Merle Timeline and Summary

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A Long, Long Time Ago

• Queen Melle is married to King Eirikr, the ruler of a small Scandinavian island.
• Since no crops have grown for three years straight and the people are starving, Eirikr offers himself as a human sacrifice to appease the gods and end the famine.
• Melle is in despair and fights to get near her husband as he is executed.
• As the moment of death approaches, Melle's husband says that he's not actually going to die—he's going to live seven lifetimes, in fact, and she can totally join him if she wants to.
• After Eirikr's death, Melle disappears.
• Seven years later, she comes back into town, having survived on her own by drinking brew from dragon orchids and hunting wild hares.
• Melle lives until a very old age, but never speaks to anyone.
• On the day she finally dies, she goes to the stone table and lies down on it and tells her late husband that she will follow him throughout all his lifetimes. And so it begins.

In the 10th Century

• Melle is an old woman who remembers a whole bunch of weird stuff that happened to her and her twin brother, Eirik, back when they were kids.
• She is twelve when her father returns from a successful trip and brings a stranger named Tor home with him.
• Melle soon finds out that Tor is actually her uncle. Or is he her father? Tor claims that he is actually the one who fathered Melle and her brother. Huh.
• After Tor is killed in a fight, strange things start happening in the village, namely animals dying, and then people.
• Melle and Eirik are terrified because the person causing all this mayhem is Tor. He wants his children back and he doesn't care who he has to go through to get them.
• One morning, Melle wakes up to see that her brother Eirik is gone. He's gone to Tor to save his sister and the village.
• Even as an old woman, Melle still thinks of her brother and her uncle lying in their grave together.

Hundreds of Years Before 1848

• A wealthy and beautiful young woman named Merle falls in love with another young woman named Erika. Scandal ensues.
• When Merle's father forbids the two women from being together, Erika commits suicide at sea and is buried in a grave on the island.
• Merle is grief-stricken and visits the grave every day vowing to stay with Erika forever.
• After a year, Merle goes mad. She sees a hare on Erika's grave and thinks that it's her lover reincarnated.
• Merle goes to see a witch to get a potion that will transform her into a hare. She drinks it and changes, but is killed by a hunter while sleeping on Erika's grave.

In September 1902

• Seven-year-old Merle is told by her mother that she can now go with her to visit the western half of Blessed Island. And pick dragon orchids. Yay.
• Merle spots a house that belongs to a retired painter named Eric. She goes back every day and leaves apples for the old man.
• One day, she goes to visit Eric and sees that he's fallen. Merle and her mother help Eric and then come to visit him every day.
• Merle and Eric become fast friends. Aw.
• Eric invites Merle to be there when representatives from the Swedish National Museum come to consider his new painting, Midwinterblood.
• When she hears that the painting has been rejected, Merle goes to visit Eric only to find him dead in his own home.
• He has added one final touch to his masterpiece—an image of Merle holding an apple.

In August 1944

• Merle Thompson is a twelve-year-old girl whose father is a fighter pilot in World War II.
• As Merle gets older, one of her favorite stories is of how her father was saved by a man named Erik after he crash-landed on a strange island up north.
• Her parents never told her what actually happened to this Erik in the end. (He died.)
• Merle finally passes away when she is seventy years old.

In July 2011

• Every afternoon, Merle calls her sixteen-year-old son, Eric, in for lunch.
• One day, an archeologist shows up at the door to thank Eric for his help with a dig.
• Merle invites him in for a cup of tea and shares a story of how Eric was injured when he was only two years old. It's a sad one.
• Later, when the archeologist discovers an old bomb underground, his assistants run to Merle's house for help.
• She screams in panic as her son helps dispose of the bomb and saves the life of one of the members of the digging team.
• Afterward, Merle comforts everyone in her home with some freshly brewed tea and there are hints that a romance might be blossoming between her and Edward.

In June 2073

• Merle is the last child to be born on Blessed Island, and she is now the youngest person alive on the island. This is a little weird.
• When Eric Seven arrives, Merle meets him at the dock. At some point she remembers that she knows him—they've loved each other and she's followed him through seven lifetimes.
• Later, she talks with him about the island, the moons, and how things are "different" there. She also has an argument with Tor and the other wards of Blessed Island; she doesn't agree with whatever they're planning to do.
• The next day, she swims with Eric in the sea on the south side of the island. How romantic.
• Eric drinks more of the dragon orchid tea and starts to forget about his relationship with Merle. She's pretty disappointed—she needs him to remember.
• One night, Merle creeps into his house, gives him an antidote for the tea, and leaves him a note explaining what he needs to do.
• When Eric travels to the western side of the island, Merle is there. She watches as Tor and the other islanders seize him and drag him to the stone table to be sacrificed.
• Before Eric is killed, Merle asks to be the one to do it. After all, she was born on the island.
• But instead of killing Eric, Merle frees him and they run off toward the shore. They're captured again and dragged back to the stone table right after Merle reveals that she knew who he was.
• There, Merle remembers the perfect moments they have shared in their lifetimes together and becomes calm.
• Merle is killed alongside Eric, but her journey with him keeps on going even past death.