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Paksenarrion

Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter, headstrong daughter of a sheep farmer on the north edge of the kingdom, dreams of being a hero out of legend, of fame and magic swords and great deeds. When her father tells her she must marry the neighbor's son, she runs away from home to join the mercenary company her cousin told her about. But military life and warfare aren't anything like her daydreams...yet she holds to both her duty and her dreams. In the end, she pays the price that heroism demands and becomes the paladin who saves a kingdom...but the journey is longer and darker than she ever imagined. She has to confront and overcome her strengths as well as her weaknesses...and her triumph redeems more than herself.

Originally written as one long story, it was broken into three for practical reasons when first published. Sheepfarmer's Daughter takes her from the farm through three fighting seasons as a mercenary in Duke Phelan's Company. Divided Allegiance describes her departure from Phelan and her training to become a paladin of Gird....a journey that ends in disaster. Oath of Gold finishes her story of recovery and redemption.

Sheepfarmer's Daughter was the 1989 Compton Crook Award winner.

The Legacy of Gird
Gird, the patron saint of warriors in The Deed of Paksenarrion, was once a man around whom legends grew. Poverty, hunger, fear, and anger shaped this future leader, whose weakness for drink almost ended his cause--and his life. But his love for "his" people and his innate hunger for justice make him worthy of the legends.

Two books, Surrender None and Liar's Oath, chronicle the life of the founder of the Fellowship of Gird--the dominant religion in Tsaia and Fintha in Paksenarrion's day, and the early days of that fellowship.

Surrender None
The hero-saint Gird, patron of the Fellowship of Gird, was known only through scattered texts and traditions by Paksenarrion's day. In those stories, Gird was an honest, brave, kind, hardworking peasant who had stood up to cruel magelords and freed his people from oppression. He had written the Code of Gird, eliminating injustice, and had given up his life for his people by fighting off a magical monster, dying even as it died. The real Gird was indeed a peasant who led his people to freedom from oppression--but he was also a fallible and complicated man whose great virtues were paired with great weaknesses.