Creating the Nine Realms

I had a picture in my head. A man is standing by my local stone bridge, his fingers woven through the chain link fence, peering into the gloom. What does he see? A shape moves in the distance. Is it a troll?

So began my journey to draft out what became four books in my new series, the Saga of the Nine Realms.

Once I hit on the idea of a troll, probably influenced by the Three Billy Goats Gruff, I decided to do some research online. I had a vague idea of a story, and where I wanted it to go, but I needed to do some digging to flesh it out. I had decided on five different worlds populated by dwarves and elves with perhaps a dragon or two. But as I read, my ideas evolved. I found myself looking into Norse mythology and realised how wonderfully it dovetailed with my original idea.

It may surprise you to know that the sources for our understanding of Norse mythology come from two main works, the Poetic Edda, a collection of poems, and the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, who is thought to have used the poems, or a version of them as a resource for his stories. As both were written after the arrival of Christianity into the area, scholars debate how much is original and how much was influenced by this different world view.

There are other snippets of poems and mentions of the gods in other works, but surprisingly little written evidence has survived.

Which means, I get to use my own imagination to fill in the gaps!

Many authors have used Norse mythology as a basis for their books, most notably JRR Tolkien and the LOTR. His descriptions of elves (Alfar) and dwarves (Svartalfar) have had a huge impact on the way we see these people groups. So much so, that everyone thinks they know what they looked like. In reality, all we know about the Alfar, is they existed and lived in a realm called Alfheim. That’s it. So, when I decided on the appearance of the light elves and dark elves, I came up with something different, with a little nod to Tolkien as tribute.

Eventually, you will travel through all nine realms of the mythology, including Asgard. However, you won’t meet any of the more well-known gods, like Thor and Loki. Instead, I’ll be introducing you to some lesser know characters along the way.

I’ve also created some creatures of my own. Naming them was an interesting challenge until I came across a website by the Vikings of Bjornstad, which is a Norse/English dictionary. Imagine my surprise when I discovered another well-known character there. I’ve already mentioned that alf is elf. Well, gand is a magic stick. Therefore, Gandalf means magic stick elf.

Copying his excellent example, I smashed Norse words together to come up with my own character names. I also used them to create three sentences, which appear at the end of book one, The Charred Blade. I am not saying they will make sense to those Norsemen, as I have no clue what their grammar rules were, but the words mean roughly how I translated them.

My hope is, that those readers who know something of Norse mythology will be able to enjoy my retelling and perhaps spot some more obscure references. For those who know nothing, maybe it will encourage them to research the stories themselves, rather than have Marvel be their only source.

The Charred Blade will be available to buy  7th July 2025.