"Cattle die, kinsmen die, what never dies is one's reputation." -Hávamál
This is a story of a legendary mythological family, a dynasty descended from the gods themselves. It has been told and retold over many centuries, kept alive in poems, stories, and songs that were memorized, chanted, and sung in the Old Norse tongue, the language of the Vikings of medieval Scandinavia.
As nomadic families travelled and migrated, they took their stories and poems with them, a strong link that connected them to their past, ancestors, and homelands. After these migrating families had settled and lived in Iceland for a few centuries, scribes documented their stories, putting quill to vellum and collecting them into books. Yet the different sources of the myths and legends have gaps, incomplete explanations, and missing pages.
A Viking Legend: The Descendants of Odin weaves together these gaps, combining information from many different sources into one book. Unknown characters are enhanced, mythological details are fleshed out, missing information is given an explanation, and a new and different ending occurs. Complemented by images of medieval carvings and classical illustrations, what has emerged is a mysterious and sometimes shocking story, featuring births and deaths, valkyries, tales of honour and love, betrayal and vengeance, battles on land and at sea, sorcery and magic, prophecies and curses, supernatural beings, a dragon, and so much more.
