The Impudent Edda

<p><strong>The text throughout is caustic demotic and profanity-laden as though our narrator isn't some hoary-bearded viking bard sitting by the fireside but a modern guy shooting the breeze with buddies over a beer. The result is a smart lovingly rendered blend of academia and pastiche. -<em>Financial Times</em></strong></p><p></p><p>Picking up where the original medieval sources of Norse mythology -<em> The Poetic Edda</em> and <em>The Prose Edda</em> - left off <em>The Impudent Edda</em> not only introduces readers to a fresh new perspective on both familiar and previously unknown narratives about the Norse gods but also brings the world's foremost epic fantasy series to its inevitable and fateful conclusion: in a dank alleyway behind a dive bar in Boston. Told from the point of view of an irate but profoundly wise drunkard this easy-to-read compilation of unique and archaic lore offers readers a highly accessible journey through fun and classic tales that range from Odin's unprovoked murder of an ancient witch to Freyja's voluntary experiment as a prostitute among lecherous dwarves to Thor's drunken and petty act of larceny on the eve of Ragnarok the final world-shattering battle of the gods.</p><p></p><p>Only available in paperback <em>The Impudent Edda</em> includes 44 black-and-white photos 227 highly informative footnotes (providing important background information on ancient Scandinavian transmogrifiers the functional capabilities of Odin's magical toilet and Tyr's virtuoso guitar-playing skills among many other nuanced facets of ancient Nordic lore) and 33 mythological chapters with such illuminating titles as:</p><p></p><ul><li>Middle-Earth is Just an Eyelash on the Celestial Gallows Pole</li><li>How Not to Get Away with Witch Murder</li><li>Bad Poets Drink Bird Shit</li><li>Never Go Apple-Picking with a Bad God</li><li>Thor's Cross-Dressing Misadventure</li><li>Odin Experiments with Public Vagrancy</li><li>Hostile Cattle Decapitation Day</li><li>Everyone and Everything Dies</li></ul><p></p><p>The book also contains extensive front and end matter including an incredibly educational Foreword by Eirik Storesund (<em>Brute Norse</em>) and glorious cover art by Matt Smith (<em>Barbarian Lord Hellboy: The Bones of Giants</em>). In the May 2025 episode of the <em>Grimfrost </em>podcast <em>The Impudent Edda</em> was even seen being waved around by Johan Hegg (Amon Amarth) so there's also that.</p><p></p><p><strong>Start with a deeply layered set of myths. Invite the best storyteller you know in the greater Boston area. Add alcohol (even more than the myths already contain) and you get <em>The Impudent Edda</em>. Geirsson combines deep knowledge of Norse mythology and a skeptical irreverence for its norms (and norns) building a world of Chevy-driving street-brawling and bar-crawling Massachus-Æsir that remains delightfully familiar to fans of the vikings and their tales. -John Sexton Professor of English at Bridgewater State University and co-host of the <em>Saga Thing</em> podcast</strong></p>