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Tales from the North: Teutonic Myth & Legend
Paperback
Fiction AnthologiesGeneral EducationGeneral Poetry
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Apr 21 2023
Pages: 330
Weight: 0.88
Height: 0.82 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Norse mythology from the creation of the world to Ragnarök, followed by the hero legends of the North and the folk tales of Scotland, Russia, and Finland, collected in one 328-page volume.
Before there was earth, sea, or sky, there was Ginnungagap, the yawning void. Out of its ice and fire came the giant Ymir and Audhumla the great cow, and from the salt-rimed stones she licked came Bure, first of the gods. Tales from the North follows the Norse myth cycle in order from that first moment to its last, told in the strong, old-fashioned voice of the traditional retellings. A short preface sets the scene: myths passed down orally for centuries before they were written down in the thirteenth century in the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda.
The gods raise the walls of Asgard with a giant's help, and Loki wins the bargain only by a trick. Frey gives up the Sword of Victory to win Gerd, and Skade comes armed to Asgard to avenge her father. Oðin pays an eye for a draught from Mimir's well and goes out among giants and men as Vegtam the Wanderer. Little Hnossa waits at Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge, for her lost father. In Ironwood the hag Angerboda rears Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel, and the gods must decide what to do with Loki's monstrous children.
Thor dresses as a bride to win back his hammer in The Lay of Thrym and trades insults with a ferryman in The Poem of Hárbarðr. Oðin races the stone giant Hrungnir on Sleipnir. Baldr dreams of his own death, Loki is bound for his crimes, the Valkyries ride to choose the slain, and the gods go out to meet their doom.
The second half of the book turns from gods to heroes. It opens with selections from the Volsung Saga and the full Hávamál, the sayings of the High One. It tells the story of Amleth of Jutland, the Danish prince whose tale lies behind Shakespeare's Hamlet, and follows Dietrich of Bern into Laurin's rose garden in the Tyrol and home again after thirty-two years of exile. The final section gathers Scottish tales of haunted rivers, ghost ships, fairies, and Finlay the hunter's fight with the giants; the Russian tale of The Golden Mountain; and the harp songs of Wainamoinen from the Finnish Kalevala.
Inside this volume:
- The Norse creation story, from Ginnungagap and Ymir to the Nine Worlds and the walls of Asgard
- Loki's sins and the Winter War, the Sword of Victory, and the fall of Asgard
- Thor against Thrym, Hárbarðr, and Hrungnir, with verse from the Poetic Edda
- Baldr's dream and doom, the binding of Loki, the Valkyries, and the Twilight of the Gods
- Selections from the Volsung Saga and the complete Hávamál
- Amleth, The Rose Garden, and The King's Homecoming
- Scottish and Russian folk tales and the harp songs of the Kalevala
- Original poems and illustrations by the author
Jeremy Jasper Owens has gathered these stories from the older literature of Northern Europe and kept the cadence of the traditional versions, so the myths read as myths rather than modern fantasy. Between them he has set his own poems, among them Oh, Odin, Thor the Bride, and Old Troy, Old Asgard, along with his own illustrations of the yawning void, Ymir, Bure, and other scenes.
About the author: Jeremy Jasper Owens is a writer, editor, and historian whose books cover Norse myth, the medieval sagas, and world history.
Tales from the North is written for adult readers of Norse mythology, students of Germanic legend and folklore, followers of Ásatrú, and anyone who wants the myths, sagas, and folk tales of the North in a single volume.
Also by Jeremy Jasper Owens: Trójumanna Saga: First Full English Translation, the medieval Icelandic saga of the Trojan War.
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