Norse Fantasy with a Historical Flair

 



Ancient Norse culture is really interesting to me. Setting pop culture perceptions aside, there's this (to me) bizarre mix of honor and brutality in what we frequently call 'Viking' culture that is completely alien to my way of thinking. The values are different from mine. The perception of fairness, of justice, and of proper living are all different, so different as to be alien. 

I've been working on a fantasy story inspired by the flavor of Norse mythology. I can't really call it a Viking story though, or even a Norse or ancient Scandinavian story, because I've made up quite a bit. There is a god that one of the characters referenced on the first page who, as far as I know, does not appear in Norse mythology. This god is a god of passage, a psychopomp, like Charon of Hades. She carries the dead into the afterlife in her shallow-hulled, misty ship that can traverse river and ocean and the black waters of death, through to the after life. 

She's only mentioned in the first few pages, and after that I'm not sure she comes into the story again. But I haven't finished it, so I don't know. We'll see if she makes an appearance at the end. Maybe.



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