Three stark, ancient ballads translated from the Scandinavian, each one a knife-edge between glory and ruin. In 'The Fountain of Maribo,' a queen's thirst for power poisons a kingdom through calculated betrayal. 'Ramund' follows a hero who earns his name through blood, battling giants and standing before an emperor with nothing but courage and a will to prove himself. But it is 'Alf of Odderskier' that cuts deepest: two brothers, Helmer Kamp and Angelfyr, love the same woman and find themselves on opposite sides of a blade. What begins as a contest of wit and warmth ends in a sorrow no one survives. Borrow renders these tales with the unsentimental precision of the medieval hall, where love is often fatal and honor demands its price in flesh. These are not gentle stories. They are the kind that were sung in mead-halls to audiences who knew that the world was hard and the gods were not kind. For readers who crave myth stripped to its bones.
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