Odaria is a witch, meaning a herbalist and healer, on a small island inhabited by Picts. She has become the target of a supposed cleansing act and is about to be burned alive when she conjures up a force from the sea to protect herself. The party of marauding Vikings subdue the villagers and Odaria, believing that she is responsible for wreaking the havoc of the Norsemen on the island, is terrified. She is about to become THE VIKING'S WITCH.

One of the Norse, a jarl, or respected landowner, had previously retired from going a-Viking but has gone to sea again to search for the king's son whose ship went missing and is rumoured to have gone down in a storm. Rothgar is searching for any news so orders the villagers kept alive. He picks Odaria when he finds her in hiding, to prepare food and drink. Having been married, then widowed, he has a different attitude to women from the majority of his group. Odaria first tries to fight her way out but then realises that it would be better to be under Rothgar's protection than given to the mob of seamen.

The monastic settlement of Lindesfarne has recently been destroyed and Brennan, the village leader, has no reason to co-operate with the Norsemen. He refuses to say where a ship may have been wrecked. A few items of flotsam are found however, such as a shield, and Odaria uses her gifts to divine what became of the owners of these objects. Convinced that the king's son was washed up on this island, Rothgar finds it increasingly difficult to control the Vikings and needs the aid of a feared 'bersekr' whose leg Odaria saves from blood poisoning, to prevail. The trust that grows between Odaria and Rothgar soon leads to desire, though they get interrupted so many times that a physical union takes a good while longer.

There is much detail in this tale by Kelli A Wilkins; whale- oil lamps, silver and jade brooches, graves dug with sword blades, all combine to produce a lively picture of the times. The village must have been prosperous because they had stored up a great deal of food and drink; their persecution of a herbalist is explained by saying that Odaria had refused to convert to the new religion. The bloodthirsty practices of the times are more than hinted at, so not for the nervous.