The Old Tellings — Index

50 tellings · new ones arrive weekly

01	Odin's Eye: The Price of Seeing	Odin pawns an eye at Mimir's well for one drink of wisdom — the series opener on what seeing costs.
02	Freyja: Half the Slain and Hers First	Before love and amber tears, Freyja's first claim in the sources: half the battle-dead, chosen before Odin's half.
03	Frigg: The One Who Knows and Says Nothing	The goddess who knows every fate of every living thing — and tells none of it.
04	The Norns: The Well Where the Tree Is Watered	Urth, Verthandi and Skuld at the third well, watering the tree and cutting every fate.
05	Fenrir: The Ribbon and the Hand	The wolf raised among gods, the two failed chains, and the silken ribbon that finally bound him.
06	Tyr: The God Who Held Still	The one god who fed the wolf, and the pledge-hand laid in his mouth as the ribbon pulled tight.
07	The Valkyries: The Choosers of the Slain	Who the choosers of the slain actually are in the sources — namers, pourers, and deciders of battles.
08	The Vanir: The War That Ended in Hostages	The first war ends with no victor — only traded hostages: Njord, Freyr and Freyja among the Aesir.
09	The Week: A Fossil Pantheon	The pantheon fossilized in plain sight: Tyr's-day, Odin's-day, Thor's-day, Frigg's-day — the gods in the calendar.
10	The Mead of Poetry: The Drink That Had to Be Stolen	Kvasir's blood brewed to mead, and why poetry only reaches gods and men by theft.
11	Loki: The Problem the Gods Kept	Blood-brother, fixer, and cause of most of the trouble — the problem the gods chose to keep close.
12	Baldr: The One Small Thing She Skipped	Frigg takes oaths from all things but one; the mistletoe, the blind hand, and the death that starts the end.
13	Yggdrasil: The Court Beneath the Dying Tree	The world-tree itself: three roots, three wells, the beasts that gnaw it, and the court held beneath it daily.
14	Ragnarok: The End They Knew by Heart	The doom the gods heard prophesied in full — and armed for anyway; the ending and what grows after.
15	Heimdall: The Watchman Who Never Slept	Nine mothers, gold teeth, hearing grass grow: the watchman at the bridge and the horn that ends the world.
16	Hel: The Keeper of the Quiet Lands	Half-dark keeper of the quiet dead; Hermod's ride to her hall and the one condition she set for Baldr.
17	Skadi: The Bride Who Chose by Feet	The giant's daughter who came armed for vengeance and left with a settlement: laughter, and a husband chosen by his feet.
18	The Runes: The Price of Writing	Nine nights hanged on the windy tree, himself given to himself — what Odin paid to take the runes.
19	The Volsungs: The Otter's Ransom	An otter-skin filled with cursed gold and Andvari's ring on top: the debt that begins the whole Volsung cycle.
20	Sigurd and Fafnir: The Dragon Who Told the Truth	The killing on Gnitaheith, and the dying dragon whose every warning proves true.
21	The Valkyrie in the Fire-Ring: The Name That Was a Mistake	The sleeper waked inside the fire-ring, the rune-counsel she gives — and the name confusion the editors never untangled.
22	The Ale of Forgetting: He Asked to Be Told	Sigurd asks to hear his whole fate foretold, hears it, rides into it — and a cup steals his memory anyway.
23	The Quarrel at the River: The Wrong True Thing	Two queens quarrel over precedence in the water; a ring produced as evidence, and the true thing said that cannot be unsaid.
24	The Death of Sigurd and the Last Ride: Sink Down, Giantess	The sword while he sleeps, Brynhild's one whole-hearted laugh, a pyre built for two, and the ride down Hel-way.
25	Idunn and the Apples: It Was Near Being Desperate Once	The keeper of the apples of youth stolen away, the gods aging fast, and the falcon-flight that wins her back.
26	Aslaug the Girl in the Harp: Doubtless Quite Mythical	Sigurd and Brynhild's daughter smuggled through the ruin inside a harp — what survives when everything else burns.
