Department: Literature, Fantasy
#Icelandic sagas #Scandinavian mythology #Nordic fantasy #Nordic legends
In the longhouse of the powerful Lady Audur in Iceland, the skald has arrived, tales slung over his arm, lyre on his shoulder. Tonight, by the dancing fire, he will recount the trials and tribulations of Grimkell the Shrewd, the crafty Viking who outwitted the jötnar giants while walking on thin ice. Day after day, to avoid a nasty fate, Grimkell had to deliver an extraordinary tale to them.
Inspired by the great Norse sagas and the tradition of the skalds, the novel revisits Scandinavian mythology with finesse, humour and poetry. Amidst snow-covered landscapes, legendary creatures and echoes of the ancient gods, it weaves a tapestry where intelligence triumphs over strength, and where the power of stories can defy even the giants.
“To open one of Pierre Efratas’s books is to be swept away by a flood of images set against the backdrop of the dawn of time, as if spellbound here and there by the musicality of ancient words that blossomed in the northernmost lands.” (Idavoll, a French-language resource website on the Viking Age).