Midwinterblood Setting

Blessed Island

It's pretty rare that you'll read a book or watch a movie where the setting of it isn't important. Could the Fresh Prince live anywhere except Bel Air? We don't think so. But in Midwinterblood, Blessed Island is such an important place that it's almost one of the characters. Let's take a look.

Livin' in Paradise

At first glance, Blessed Island seems like exactly the kind of place you would want to go on vacation. Seriously: sweeping landscapes, long stretches of hills, seaside views, picturesque meadows. What's not to love?

• "It was spectacularly beautiful. The coastline was a broken fractal, the sea was deep blue, the rocks of the shore gentle mottled grays and browns. Inland, the ground climbed steadily into forests, which eventually gave way to treeless mountaintops." (1.1.32-33)
• "He can see modest, beautifully designed wooden houses, most painted in rich colors: deep reds, light blues, earthy yellows. They have small rose bushes and tall birches. Bees hum in the air. Behind him the blue sea slaps at the stones of the quay and gulls cry overhead." (1.2.41-42)
• "He whizzes along, the bees humming around his head and around the flowers that burst with life on every side." (1.7.7)
• "It's beautiful. It's so beautiful, it takes his breath away. It's not spectacular, it's not jaw dropping, it's simply a lovely sight that makes the heart glad that such places exist. The grays and browns of the rocks, the trees and the wild grass, the sea, waiting for him, and only for him; the place is utterly deserted, he can see neither people nor houses." (1.10.14)
• "The island is so beautiful, Eric thinks, every day as he wakes up, and every night as he goes to sleep." (1.11.2)
• "The sun burns strongly; the summer is young and fresh, the leaves and the grass bright, and vivid." (1.11.4)
• "He marvels at it, because if he had been God (though he's very glad he's not) and he were designing an island, Blessed is just what he would have drawn." (2.4.6)
• "An island that seems to have everything its small population needs: sheep and goats for meat and milk, plenty of fish in the sea, lobsters, and even oysters. The fields are full of wheat, gently ripening, and there are orchards of fruit and fields of vegetables." (2.3.2)

Could this place get any more amazing and lovely and awesome? We think not.

The Dark Side of Blessed

Okay, so Blessed Island is a beautiful place. But, as the folks in 2073 never tire of pointing out, they don't get many visitors. Hmm… Maybe that's because they're kind of into ritual human sacrifice. Not exactly something you can highlight in a travel brochure.

From the very first moment we land on Blessed, we realize that things are a bit off there. They do things differently, if you will. Check it:

• Things move more slowly.
• There are no cars. Only walking paths and bikes.
• They don't embrace modern technology at all (they still use scythes to harvest hay).
• There's no info about the island on the Net.
• No technology works on the island.
• It's kind of tough to tell how old people are.
• There are no kids

Compared to the modern outside world, Blessed Island is pretty different. But, hey, what's wrong with walking places and not burying your face in an iPhone all day? It's kind of quaint and cute, right?

Um, sort of—except there's something a bit more sinister going down on Blessed. Eric Seven realizes pretty quickly that these folks are hiding something. They are almost too friendly, plus people are breaking into his house and stealing his things, and it's the only place where this freaky flower grows. They've also got these bizarre teas they love to drink and their maps only feature half of the island. Yup—this place is definitely hiding something creepy.

And here's the thing: Magic is a bit part of the island's history. For starters, it's the only place in the world where the dragon orchid grows. This is a flower that can heal you, kill you, make you live forever, or make it so you can't have any babies, so it's pretty powerful. It's also home to a king who manages to live for seven lifetimes, and produces at least one vampire and one ghost. It's a little bit freaky here.

An Island with a Mind of Its Own

Remember when we said that Blessed Island was like one of the characters? Well, at one point, Eric Seven actually suspects that the place has a mind of its own:

He is halfway up the short but ridiculously steep hill when he stops, for two reasons. First, the slope is just too steep to cycle up, even standing on the pedals in lowest gear. His thighs scream at him to stop, but there's something else. This exertion on the bike makes him think about the cycling he has done so far that day.

He remembers freewheeling all the way to the quay. And then he remembers coming back again, but he can't remember cycling very hard to do so. In fact, he's pretty sure he freewheeled much of the way back. If not all the way. He thinks about all the other places he's been to and now that he comes to think of it, he cannot remember actually having to push the pedals at all, anywhere, not until he came to this ludicrous hill. It doesn't make sense, and for a second he wonders if this is all some extended dream. (1.9.1-2)

Wait… the hills on Blessed Island slope to make bike riding easier depending on what you're out doing? That's sort of weird. It's kind of like the island has secrets that it doesn't want people to know about. But islands can't have feelings… can they?

Where in the World is Blessed Island?

Okay, so Blessed Island is a bit of a mixed bag—beautiful, yet deadly, kind of like an island version of a femme fatale. But where exactly is this place?

It's clear from the novel that Blessed Island is a Scandinavian island located in the very far north. We're going to go ahead and say it's in Sweden for a couple of reasons:

• King Domalde, whom the legend of King Eirikr is based on, is a mythical Swedish king.
• Sweden was home to Viking communities around the 10th century (which probably had way less vampires).
• Dudes from the Swedish National Museum come to take a peek at Eric Carlsson's artwork.
• Sweden was neutral in World War II, as Erik points out to David Thompson.
• Sedgwick said in interviews that he based Blessed Island on the real life Swedish island of Brännö.

Okay, so Sweden it is, right? But why set a story here? Well, a remote Swedish island is the perfect place to contrast natural beauty with supernatural creepiness. You've got sweeping views and beautiful landscapes adorned with fields, meadows, and coastlines—and on the other hand, you have an isolated, little-traveled place where time is so out of whack that the sun is still shining in the sky at midnight. It's perfectly mysterious.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Like the main characters in the book, Blessed Island's name changes throughout the years. We start out calling it Blessed Island. Then Blest Island. Blest Isle. And finally wind up with Bloed Isle. Eric Carlsson explains how the name has morphed:

"Blessed" does not mean what people think it does. In the old tongue it was bletsian and before that blotsian, and before that, just blod. It means sacrifice. Sacrifice. To bless means to sacrifice, and in blood. (4.11.13)

Um, okay—creepy. So the island is named for the sacrifice of King Eirikr. His death is the blessing that allows the island to survive and thrive, but at the same time, that blessing isn't possible without a whole lot of bloodshed. Thus, the island is blessed, but blessed by the blood of the king's sacrifice. Which might make you think twice about tacking #blessed on your status updates.