To Valhalla

A brilliant hard-tech debut novel by the well-known author of Her Name, Titanic and Unearthing Atlantis. On Earth, the designers of an advanced space mission fear they've put awesome power in the hands of a maniac, and in the depths of space, a hostile species awakens to the discovery of a new enemy--Earthlings. Illustrated.

From Asgard to Valhalla takes readers deep inside Odin's cavernous hall and tells of the adventures, tragedies and lessons of the Viking Gods. Here, Heather O'Donoghue skillfully uncovers both the history and legacy of these myths to provide the authoritative student text on Old Norse mythology. From the magnificent tales of A Song of Ice and Fire and the supernatural wonders of Valkyries to Tolkien's Riders of Rohan and Marvel's mighty Thor, Norse mythology is a fundamental part of western culture. Drawing from a wealth of sources and scholarly debates, this fully-updated and expanded 2nd edition offers both an engaging survey of the Old Norse myths and an accessible introduction to how such strange and fragmentary material has been seized, repurposed and at times abused throughout the centuries. Notably, this important and timely study explores how Old Norse mythology has been – and continues to be – weaponized by far right movements across the world. Containing 2 brand new chapters on post-medieval reception, 30 illustrations for a stronger visual context and pedagogical updates throughout to aid further study, this new edition of From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths is a vital resource for all students of Old Norse mythology.

Greetings, initiate! Carter Kane, here. Congratulations on reaching Brooklyn House in one piece. You are quite clearly descended from Egyptian royalty, with magical powers gifted from the gods. But what good is power without knowing how to use it? That's where this training manual comes in. It's packed with quizzes, stories and inside info on the Ancient Egyptian deities. For those with the blood of the pharaohs, this is your first step down the path of the gods. But beware, anything can happen in the world of Egyptian magic . . . Forming a trio with HOTEL VALHALLA and CAMP HALF-BLOOD CONFIDENTIAL, this companion guide gives readers the inside scoop on Brooklyn House - the safe haven in New York for magicians like Carter and Sadie Kane.

Ever since the accident, ex-cop Tom Parsons’s life has been crumbling around him: his marriage and career have fallen apart, his grown children barely speak to him, and he can’t escape the dark thoughts plaguing his mind. Leaving the urban misery of Winnipeg, he tries to remake himself in the small lakeside town of Valhalla, with its picturesque winter landscape and promise as a “fisherman’s paradise.” As the locals make it clear that newcomers, especially ex-RCMP, are less than entirely welcome, he throws himself into repairing his run-down cabin. But Tom has barely settled in the town when he finds the body of a fifteen-year-old Indigenous girl on the beach, not far from his home. The police write off Angel’s death as just another case of teenagers partying too hard. But the death haunts Tom, and he can’t leave the case closed—something just doesn’t add up. He begins visiting the locals, a mix of Icelandic eccentrics, drug dealers and other odd sorts you’d expect to find in an isolated town, seeking out Angel’s story. With the entitled tourists with their yachts and the mysterious Odin group living up the lake, Valhalla is much more than it originally seemed. And as Tom peels off the layers, he hopes to expose the dark rot underneath. W.D. Valgardson’s expert manipulation of metaphor and imagery brings a mythic scale to the murder mystery at the heart of In Valhalla’s Shadows. He shapes a portrait of small-town living with frank depictions of post-traumatic stress, RCMP conduct, systemic racism and the real-life tragedies that are too often left unsolved.

Tolkien’s wizard Gandalf, Wagner’s Valkyrie Brünnhilde, Marvel’s superhero the Mighty Thor, the warrior heading for Valhalla in Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” and Donald Crisp’s portrayal of Leif Eriksson in the classic film The Viking—these are just a few examples of how Icelandic medieval literature has shaped human imagination during the past 150 years. Echoes of Valhalla is a unique look at modern adaptations of the Icelandic eddas (poems of Norse mythology) and sagas (ancient prose accounts of Viking history, voyages, and battles) across an astonishing breadth of art forms. Jón Karl Helgason looks at comic books, plays, travel books, music, and films in order to explore the reincarnations of a range of legendary characters, from the Nordic gods Thor and Odin to the saga characters Hallgerd Long-legs, Gunnar of Hlidarendi, and Leif the Lucky. Roaming the globe, Helgason unearths echoes of Nordic lore in Scandinavia, Britain, America, Germany, Italy, and Japan. He examines the comic work of Jack Kirby and cartoon work of Peter Madsen; reads the plays of Henrik Ibsen and Gordon Bottomley; engages thought travelogues by Frederick Metcalfe and Poul Vad; listens to the music of Richard Wagner, Edward Elgar, and the metal band Manowar; and watches films by directors such as Roy William Neill and Richard Fleischer, outlining the presence of the eddas and sagas in these nineteenth- and twentieth-century works. Altogether, Echoes of Valhalla tells the remarkable story of how disparate, age-old poetry and prose originally recorded in remote areas of medieval Iceland have come to be a part of our shared cultural experience today—how Nordic gods and saga heroes have survived and how their colorful cast of characters and adventures they went on are as vibrant as ever.

This high-Fantasy, coming of age tale follows a group of teens chosen to prove their value with a quest to locate Valhalla’s Tears, the one sword that can overthrow an increasingly corrupt governmental tyranny. This sword, vanishing from the land of Cartha thousands of years prior, has been the objective of such journeys for generations, but with a little magic, luck and a ton of tenacity, the village elders believe that Allo and his companions might just have a chance for success. This group, consisting of a Human boy, an Elvin girl, a Halfling male, a part Giant male, a Dwarvin male and a Half-Elvin male mage, setting out with what they can carry. They will have to defeat the beasts and demons that populate this D&D inspired world, along with agents of the government who know that their power will be stripped from them should Valhalla’s Tears be recovered. However, it seems that it’s not just the creatures and men conspiring against them, they must also use their skills and knowledge as well as their courage to traverse dangerous caverns and ford raging rivers and the like. This epic journey, told through the eyes of Allo, is sure to rekindle your love for the High-Fantasy genre. It combines the best elements of traditional carefully created worlds with plenty of unpredictable action, politics, life-long romance and friendships in ways which is sure to please even the most avid of readers.

A thousand years ago a slave girl becomes a Viking warrior and swordsmith. Raiding far Castille in dragon ships with her Norse Swordsmith master and friends. A Vike that risks everything but offers secrets that will transform their ancient craft. A life or death journey and a clash of culture and religion.