Hild is the viewpoint character from Nicola Griffith’s novel of the same name. Based on an Anglo-Saxon princess from the 7th century, St. Hild of Whitby, the novel tries to fill in the gaps of our barebones knowledge of a real woman’s life during that time — and though it probably bears little resemblance to the real Hild of Whitby, the book’s Hild is a fascinating character.
Raised in the court of her uncle, the man who poisoned her father to become king, Hild is a quiet, watchful child. Leveraging the prophecy her mother made while pregnant, that Hild would become the light of the world, the two of them use cunning logic and psychology to install her as his trusted seer and advisor before she even reached puberty. Once there, Hild focuses on minimizing the harm he does as well as protecting her family and obsessively learning everything she can, from Latin to fighting with a seax — a bladed weapon which, unlike a sword, had no taboo towards women learning to use it.
Hild is a complicated character, introspective and determined to do the right thing but still prone to the abuses of power that come from brutal systems and the people raised to the top of them. When she wants to learn Latin she asks to be given a captured priest as her tutor instead of his being auctioned off. Though she initially buys her slave Gwladus to keep the woman from being sexually abused by another master, she goes on to form a relationship with her that, while reciprocal to a degree, is still inherently coercive.
There’s also the great secret she keeps from her eventual husband (spoilers), a secret kept for his safety but something he also entirely has a right to know and act on. She’s not entirely a good person but she is trying to be in a way that rings very true for the period and position she’s living in.