Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale is a 2007 young adult novel written by Donna Jo Napoli

Donna Jo Napoli

Donna Jo Napoli is an author of children's and young adult books, as well as a prominent linguist who has worked in syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, historical and comparative linguistics, Romance studies, structure of Japanese, structure of American Sign Language, poetics, writing for...

. The young adult novel depicts the world of slave trade around the year 900

900

Year 900 was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.- Asia :* April 21 – Namwaran and his children, Lady Angkatan and Bukah, are granted pardon by the Datu of Tondo, as represented Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pila, which released them of all their debts as inscribed in the...

 in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

.

Hush opens as fifteen-year-old Melkorka and her younger sister are shopping in Dublin with her family. A princess, Melkorka has lived a life of luxury made possible through slave labor. However, her younger brother, destined to be king, is injured by Norse

Norsemen

Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...

 men in Dublin, forcing Melkorka and her sister to go into hiding to protect themselves from the approaching battle.

While fleeing their kingdom, Melkorka and her sister Brigid—who subsequently escapes—are kidnapped by slave traders and transported throughout Europe. Refusing to speak to her captors, Melkorka gains power and well-being through her silence. However, it is not enough to protect her from being sold to an Icelandic man named Hoskuld. Hush ends on a semi-positive note where Melkorka resolves to speak to her unborn son to teach him about her homeland.

At the end of the novel, it is revealed in a note by the author that the story is based on the legend of Melkorka

Melkorka

Melkorka is the name given in Landnámabók and Laxdœla saga for the Irish mother of the Icelandic goði Ólafr Höskuldsson. According to Laxdœla saga, Höskuldr purchased a Melkorka, who he believed to be a mute thrall-woman, from a Rus' merchant on Brännö while on a trading expedition to Norway, and...

, the mother of the Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

ic gothi

Gothi

A goði or gothi is the Old Norse term for a priest and chieftain. Gyðja signifies a priestess.The name appears in Wulfila's Gothic language translation of the bible as gudja for "priest", but in Old Norse it is only the feminine form gyðja that perfectly corresponds to the Gothic form...

 Olaf Hoskuldsson. According to myth and tradition, his mother was a slave assumed to be mute. One day the king overhears her speaking in Gaelic

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

and she discloses that she was a kidnapped Irish princess.