a) the Death and Avenging of Baldr;
b) the Peace of Frothi;
c) the Theft of the Mead of Skaldship; and
d) the relations of Gefjon and Heimdall referred to in the Lokasenna.
The above themes are not part of a single episode or cycle within the Eddas. For the sake of my classically-trained soul, I’ve woven them together in a logical progression; but that progression doesn’t exist in the original.
In the present context, I’m a storyteller, not a scholar writing an exegesis on Norse myth; but I have tried to reflect the worldview I briefly shared while staring across the smoking basalt wastes of Iceland.
The world of the Eddas was harsh and unforgiving; but it wasn’t without nobility. I hope both aspects come through in Northworld and the later novels I’ve planned for the setting.
Dave Drake
Chatham County, N.C.