Maren Magnusdatter

One of the two protagonists and one of the two point of view characters in The Mercies, Maren begins the novel as a quiet, kind-hearted twenty-year-old woman. Before the storm struck, Maren was engaged to Dag Bjørnsson and preparing to live in his father's second boathouse with him. She was close with her father and brother, Erik, but more enjoyed spending time with her mother and sister-in-law, Diinna. After the storm, Maren finds herself playing the role of arbiter between her mother and Diinna, who are increasingly at odds, and aligns herself with Kirsten and the more iconoclastic women, as opposed to the Kirke-women, like Toril.

Ursa hires Maren to help teach her some homemaking and domestic skills, like baking bread, skinning hides, and butchering meat. Though Maren is not necessarily the most skilled in the village at these tasks, she is competent enough to teach...