Prologue
In icy waters off Vinland’s shore, mighty Thor goes fishing.
‘Let there be fog
And let there be phantoms
Weird marvels
To baffle your hunters.’
-Njal’s Saga, trs. Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Palsson, 1960
Prologue
After my studies at Miskatonic University in Arkham, I spent a summer researching First Nations’ literature at Saint John’s University in Newfoundland. I was interested in the legends of the Beothuck Indians, a tribe that had died out early in the previous century.
Saint John’s Library possessed the papers and books of John Peyton, Magistrate of Twillingate, who had captured and kept the last surviving Beothuck, who he called Mary March. After Mary’s death, Magistrate Peyton had collected all accounts of the Beothucks that he could find.
It was there, moldering in the archives, that I found a dissenting account of Thor’s battle with the Midgard Serpent, differing in significant details from the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturlason.
The original was in Icelandic, with some terminology in ancient Greek and an unknown language.
My translation follows.