Our next preview comes from Jonathan Anders, who, you might guess, is related to me. He is. Jonathan is my nephew. He’s also a linguist by training that I’ve relied on quite a few times over the years. For my first book, Frostborn, Jonathan helped me compose “The Song of Helltoppr,” a Viking-style ballad that related the backstory for a powerful draugr who appears in the novel. Recently, Jonathan wrote “The Wolf of Sindholm,” another saga-style poem that appears in the adventure, Vengeance of the Valravn. Jonathan also composes conlangs, artificially constructed, invented languages. He’s done them for major companies, and has just recently created the “How to Speak Draconic: A Complete Language for Kobold and Dragons” for Kobold Press. Here, he crafts a truly epic saga that I first teased in my campaign setting. In the lore concerning the city of Olsendholm presented in Thrones & Bones: Norrøngard, I talk about a large mead hall known as Þinghöll. As a kind of literary joke, I hid a nod to Beowulf in the hall’s backstory, associating it with an epic poem called “The Bear Son’s Tale.” For Tales from Stolki’s Hall, I thought it would be fantastic to have Jonathan actually compose the full epic, in the style of Beowulf and the Norse sagas. And the results are spectacular. So here is a preview of “The Bear Son’s Tale,” and in-world saga famous across Norrøngard, along with its first annotation. Annotation? Yup, the text is annotated by in-world scholars!
Hark ye heroes || hale and wise-hearted
I would weave for you || the lay of illustrious Bothvar
And Ingeld Spear-point || Splendid heroes both
They met with a wretched fate. || Their story unveils
The lot of men || who contend with jealous foes.
Ingeld son of Ingweald, || skilled at swords’-dance
Witty-wise at word-play || wanted a mead-hall of his own.
So he departed Harthbor’s hold || left the confinement of stern walls.
The petty lord’s laws || did not restrain his steps
Into the wilderness he went || looking for allies.
In the wilds, where || valor is better than gold
He won many friends || among warriors wandering
Away from deathless lords; || wolf-lipped vagabonds
And spirits with hollow backs: || the hallowed Huldrafolk.
Most famous of his followers || are Brunhilde Dragon-Hide ,
And Alithie1, a seer forsaken || exiles and outcasts all.
From six deep pools || Alithie surveyed the world
Each of her two eyes || was thrice-split. Three pupils
Silently shone, new moons || upon a silver sky.
Brunhilde bore a breast-plate || carved of linnorm-scales
Axes shattered against it || Her battle-song inspired
Beautiful deeds of valor. || Ingeld fought first
In every fray || and first dispensed gifts
They loved him deeply || their wandering jarl,
who risked his life || alongside his fellows.
Alithie saw the place in a dream || where Ingeld’s mead-hall would be
It was fat with foul-spawn: trolls and dire-wolves
Wicked fey and enchantments. || Nothing daunted Ingeld
He led the charge into the forest. || For days they blazed a path
Hungering for victory more than meat. || The slaughter-path had been simple to steer.
At last they discovered the spot || Where Alithie had dreamed Ingeld would build
A mighty mead-hall. || The gift-giver, first in the fray, pierced the earth
Planted his iron-leaf’d tree in that place. || He called to Aurvímnir
Chief of gods, || who delights in deeds of boldness
To bless his endeavor. || The all-father heard him,
Bestowed his boon || upon the spear, it blossomed
taller than any other tree || A shining giant,
bark-boned and brilliant-green || In its shade Spear-Point hall was built.
1 According to Liffir Olandsson, first skald of present-day Spear-Point Hall, the Bearson poem drew from other contemporaneous oral sources. Brunhilde would have been known to audiences from the Drakkwif Saga, in which she wove together her armor from the shed skins of her husband, who was transforming into a linnorm. There are no known surviving poems that mention Alithie explicitly, though tales of wandering vølva were common at the time the Bearson poem was composed.
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