Sigrid Kingfinch
Sigrid Kingfinch (a.k.a. Sigrid the Wily)
Sigrid is a protagonist in the legend of The Hallow Maiden and the titular character of the story. She is the wife of Dolomedes Chieftain Oswald and youngest child of Harlow. She is the mother of Herleva II and Niels Kingfinch.
As a child, Sigrid was sickly and ill-behaved, frequently noted to be a 'terror' by Harlow's handmaidens. She was often shut up indoors despite her love of botany and the wilderness. The Clockmakers and Hooded Mothers visited Sigrid out of sympathy at times, which is how she would first meet Gisla and the Humourist Ninian Larchwold. In the face of her illnesses, Sigrid hoped to become a Humourist or Citron healer, though she had been all but written off by her parents.
However, when she was declared XXF at her coming of age, attitudes toward Sigrid completely changed and she was heavily relied upon to secure Harlow a heir. Her brother Arnulf, who she had idolized growing up, was suddenly cast aside as she was pushed forward to leadership position. She began studying with the Hooded Mothers as a translator and local scientist, through which she met Oswald. It was Sigrid who initially introduced Arnulf to Oswald, though the two men would not become lovers until after Sigrid's children were born.
Arnulf, Sigrid, and Oswald during happier times
Sigrid worked with the Hooded Mothers in Hol Gheal as a translator and apprentice Humourist. While working through the traumatic birth of her son, which left her unable to have more children, Sigrid became obsessed with immortality and cheating death. Oswald would note that she started asking about the legends of Aethelred he knew, and she began a romantic relationship with Gisla, a Deathless Clockmaker.
When she developed the illness afflicting the village (which turned out to be an anthrax outbreak orchestrated by her mother), Oswald managed to convince her of the curse upon Hol Gheal. Knowing her days were numbered, as was Oswald's favour with the Gannwyll Gwydd, they made a Blood Bet with the safety of their daughter, who was of mixed Dolomedes and Larch ancestry.
The blood bet prophesized that if Sigrid could cheat death and return to Hol Gheal before the Calend of Winter, she would disinherit herself from the Wisterwood Family and return with the Ghostcrane Clan to Hedgecomb, raising their daughter Herleva as a Dolomedes. If she could not and Oswald won, he would marry her brother Arnulf and Herleva would be raised in the Wisterwood Family, thus returning power to the Gannwyll Gwydd dynasty.
Sigrid with her Phoneutrian cousins, Olwen and Olfric Kingfinch, at the Hooded Mothers Clinic
Oswald did not want Sigrid to return to Hedgecomb after the centuries his people had spent in Deornet, who they felt was part of their rightful home. Although he did not like the Gannwyll Gwydd, he knew about Old Nick's curse, which was passed down through the Ghostcrane men - that if Hol Gheal ever fell out of the hands of the Larch, he planned to overtake it and make it part of the Naefergrene forest. However, Oswald did not suspect that Sigrid would go as far as to make a deal with Old Nick himself to become Deathless.
Sigrid ultimately made a deal with Old Nick to have him deified in the surrounding land of Deornet, and to safely house his Resurrectionists. Old Nick agreed, and offered Ashur to be the host of the mandrake buried in her grave. Sigrid’s soul was bound to Ashur through a Henbane plant, and after he survived Forest Rot and became an Aliruna, Sigrid was able to win her bet.
At the crescendo of the Hol Gheal Disaster, the town is flooded and Double Walker and human alike escape into the town. It is a whole season before the town is restored, by which time the fenlands have begun to grow. Sigrid, now in Ashur’s body, abdicates her position and crowns her daughter Herleva II as the new chieftess of the Dolomedes and Earlen of the town.
Henbane depicted stepping on a warrior of Goermagog
In the end Hol Gheal becomes a mismatched town run primarily by the Dolomedes, the original inhabitants of the town, with a minority Gannwyll Gwydd population who eventually assimilate. Old Nick is worshipped, and many customs of the Larchwold customs are integrated into the common culture. Sigrid ultimately achieves the unfinished business of her great-grandmother Herleva which was to unite the Larch and Dolomedes, which was how she convinced Old Nick to help her in the first place.
Relationships
History
Ernoul and Sigrid grew up quite close, with Ernoul being protective of his sickly and unsociable younger sister. He had planned to have her move with him to his unsuccessful farm, but after one final unlucky drought was forced to sell his land and move back with his family. He fell in love with Sigrid's arranged husband Oswald, much to Sigrid's indifference as she herself was having an affair. As Sigrid and Oswald's relationship became increasingly distant, friction between them increased. When Sigrid fell ill from anthrax exposure, she began investigating the source of the outbreak and consulting with chemists. Fearing she would uncover his mistakes, he expressed little sympathy near the end for her untimely death, although he did not necessarily have a hand in it. His conflicting feelings toward Sigrid are spurred on mostly due to selfishness and shame, but Sigrid views this as betrayal toward not only her family but the town as well. She vows to kill him initially, but when she finds his buried corpse she weeps and laments the loss of her once beloved sibling.
History
Henbane was created from the body of Ashur and a parasitic henbane plant containing Sigrid's soul.
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