Foreword
On Sources and Style
In this novel, I will be adapting the story of Sigurd Fafnesbane within the continuity of the Tellus Arc. This is not the first time I have adapted popular myth and legend into my stories and it most certainly will not be the last either. My primary source is the 1888 translation of the Völsunga Saga by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson, but I have been looking at other Norse/Icelandic sources like the "Fafnesmal" and the "Helreið Brynhildar", the German Nibelungenleid and JRR Tolkien's own adaptation of the story, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. If you have done any research into the story, you know that there is no single unified narrative, which helps to lend me more of free hand in adapting my own take on the story, but it is also a challenge to try to iron out the inconsistencies in the different sources. Hopefully the end product serves to satisfy both fans of the original stories and fans of my work.
I spent a bit of time deciding how I wanted to present the character names. In this edition at least, I have decided to make things more accessible to my Anglophone readers. For instance, instead of rendering our protagonist as "Sigurðr", I will be using "Sigurd" and despite this story being an entry in the Brynhildr Cycle, I will be rendering her name as "Brynhild" here for consistency's sake.
And now, without further ado, let us proceed to the rise and fall of the hero Sigurd.
