Emma Valgard
Emma Valgard was born to Eckhart and Ima Valgard in the small village of Stokkseyri, Iceland, in 1525. She died in 1542, in London and was brought to her ancestral home for interment in a barrow near her family home. She was given this type of burial as an honor for what others might consider dishonorable or ignoble deeds.
Feeling the call to adventure and escape domestic life and the chains of her gender, Emma dressed as a man and fled Iceland masquerading as her brother Erik. On the docks of Antwerp she was recruited by a ship captain and fought in the Italian Wars on the side of England. As Erik of Iceland she was a terror to the French, and singlehandedly destroyed the Tower of Order, a french fortification that sank many English ships. After the battle of the Solent and the sinking of her ship the Mary Rose, her ruse was discovered. While she was arrested, she was subsequently pardoned by King Henry VIII of England, whose son found her tales of battle exhilarating.
She lived with her husband and boys in London for a time before a stalker found her and tried to kill her in the night. She managed to kill the attacker but not without being mortally wounded herself. Her husband found her and the King saw she had full honors. A priest performed a ghastly but assuredly necessary ritual staking and the body and family left for Iceland to inter her at home. There, she was given a funerary mound fit for a Viking and laid to her rest. But unlike most dead, she did not rest forever. She rose as a Revenant in 1551 and became known as Emma of Iceland, though the surname Valgard was still often associated with her.
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