to 85 and be the wise old matriarch. She may end up being the last one left alive of the original crew, unless childbirth claims her before her time.