Stories from Northern Myths

The collection begins with the raw, elemental violence of creation: the ice giant Ymir's body dissected by gods to form the earth, sea, and sky. This is Norse mythology before it was softened into symbolism. From that primordial chaos, Baker sweeps into the heroic legends of the Nibelungen cycle, where the dragon-slayer Siegfried wins a kingdom through cunning and magic, where the warrior queen Brunhilde burns with righteous fury, and where betrayal unfolds with the inevitability of fate. These are not gentle fairy tales. They are stories of oaths broken, honor murdered, and the slow machinery of destiny grinding everyone beneath it. Written in 1914 with a straightforward charm that lets the stark beauty of the original myths speak for themselves, this collection captures the Northern tradition at its most elemental: grand, unflinching, and utterly indifferent to modern sentiment.