This book assesses the importance of poetry for the Old Icelandic literary flowering of c. 1150–1350. It addresses the apparent paradox that an extremely conservative form of literature, namely skaldic poetry, was at the core of the most innovative literary and intellectual experiments in the period. The book argues that this cannot simply be explained as a result of strong local traditions, as in most previous scholarship. Thus, for instance, the author demonstrates that the mix of prose and poetry found in kings’ sagas and sagas of Icelanders is roughly contemporary to the written sagas. Similarly, he argues that treatises on poetics and mythology, including Snorri’s Edda, are new to the period, not only in their textual form, but also in their systematic mode of analysis. The book contends that what is truly new in these texts is the method of the authors, derived from Latin learning, but applied to traditional forms and motifs as encapsulated in the skaldic tradition. In this way, Christian Latin learning allowed for its perceived opposite, vernacular oral literature of pagan extraction, to reach full fruition and to largely replace the very literature which had made this process possible in the first place.

In September of 1939, Hulda Schwarz arrives in Minnesota to recover an ancient runestone. A Nordic high priestess, Schwarz believes the stone will contain a revelation from the goddess Freya, who is guiding and blessing the rise of the Third Reich. Albert Frietag is a Dakota County deputy sheriff with ambitions of becoming an FBI agent. He craves adventure, but nothing prepares him for the bizarre events that unfold when Schwarz turns her eye toward his newborn daughter. Schwarz is convinced that Freya desires to possess the child's heart and soul in fulfillment of the runestone's prophecy. Albert's Christian beliefs, and his love for his family, are sorely tested by mysterious visions, dreams, and the apparently supernatural power of the seductive priestess. Will Albert be able to stop her from escaping to Nazi Germany with his daughter? About the Author Alvin Franzmeier is the author of two other novels in the Spiral Bridge Mystery Series that now includes The Spiral Bridge, The Twins, and Freya's Child. He has also written "The First Words of Jesus," along with numerous theological papers, and is editor of the monthly ezine Reclaiming Our Heritage. With graduate degrees in theology, church history, and counseling, he has pastored Lutheran congregations in Canada, Minnesota, and Texas, and has presented at conferences and retreats across the United States. He currently devotes his time to writing and research. His wife, Sylvia, and he are the parents of three and the grandparents of six. They reside in Texas and have a second home in Colorado.

A fifteen-year-old girl lost her father and now lives with her new stepfather and mum. She overhears her stepfather’s evil plans for her and runs away. She runs into a world of people she had no idea existed. She is discovered to be the fated mate of identical quintuplets. Not only is their father the king of this world, but he also knows her to be a threat—a threat he has to remove if he wants to keep his crown. She runs from one prison into another she never could have imagine existed. Will she find a way free, or will she fall deeper into bondage?

An Insightful Look at a Complex Deity Freyja, Lady, Vanadis: An Introduction to the Goddess examines Freyja, perhaps the best-known goddess of Norse mythology. Using original source material, extant writings, and scholarship the author builds an image of the goddess as she may have appeared to her followers in pre-Christian Northern Europe. Patricia Lafayllve then uses the knowledge she has compiled to speculate on aspects of modern worship of this complex deity.

This volume is an up-to-date, highly readable study of the female aspects of religion both in past and present mythologies. It explores the function and nature of goddesses and their cults in many cultures.

Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond shines light on traditional divisions of Old Norse–Icelandic poetry and awakens the reader to work that blurs these boundaries. Many of the texts and topics taken up in these enlightening essays have been difficult to categorize and have consequently been overlooked or undervalued. The boundaries between genres (Eddic and Skaldic), periods (Viking Age, medieval, early modern), or cultures (Icelandic, Scandinavian, English, Continental) may not have been as sharp in the eyes and ears of contemporary authors and audiences as they are in our own. When questions of classification are allowed to fade into the background, at least temporarily, the poetry can be appreciated on its own terms. Some of the essays in this collection present new material, while others challenge long-held assumptions. They reflect the idea that poetry with “medieval” characteristics continued to be produced in Iceland well past the fifteenth century, and even beyond the Protestant Reformation in Iceland (1550). This superb volume, rich in up-to-date scholarship, makes little-known material accessible to a wide audience.

One of the great storybooks of the middle ages: a master storyteller from the thirteenth century recounts classic tales of Icelandic mythology along with a lesson to young poets on the importance of learning, respecting, and continuing traditional Icelandic poetic styles.