Few nations have possessed a greater gift of storytelling than the Norsemen or Vikings, the ancestors of the people who today live in the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. There are Norse tales of outlaws and heroes, of ghosts and dragons, of sea-kings and peasant farmers, of love and adventure; but perhaps the most interesting of all are the legends of the gods who used to be worshipped in Scandinavia before the coming of Christianity. The same gods, under slightly different names, were once worshipped by many other peoples, including the ancestors of the English and German nations, but here the old pagan faith was swept away by Christian missionaries so early that only scattered traces of it remain. In Scandinavia, especially in the remote island of Iceland, Christianity was not established till the year 1000, or even later, by which time the legends had taken a firm hold on people’s minds, and the Icelanders’ love of a good story made them cling to the old Norse myths even after many converted to Christianity. The fullest and clearest picture of the Viking gods is given in two Icelandic collections of tales called the Eddas.
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Welcome to my blog!
I'm a fantasy writer and on this site you'll not only find samples of my work but also articles concerning folklore, myth and legend, reviews of movies, books and graphic novels and much else besides (including the occasional short story - you lucky people!).
Click on the image below if you would like to buy a copy of my novel, 'White Planet', a science-fiction/fantasy set on the ice world of Rygarth, whose snows hide ancient secrets and restless evil. Go to the ‘Novels’ section of this website for more information and to read free samples of this and my other longer fiction. Excerpts from my short fiction appear in the 'Short Stories' section of this website.
The 'Blogroll' below contains links to lots of other fantasy and sci-fi websites and the 'Writer Links' section of this site will take you to the websites of other authors whose work I admire.
If you like what you see on here don't forget that you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter too by clicking on one of the links below!
White Planet
The first volume of 'The Ice World Chronicles'
Blogroll
- Abattoir
- Abomination
- Albedo One
- Allegory
- Aphelion
- Black Static
- Clarkesworld Magazine
- Cygnus
- Dark Discoveries
- Dark Moon Books
- Dark Tales
- Encounters Magazine
- Fantasy Magazine
- Interzone
- Locus
- Prime Books
- Realms of Fantasy
- Strange Horizons
- The Black Library
- The Edge
- The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
- The Realm Beyond
- Weird Tales
- #Manga - wp.me/p21O69-hS 1 week ago
- #MayDay - wp.me/p21O69-ia 3 weeks ago
- #WorldsWithoutEnd - wp.me/p21O69-hN 1 month ago
- #Angels - wp.me/p21O69-hH 1 month ago
- #JamesPBlaylock - wp.me/p21O69-hB 2 months ago
Top Posts & Pages
- George R R Martin: Genius or Hack?
- Manga: The Enigma of Anime
- King Arthur: Fact or Fantasy?
- Stormbringer: Elric of Melniboné
- Contact
- The Art of Alan Lee
- Merlin: The Man behind the Myth
- In the Company of Wolves
- Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings
- Tad Williams: The American Tolkien?
- Did Philip K Dick Dream of Electric Sheep?
- Dark Legends of the Distant Steppes
Archives
Recent Posts
- Manga: The Enigma of Anime
- Rites of Spring
- Worlds Without End
- Angels in America
- James P Blaylock – Steampunk Legend
- One Hundred Realms
- Wisdom of the Trees
- Memories Become Legend
- Beware the Loa!
- The Long Defeat
- 2012 in review
- The Box of Delights
- Reavers of the Seven Seas
- Carnivàle
- Happy Birthday…
- The Great Harry Potter Controversy
- The Golden Age of Kids’ TV
- Castles in the Air
- By the Power of Grayskull!
- Thomas the Rhymer
- The Era of Excess
- Durin’s Folk
- Duncton Wood
- Egypt’s Divine Kingship
Categories
- Alternate History
- Animal Fantasy
- Anthology
- Cartoon
- Children's Fantasy
- Comic Fantasy
- Conspiracy
- Epic Fantasy
- Fairy tale
- Fantasy Art
- Fantasy Masterworks
- Fantasy Music
- Film
- Folklore
- Game
- Graphic Novel
- Heroic Fantasy
- Historical Fantasy
- Historical Mystery
- History
- Horror
- Legend
- Magic
- Mythic Fiction
- Mythology
- Post-apocalyptic fiction
- Science Fiction
- Short Story
- Speculative Fantasy
- Steampunk
- Television
- Uncategorized
- Urban Fantasy
Blog Stats
- 51,861 hits
Tags
Blogs I Follow
- Edwardhu111's Blog
- Winson Chiu (The Manga Creator)
- Ultimate Spoiler Attack
- Flying over a forest
- Judith Shaw - Life on the Edge
- Amber Lotus Publishing
- Faerie♥Kat's Faerie♥Korner
- Scattering the light
- The Keya Quests blog
- The Always Hungry Bookworm
- SCC Library Reads
- The Writer's Wand
- Books and Adventures
- Hellar Reviews
- Raging Biblio-holism
- Nada Faris | Blog
- Zendagi Migzara !
- Trees-Per-Second
- melanie bourgeois, illustrator and conceptartist
- Books On Trial
- MAHEEKATS
- Laura Bruno's Blog
- efrona's blog
- Ozark Pagan Mamma
- The Dancing Hare
- The Raven and The Oak
- stormyviews
- The Rowdy Goddess
- SCOD Public Blog
- Ravemore's Notes
- Life hands us the lemons, now where's the vodka?
- Summer Thunder
- A Witchy Life
- Temet Nosce
- PNC-Minnesota Bureau
- Fanny Fae
- Marlene Dotterer
- ChibiSketches
- Robwired
- Daniel Delgado's Blog
- litbeetle
- Bloggity, Bloggity, Blog
- Zcreed
- skylatron
- Reviews and Ramblings
- Life, the Universe, and Everything
- The Write Edge
- shelflifepodcast.wordpress.com
- The Place to Be ...
- Johann Thorsson
