“Since young adulthood, I’ve wanted to write a book about Orcs—those foot soldiers of evil first revealed to us in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. I wanted to write it from the Orcs’ point of view. And I wanted to redeem them.” — Scott Oden
Scott Oden presents a dark, epic historical fantasy series set in an alternative medieval world, where ancient creatures of Norse mythology seek revenge against the new religion that has supplanted them—Christianity.
Genre: Historical fantasy
Setting:
A Gathering of Ravens: Denmark, England, and Ireland, between 999 AD and 1014 AD
Twilight of the Gods: Sweden, 1218 AD
The Doom of Odin: Rome, 1347 AD
Publication history:
A Gathering of Ravens first published in hardcover in 2017 by St. Martin’s Press
Paperback edition published in 2020 by St. Martin’s Griffin
Audiobook published in 2020 by Blackstone Audio
Published in the UK in 2017 by Transworld/Bantam; in Russia in 2020 by Eksmo
Twilight of the Gods first published in hardcover in 2020 by St. Martin’s Press
Audiobook published in 2020 by Blackstone Audio
The Doom of Odin will be published in December of 2023
“Steeped in an appreciation for the terrifying and powerful characters of high fantasy… [Oden] provides a satisfying saga that’s as complex as an old tree’s roots, and a pleasure to read.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An action-packed and grim adventure, this novel further demonstrates Oden’s able combination of historical narrative with dark fantasy. Highly recommended for all orc fans.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A rich, grim fantasy world made from Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic myth with strands of Tolkien. … Recommended for lovers of Tolkien, dark fantasy and northern mythology.” — Historical Novel Society
To the Danes, he is skraelingr; to the English, he is orcneas; to the Irish, he is fomoraig. He is Corpse-maker and Life-quencher, the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. He is Grimnir, and he is the last of his kind–the last in a long line of monsters who have plagued humanity since the Elder Days.
Drawn from his lair by a thirst for vengeance against the Dane who slew his brother, Grimnir emerges into a world that’s changed. A new faith has arisen. The Old Ways are dying, and their followers retreating into the shadows; even still, Grimnir’s vengeance cannot be denied.
Taking a young Christian hostage to be his guide, Grimnir embarks on a journey that takes him from the hinterlands of Denmark, where the wisdom of the ancient dwarves has given way to madness, to the war-torn heart of southern England, where the spirits of the land make violence on one another. And thence to the green shores of Ireland and the Viking stronghold of Dubhlinn, where his enemy awaits.
But, unless Grimnir can set aside his hatreds, his dream of retribution will come to nothing. For Dubhlinn is set to be the site of a reckoning–the Old Ways versus the New–and Grimnir, the last of his kind left to plague mankind, must choose: stand with the Christian King of Ireland and see his vengeance done or stand against him and see it slip away?
Scott Oden’s A Gathering of Ravens is an epic novel of vengeance, faith, and the power of myth.
In A Gathering of Ravens, he fought for vengeance. Now, Grimnir is back to fight for his survival.
It is the year of Our Lord 1218 and in the land of the Raven-Geats, the Old Ways reach deep. And while the Geats pay a tax to the King in the name of the White Christ, their hearts and souls belong to the gods of Asgardr. But no man can serve two masters.
Pledging to burn this Norse heresy from the land, famed crusader Konradr the White leads a host against the Raven-Geats, using torch and sword to bring forth the light of the new religion. But the land of the Raven-Geats has an ancient protector: Grimnir, the last in a long line of monsters left to plague Midgardr. And he will stand between the Raven-Geats and their destruction.
Aided by an army of berserkers led by their pale queen, Grimnir sparks off an epic struggle–not only against the crusaders, but against the very Gods. For there is something buried beneath the land of the Raven-Geats that Odin wants, something best left undisturbed. Something the blood of the slain, Christian and pagan, will surely awaken.
Skrælingr. Orcnéas. Fomoraig. He is Grimnir . . .
For over a century, he has tracked the dragon, Níðhöggr — the Malice-Striker — from the shores of Lake Vänern, across the Baltic Sea, through Russia, and down into the Mediterranean; he has hounded the wyrm from Old Muscovy to Messina. And finally, to the outskirts of the Eternal City — to Rome, itself.
And in the Pontine Marshes, on a cold November night in 1347 AD, in the shadow of an ancient ruin, Grimnir’s saga comes crashing to an end. A crossbow bolt, loosed in terror, slays him out of hand. It is a mundane finale to a life spent hip-deep in bloodshed and slaughter, surrounded by steel and savagery and the sorcery of the Elder World.
But Death is just the beginning . . .
Now, on the grim and misty isle of Nástrond, under the shadows of Yggðrasil, Grimnir is plunged headlong into the twisted Valhalla that is the afterlife of his people. Here, bloody in-fighting, schemes and betrayals are the order of the day. Grimnir is forced to contend with a cabal of witches, with giants and trolls who have never felt the light of Miðgarðr’s moon, and with his own rapacious kin as he journeys beyond the shores of Nástrond to find answers. And with every death he suffers, in this world and the next, Grimnir unravels another thread of a monstrous secret woven at the dawn of time — one that will turn him from the pawn of unknown gods into the most powerful being in the Nine Worlds. And the most hunted.
For he, alone, holds the key to Ragnarök and the Doom of Odin . . .
The Many Faces of Grimnir
In 2020, as the pandemic got underway, composer Will Musser read the first two books of the Grimnir Saga and composed this track, called “Corpse-Maker”. It fits Grimnir’s personality quite well . . .
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Scott Oden 