27	Skirnismal: Long Is One Night	Freyr lovesick on the high seat; Skirnir's errand, gifts, and the ugly threat scholars still argue over.
28	The Making of the Treasures: The Head, but Not the Neck	Loki's wager with the dwarf-smiths: the hammer, the golden boar, the ring — and the head owed, but not the neck.
29	Thrymskvitha: Our Hammer Is Stolen	The hammer ransomed for a bride: Thor in the veil, eating an ox at his own wedding.
30	Hymiskvitha: The Serpent Yet Lives	The cauldron-errand at Hymir's, and the fishing trip that hooked the Midgard Serpent — which yet lives.
31	Lokasenna: Every Quiet Thing Out Loud	Loki crashes Aegir's feast and says every unsayable thing about every god present; the binding follows.
32	Harbarthsljoth: The Passage Thou Hast Not	Thor stalled at the ferry by a magnificently rude boatman who knows too much to be a boatman.
33	The Journey in the East: Now I Will Tell Thee the Truth	Utgarda-Loki's hall of illusions: the drinking horn that is the sea, the cat that is the serpent, the old woman who is age itself.
34	Thor and Hrungnir: No One Had Ever Offered Him Single-Combat	The duel at the stone fence: the clay giant, the whetstone in Thor's skull, and the leg no one could lift.
35	Thor at Geirrodr's: At Its Source Should a River Be Stemmed	Hammerless into the giant's hall by Loki's doing; the swelling river and the chair pressed toward the roof.
36	Alvissmol: The Day Has Caught Thee, Dwarf	The all-wise dwarf comes for a bride and is quizzed on the names of all things until the sun catches him.
37	The Rigsthula: Rig Knew Well Wise Words to Speak	Rig walks the world fathering thrall, farmer and noble — the myth of where the orders of men came from.
38	The Hyndluljoth: And All Are Thy Kinsmen, Ottar, Thou Fool	Freyja, a boar who is not a boar, and the cave-giantess who remembers every bloodline back to the first blood.
39	The Grimnismol: But for Munin My Care Is More	Odin tortured between two fires names the halls of heaven — and worries most for a raven.
40	The Vafthruthnismol: No Ice on the River There Is	The head-wager riddle match with the wisest of giants, lost on the question only one being can answer.
41	The Svipdagsmol: But Long Is Love as Well	A dead mother's charms sung from the grave, and the gate that opens for exactly one man.
42	The Völundarkvitha: Laughing Völund Rose Aloft	The smith maimed and caged by a king; his terrible patient revenge, and the flight that ends it.
43	The Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II: As Once I Lay with the Living King	The Valkyrie at her dead king's burial mound — one last night inside it with him.
44	Njörð and Skaði: Here It Is Recorded	Sea god and mountain bride, wed by the feet-choice: nine nights each way, and neither could bear the other's hall.
45	Frey and the Summer: It Is Good to Call on Him	The god of sunshine, growing seasons and peace — the one the sources say it is good to call on.
46	Freyja: Goddess Beautiful in Tears	Freyja told whole: Brísingamen, the amber tears, the many names, and the husband she searches for.
47	Ægir's Fire: The Gold Gave Forth Light	The sea-giant's feast lit by shining gold instead of flame — why the skalds call treasure the fire of the sea.
48	Fródi's Meal: But of Their Kindred Didst Not Inquire	The peace-king's magic mill and the two giant-maids grinding gold, peace — and then an army.
49	Angrboda and the Ironwood: Her Name Is Nowhere Stated	The wolf-mother in the forest east of Midgard, and the strange silence of the sources around her name.
50	Loki and the Half-Burnt Heart: Kinsman of Sleipnir	One stanza, one crime: the half-burnt heart Loki ate, and the monsters mothered after.

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Before the stories were mine to retell, they belonged to everyone. This series visits the old Norse tellings as the Eddas actually give them — the sources under every Norse tale you’ve ever loved. Back to the blog →