Norse Mythology for Bostonians
***Special update 11/06/20: signed copies of the book are available at my new Etsy store here, and will be until they sell out (which may be never!)***
After 800 years, the final installment of The Edda Trilogy at long last arrives! Picking up where its medieval forebears, The Poetic Edda and The Prose Edda, left off, The Impudent Edda not only introduces readers to a fresh, new perspective on both familiar and previously unknown narratives of Norse mythology, but also brings the world’s foremost epic fantasy trilogy to its inevitable and fateful conclusion: in an alleyway behind a dive bar in Southie.
Based on one of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency‘s longest-running (and unequivocally least popular) columns, Norse History for Bostonians, Norse Mythology for Bostonians: A Transcription of the Impudent Edda has been highly unanticipated, but was released on January 29, 2020 anyway.
Highlights of the book include these enthralling episodes of archaic Scandinavian lore:
- Old Norse Astrophysics
- The Original Gandalf was a Maggot
- Odin Commits Suicide
- Thor Begets the Green Monster
- The Night Freyja Walked the Streets
- Only Foolish Gods Ride the Green Line
- Brady Gets Suspended
- Belichick Rides to Hel
- Thor Breaks and Enters into a Dunkin’ Donuts
…and many more! Plus exclusive excerpts may be found at the following sites:
- McSweeney’s (an excerpt about the time when Thor attempted to renew his driver’s license)
- Points in Case (an excerpt covering the main cast of characters, including Brady, Charlie, and Wally the Green)
- Slackjaw (an excerpt explaining the concepts of Old Norse Astrophysics in layman’s terms)
The book is in stock at the following local, independent New England shops:
- Brookline Booksmith (Brookline, Massachusetts)
- Harvard Book Store (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
- Porter Square Books (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
- Print: A Bookstore (Portland, Maine)
- Simply Scandinavian (Portland, Maine)
For those of you that don’t live in New England, the book may also be purchased wherever else books are sold, including the online-slayer-of-small-businesses-that-shall-not-be-named. If you want to order it online, please consider doing so at Bookshop, Indie Bound or even Barnes and Noble.
Finally, if you somehow arrived at this page looking for the world’s only book of investigative journalism on the Modern Viking Movement and its whalers-turned-Vikings, plagiarizing warrior-poets, and elite Viking sisterhoods, you can learn more about that never-ending work-in-progress here: The Scandinavian Aggressors. Links to excerpts from it follow below:
- For Björn Svensson’s antagonistic relationship with The Little Mermaid and his penchant for quoting classic rock lyrics as skaldic verse, please see: Fear and Loathing in Western Sweden and Dream Hard On
- For Ingrid Törnblom’s establishment of an elite Viking sisterhood that drew comparisons to the Spartans of ancient Greece, the Samurai of feudal Japan, and the Jedi Knights of the Intergalactic Republic, please see: Self-Condemned in the Tunnelbana
- For Trond Troll-Breath’s whaling expedition that sacked the Monastery of Lindisfarne’s gift shop, please see: Welcome to the Mead Hall
- For the band Varjagikaarti’s attempt to be the first Viking metal band to ever abandon their mock longship on stage and literally go a-Viking, please see: Rekindling the Varangian Flame, Part 1 and Rekindling the Varangian Flame, Part 2