It’s another Kickstarter book! Anytime I see a Kickstarter for a book on myths, legends, and/or folktales, I just can’t help but back it. Especially if I’m not familiar with those legends.

Stories from Saxo is a collection of Norse tales from the Danish writer Saxo Grammaticus. His work, Gesta Denorum (Deeds of the Danes) drew on Norse myths and wove them into a history of Danish kings. This collection takes 32 tales from the Gesta Denorum and translates them into English.

To me, the most obviously Norse tale was the one on Odin’s exiles and yet, it was one that I was completely unfamiliar with (bear in mind that most of what I know about Norse Mythology comes from Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology). I didn’t know that there were tales where Odin was exiled twice, so this was definitely interesting.

The rest of the tales were completely new to me and since I am largely unfamiliar with Nose and Danish tales, it was hard for me to see where the Norse influence was. There are notes on the stories at the back of the book, so that was very helpful to put the tales in context.

Personally, I thought the tales about Frode were the most interesting. Two of the tales are about how he won two of his wives, and even though the story doesn’t say it explicitly, I felt like the reason why his first wife (Hanunde) cheated on him was because Hanunde was under a love potion when they were convincing her to marry Frode. Moral of the story: don’t use magic to persuade people to marry you.

I was also pretty interested by the fact that many of the female characters in the tales seem to have some form of agency. They’re often allowed to decline marriage suitors (although that is, admittedly, when they are given the right to), and there is even one princess who becomes a Viking for a period of time. So while the male characters are often the protagonists of the story, it was interesting to see the ways the women acted.

Overall, this is a fantastic book to add to my small collection of myths and legends. Most of the stories were new to me and I really enjoyed the illustrations present in the book as well. I’m not too sure when it’ll be out, but if you’re a fan of myths, you’ll want to check this out.

Featured Image: Photo by Me