Book blurb

Wytha Naemisdottir is a witch, banished to the frigid mainland for failing to save her king’s newborn child. If she can find a gift worthy of the king’s forgiveness, Wytha can return home alongside her warrior lover and misfit companions. But the mainland is contested territory, and its dense woods are haunted. A black-robed stranger watches her from the coastline, the fishermen who greet her have taken to worshipping a foreign god with ties to Wytha’s southern heritage, and rumours abound of an invader whose vanguard is picking off villages one by one.

Worse still, someone is summoning spectral barrow-wights that attack Wytha’s people. Creatures straight out of myth, pitch-black and faceless, the wights can separate skin from bone with a touch. But uncovering the face of the summoner raises a disturbing question: is a stranger responsible, or is the summoner one of her cherished companions?

As the search for answers entangles Wytha in the sinister politics of mainland, it reveals an uncomfortable connection between the revival of an ancient blood rite known as the wild hunt, the sly tactics of the eastern invader, and Wytha’s own ancestral past. The deeper Wytha and her friends are driven into the forest, the further into disputed territory they find themselves, and the thinner Wytha’s grasp on her sanity.

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Cover of So Sing the Barrows with the title in large white letters on the foreground. A black silhouette of a bare tree with two ravens standing next to it and red nordic runes at the bottom. Green wood planks on the background.

Title: So Sing the Barrows

Author: Steve Hugh Westenra

Series: Standalone

Pages: TBD

Publication date‏: ‎February 15, 2025

More About So Sing the Barrows

Take a look at the cover designed by the author, with the help of Cal Black.

Cover of So Sing the Barrows with the title in large white letters on the foreground. A black silhouette of a bare tree with two ravens standing next to it and red nordic runes at the bottom. Green wood planks on the background.

Get in the mood by listening to the playlist on Spotify.

Or check the moodboard put together by the author.

About Steve Hugh Westenra

Steve is a trans author of fantasy, science fiction, and horror (basically, if it’s weird he writes it).

He grew up on the eldritch shores of Newfoundland, Canada, and currently lives and works in (the slightly less eldritch) Montreal. He holds advanced degrees in Russian Literature, Medieval Studies, and Religious Studies. His current academic work focuses on marginalized reclamations of monstrous figures. He teaches the History of Satan; Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion; and Religion and its Monsters.

Portrait of author Steve Hugh Westenra wearing a black beanie and black shirt

Steve’s books include The Wings of Ashtaroth, The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle, and So Sing the Barrows.


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