Part 2 of When the Fires Were Lit — The Road from Ásgarðr is finally ready.
The road continues. The Shadow remains, the brothers encounter someone who will become important to their journey, and eventually their paths begin to separate. Along the way, we get a little more of Óðinn and Lóðurr as brothers, travelers, and very different men trying to find their way through worlds that are still becoming what they will eventually be.
All culminating in Óðinn meeting a familiar face. What happens there is a story about earth, magic, curiosity, and the things we can learn when we stop trying so hard to understand everything and simply listen. There may also be a little trouble along the way. Because apparently, sending Óðinn into the garden of a woman who knows exactly what she’s doing was never going to end quietly. 😉
When the Fires Were Lit — The Road from Ásgarðr (Part 2) is now available wherever you listen to Ramblings Through Vanaheim.
When I first imagined this series, I expected the war itself would occupy most of the story. I also only thought it would be a slightly longer single episode. Instead, the characters insisted that before we could understand the battles, we first needed to understand what those battles cost the people waiting at home. So what should have been a brief rendition with maybe a few characters developed more fully has turned into a multi episode epic. Odyssey, eat your heart out. This episode became less about armies and victories, and more about the quiet devastation left behind when violence reaches those who never carried a weapon. This happens even today when war hits those that didn’t ask for it. And it breaks my heart.
Without giving too much away, Part 2 follows life in Vanaheim as the war drags on, the growing burden carried by those left behind, and the tragedy that forever changes the royal family. It is, without question, the most emotionally difficult episode I have written to date.
As always, this series is rooted in the surviving Old Norse sources—including the Poetic Edda, Skáldskaparmál, and Ynglinga saga—while using Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG) and informed speculation to bridge the many gaps those texts leave behind. My goal is not to rewrite the lore, but to explore one possible way these events might have unfolded while remaining true to the spirit of the surviving traditions. I continue to take quite a lot of liberties with relationships and chronology where the surviving texts remain silent, as that is how the story has unfolded for me. Your understanding may follow a different path, and that’s perfectly okay.
I also want to repeat the content warning from Part 1 because it becomes even more important here.
Sometimes the stories that come through to me reflect the brutality of earlier times. The people who first heard and retold these stories did not soften them for comfortable audiences, and neither do the surviving sources. Snorri preserved much of the mythology through the lens of Christian Iceland while attempting to preserve older poetic traditions, but when I ask how this story wishes to be told, what comes through is often difficult to write, let alone hear.
Please be aware that this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence, war, grief, and the deaths of both adults and children. Nothing has been included for shock value alone. Every difficult scene serves the story, the characters, and the emotional weight of what follows. Even so, if you live with PTSD related to violence, abuse, or the loss of a loved one, I encourage you to practice self-care and listen in smaller portions if needed. This is also not an episode I would recommend for listeners under the age of eighteen.
The image accompanying this episode may look quiet at first glance. That was intentional. One of the greatest obscenities of this chapter is that Vanaheim itself still stands. The forests remain green. The grass still grows. The great hall still watches over its people. It is life that has vanished. Sometimes absence tells a more terrible story than destruction ever could.
Thank you, as always, for walking this road with me. I hope you’ll continue the journey of this story and find threads of truth and deeper connection to those I portray within it. As a quick aside, I am working on episode 3 but it may be a few more days before I get it published. Perhaps George Martin ought to take a few pointers from me.
The wait is over! The first episode of my new long-form podcast series, The Æsir–Vanir War, is now live.
Originally, I intended this to be a single episode covering the beginning of the conflict. Once I sat down to write, though, the story simply…kept flowing. The characters found their voices, the world grew larger, and before I realized it I had written far beyond what could comfortably fit into a single episode. Rather than rush through those moments—or ask listeners to sit through a several hours-long recording—I decided to let the story breathe and divide it into multiple parts.
Part 1 Introduces Gullveig and her family, follows her arrival in Ásgarðr, the growing tensions between the Æsir and the Vanir, and the events that set one of the greatest conflicts in Norse mythology into motion.
As always, this series is rooted in the surviving Old Norse sources—including the Poetic Edda, Skáldskaparmál, and Ynglinga saga—while using Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG) and informed speculation to bridge the many gaps those texts leave behind. My goal is not to rewrite the lore, but to explore one possible way these events might have unfolded while remaining true to the spirit of the surviving traditions. I took quite a few liberties in relationships as that is how they translate for me, but YMMV.
I want to be open and offer a trigger warning right here. Sometimes the stories that come through to me reflect the brutality of earlier times. The people who listened and composed these stories didn’t water them down in the retellings. Snorri’s versions were designed to maintain a specific type of talent the Icelanders possessed when it came to poetry while still keeping a Christian bent to the material. However, what gets dumped into my brain when asking how they want the story told can often be very difficult to write, let alone hear. In light of this, dear reader and listener, please be aware that this episode (and subsequent series) contains graphic descriptions of violence, war, and the deaths of both adults and children. While nothing is included for shock value alone, some listeners may find portions of this story emotionally difficult. If you have PTSD due to violence or abuse, and would still like to listen, please exercise self-care and proceed with caution in small increments throughout these particular episodes. I would not allow children under 18 to listen.
I hope you’ll join me as we begin this journey into one of the oldest and most enigmatic stories preserved in the Norse corpus. Skál!
