Preface: The Lost Saga
The Lost Saga
(“Skjöld is made King of Denmark,” a lithograph by Danish artist Lorens Frølich; this image is in the public domain.)
Preface
These tales began in the primordial mists. Long before bark paper, or vellum, or some variant of papyrus reached the Northern lands, these tales were told by the skalds. They were repeated back and forth from skald to royal court and handed down verbally to skaldic apprentices for centuries. Some parts of these tales may even be older, stretching back millennia. And now they are presented to you, in the tradition of the Norse skalds, and in the form of a true Konungasögur, or a Saga of Kings.
(“Skjöld is made King of Denmark,” a lithograph by Danish artist Lorens Frølich; this image is in the public domain.)
Preface
This is our version of the Lost Skjöldunga Saga, magically restored for your pleasure. Through some unknown casting of a seiðr spell, those once destroyed pieces have been restored and joined to what extant portions remained in some written form to give new insights and perspectives into these ancient tales of House Skjöldung. For as some know, the true Skjöldunga Saga was lost to many calamities over the years after the 14th Century and only bits remained, until now. Your musings and remarks are welcome as this Saga, told in the traditional form of both prose and poetry will unfurl only occasionally so it can be savored. Thank you for reading.
Some who are readers of Lost Seasons of the Danes know that AAR began as an attempt to write a new Skjöldunga Saga. However, your humble author did not know enough about either AARs or Sagas when that project began. So that AAR has evolved into its current structure which is much less a Saga and more of a narrative, based upon key fictional characters in and around House Skjöldung in the 8th Century and delivered in a style that borrows from graphic novels.
This AAR aims to go in a very different direction. Instead of stylizing this AAR so it finds a popular audience, what if instead it attempted to echo the Sagas of Snorri Sturluson and other early Norse writers who committed these tales to paper? What if it attempted to tell these tales in their original form albeit in English?
To accomplish that challenge, many of the early chapters will adapt actual sections of Sagas to establish the proper context for what will come later. All of the work that actually exists will be credited and footnoted. The challenge here is to blend, edit, and change this content so the missing parts can be filled in by the AAR, and so this material is still enjoyable for the reader who might wish to pick up a Saga. If history has provided the canvas, the tattered parts of what is left of the Skjöldunga Saga put outlines on that canvas. Then, the picture is filled in using this AAR. Like Snorri’s work, this AAR will blend history, drama, magic, and myth together to provide a different perspective on the past.
And now the technical parts….
Like Lost Seasons of the Danes, this AAR is based upon a play-through of Crusader Kings II that began on May 1, 2023. This uses the 3.3.5.1 version of the game, the final version, with all major DLC activated except Sunset Invasion. So you might say this experiment is a spin-off of that work, but only because it has some of the same characters and uses the same historic template.
There is hope you will enjoy this experiment of blending Sagas, new prose and poetry into an AAR. Thank you for reading.
This AAR aims to go in a very different direction. Instead of stylizing this AAR so it finds a popular audience, what if instead it attempted to echo the Sagas of Snorri Sturluson and other early Norse writers who committed these tales to paper? What if it attempted to tell these tales in their original form albeit in English?
To accomplish that challenge, many of the early chapters will adapt actual sections of Sagas to establish the proper context for what will come later. All of the work that actually exists will be credited and footnoted. The challenge here is to blend, edit, and change this content so the missing parts can be filled in by the AAR, and so this material is still enjoyable for the reader who might wish to pick up a Saga. If history has provided the canvas, the tattered parts of what is left of the Skjöldunga Saga put outlines on that canvas. Then, the picture is filled in using this AAR. Like Snorri’s work, this AAR will blend history, drama, magic, and myth together to provide a different perspective on the past.
And now the technical parts….
Like Lost Seasons of the Danes, this AAR is based upon a play-through of Crusader Kings II that began on May 1, 2023. This uses the 3.3.5.1 version of the game, the final version, with all major DLC activated except Sunset Invasion. So you might say this experiment is a spin-off of that work, but only because it has some of the same characters and uses the same historic template.
There is hope you will enjoy this experiment of blending Sagas, new prose and poetry into an AAR. Thank you for reading.
Contents
Part II: Odin Divides the Lands
Part IV: Froði or Frodo, The Third King
Soundtrack
"Yggdrasil Trembles" by NEMUER
"Gefjon" by Norse Gael
"Óðinn" by Danheim & Gealdýr
"Grótti" by SKÁLD
Full Soundtrack now available as a Playlist.
"Gefjon" by Norse Gael
"Óðinn" by Danheim & Gealdýr
"Grótti" by SKÁLD
Full Soundtrack now available as a Playlist.
The image of the musician above is from Playground and an account where @Chac1 holds the copyright.
The image below of is a colorized version of a woodcut engraving by Wilhelm Engelhard showing a skald entertaining Northmen, published as a book illustration in 1881. This image is in the public domain. The final image is the back of a gold pendant from the 5th Century honoring Odin, the oldest reference showing Odin on any Norse artifact. The pendant is part of the Vindelev Hoard discovered in Denmark.
The image below of is a colorized version of a woodcut engraving by Wilhelm Engelhard showing a skald entertaining Northmen, published as a book illustration in 1881. This image is in the public domain. The final image is the back of a gold pendant from the 5th Century honoring Odin, the oldest reference showing Odin on any Norse artifact. The pendant is part of the Vindelev Hoard discovered in Denmark.
The Lost Saga
ᛏᚺᛖ ᛚᛟᛋᛏ ᛋᚨᚷᚨ
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