NOTICE: This event has been cancelled. It will be rescheduled at a later date.

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CAMDEN — Local author Jeff Foltz will be at the Owl and the Turtle Bookshop in Camden on Friday, June 29, from 1 – 3 p.m. to sign copies of his novel “Birkebeiner: A Story of Motherhood and War,” winner of The New England Book Festival’s 2011 honorable mention award for fiction.

Based in 13th-century Norway, it is an epic account of daring escape and true bravery, as stated in a news release.

A mother’s compulsion to protect her children is timeless and primal. Based on Norwegian history, Birkebeiner follows Inga, the wife of King Hakon, as she races to save their child’s life. The country is torn by war and the royal family threatened, forcing the king to order his two best soldiers to accompany Inga and their son to safety. The weary and desperate group travels on cross-country skis for days, through treacherous winter valleys and over a 7,000-foot snow-blown mountain, while pursued by the enemy intent on killing the child.

Many modern cross-country skiing marathons commemorate this famous flight. The word “birkebeiner” means “birch leg” in Norwegian, which the American Birkebeiner named it’s nordic marathon. Cross-country skiers compete in a race distancing 52 kilometers (or 32 miles).
Foltz has participated in the North American Birkebeiner six times, where his inspiration and research for the novel began. He lives in Camden.

The Owl and the Turtle Bookshop is located at 32 Washington Street in Camden.