Trude Brænne Larssen

Trude Brænne Larssen (born 1 January 1967 in Tønsberg) is a Norwegian novelist. She is the author of the series Holmegaard (11 books), "Ulveøyne" (25 books) and "Rimfrost" (14 books), and has contributed to the series "Emilies Tid". Her earlier books were published on the Egmont Publishing House, but most were published by Cappelen Damm Publishing House.

She has released more than 70 books over two decades.

Trude Brænne Larssen lives in Horten, Norway. She has worked as a journalist in a local newspaper called Gjengangeren since 2009.

Ulveøyne series
Ulveøyne consists of 25 books released between March 1996 and February 2000. A short novel based on part of the second book, Trellfødt (Born To Slavery), was released in August/September 1997. Egmont began to re-release the series in 2007 after the success of its sequel, Rimfrost.

Ulveøyne means "wolf eyes" and refers to the main character's grey eyes. The eye color is especially catching as Ulva's skin is dark and her hair is black due to her paternal grandmother being from Egypt.

Ulveøyne centers around Ulva, a young slavegirl from Norway. It begins about a year before she's born, and then follows her as she grows up in slavery, then as she's sold at a market and later kills a man after an attack. She escapes into the mountains and runs into many dangers and difficulties, including being taken in by the "mountain people", a tall, magical people who live inside the mountains. They are also semi-immortal.

Audiobooks
Cappelen Damm Publishing House began releasing the series as audiobooks in 2020. As of April 2024, 23 of the 25 books have been made available with all of them being read by Lena Meieran.

Rimfrost series
Rimfrost consists of 14 books released between early 2007 and 10 March 2008. Rimfrost means 'white frost' and is a reference to the main character's unnaturally white hair. Like her mother, she has grey eyes.

Rimfrost follows Rime, Ulva's only child, and begins about 180 years after Ulveøyne ended. Rime is a healer and survives by the money she earns by helping people. Unlike her mother, Rime was born free, and she does not age due to her father, Arolin's heritage. Her appearance is that of a 19-20-year-old woman with long, snow-white hair.

Arolin's people have 1-3 'gifts', giving them special abilities. Rime's abilities are healing and being able to shape rocks however she wants. This includes, but is not limited to creating better steps and places to hold while climbing, creating a musical fountain, and making large boulders move as if alive.

When the first book begins she is a widow with several adult children and adult grandchildren. However, due to not aging she moves around so as not to cause suspicion.

The 'mountain people' will occasionally have children with human women, and their children will inherit certain abilities including semi-immortality. The first generation stops aging in the late teens/the early twenties (like Rime), the second generation in their 40s, and the third generation in their 60s. Subsequent generations are all human.

Audiobooks
Cappelen Damm Publishing House began releasing the series as audiobooks in 2022. As of April 2024, 10 out of the 15 audiobooks have been made available for download.

External References

 * Author's homepage (in Norwegian)
 * Bookshop page (in Norwegian)
 * Damm's series (in Norwegian)
 * Cappelen Damm's listing of the Ulveøyne audiobooks (in Norwegian)