Welcome brave reader, noble seeker of fine tales...
Don't worry, I don't bite.
Many call me a Bookwyrm for I devour books and hoard my favourites, akin to Smaug in the Lonely Mountain.
Others call me Becky and know I have 3 distinct favourite genres to read:
1 - Norse Fantasy
2 - Viking Non-Fiction
3 - Viking Historical Fiction
I have been an avid reader since a young age and only developed my passion for Vikings and all things Norse after reading The Last Kingdom (Uhtred Series) by Bernard Cornwell.
Reading and hearing how characters of viking origins talked about their gods then led me to the Norse Myths and the wonderful cast of characters in this pantheon.
I began reading Viking Non-fiction much later after attending my first Richard Hall Symposium as part of the Jorvik Viking Festival, held annually in York. There I got to hear from academics and experts in the wide and varied field of Viking research and so chose to add their titles and published works to my collection. I have also done my best to attend the annual Midlands Viking Symposium and the Norse in the North Symposium too.
I have been attending the Jorvik Viking Festival since 2007 and through it's many engaging events, got to meet many of my favourite authors as well as meet fellow fans of these genres.
This blog is my humble effort to share my favourite reads across all three genres.
In 2018 I made my first public speaking debut at the now ceased Nine Worlds Con, a fan-based convention in London, where I spoke to a full room about all the Norse Fantasy I had read, recommending authors and titles based on the different aspects of retellings I had identified and observed.
This panel and topic was then reunited to discuss the topic further as part of an episode with "That Jorvik Viking Thing Podcast" which premiered during the Jorvik Viking Festival 2022: you can listen by clicking the image below.
In 2024, I made my first academic debut as part of the MARRY Symposium (Medieval Ages: Relevance, Retelling and Inspiration), hosted at the University of Stavanger, Norway - where I presented my initial research, theories and observations on the interpretation and depiction of Valkyries in Fantasy Fiction, focusing firstly on the interpretation of Brynhild the Valkyrie and the Volsung Saga in 3 contemporary fantasy novels:
