Viking: Legends of the North: A Limited Edition Boxed Set by Tanya Anne Crosby, Miriam Minger, Shelly Thacker, Glynnis Campbell Read Free Book Online

meant for her .
    “Long ago,” he began, staring intently at the woman’s back while she chopped seaweed, “Fenrir, one of Loki’s three sons—“
    “Who’s Loki?” Kimmie asked.
    “Loki is the brother of Thor.”
    “Who’s Thor?”
    “Thor is the son of Odin.”
    “Who’s Odin?”
    Brandr sighed. The little girl apparently knew nothing about her Viking bloodline and history. It was tempting to recite the entire lineage of the gods, an ordeal that could take hours, but his own children had always fallen asleep before he could get past the fifth generation. He settled for telling her, “Odin is a god. They’re all gods. And Loki, the son of Odin and the god of fire, was always causing trouble.”
    “Mama says I’m always causing trouble,” Kimbery told him.
    “Well, not this kind of trouble,” he said. “Loki lied and cheated and tricked the other gods.”
    “He had no honor?”
    “Aye, that’s right. He had no honor. He did, however, have three sons, creatures he’d raised up to be terrible monsters. One was a great serpent.” Brandr hissed like a snake, making the little girl shiver in delighted revulsion. The woman ignored his antics.
    “Odin cast him into the sea, where he grew so fast that his body coiled around the whole world and his tail grew into his mouth.”
    The little girl gasped with wonder. Her mother continued chopping.
    “The second monster Odin imprisoned in Niflheim, a land where the sun never shines and it’s always dark.”
    “I’m not afraid of the dark,” Kimbery boasted.
    “That’s good.”
    “What about the third monster?”
    “He was called Fenrir, and he was a vicious, snapping wolf.” Brandr snarled loudly, startling the woman. She gasped and fumbled with her knife, dropping it with a clatter on the table. He smirked, enormously satisfied. “Odin brought him to Asgard, the home of the gods, hoping to tame him.”
    “Tame him like Finn?”
    “Finn?”
    “My dog. He used to let me ride on his back.”
    “I see. Nay, Fenrir was too wild to be tamed. Each day, he grew bigger and bigger, more and more ferocious, until only one of the gods had the courage to feed him. That god was Tyr, the god of war, another of Odin’s sons. Tyr was brave and loyal, and every day he’d bring Fenrir his supper.”
    “What did Fenrir eat?”
    Glancing at the woman, who had gone back to chopping, he was tempted to say “Pictish wenches.” Instead, he told her, “He ate meat—cows and pigs and—“
    “Sheep?” the lass asked fearfully. “Did he eat sheep? I have a sheep.”
    “Well…nay, I don’t think Fenrir liked the taste of sheep,” he assured her. “But he had a big appetite, and he grew larger every day until eventually the gods decided he was too big and too dangerous to be roaming around Asgard. They couldn’t kill him, because killing was forbidden in Asgard. So they decided to chain him.”
    “Like Mama chained you?”
    He smiled grimly. “Exactly.”
    The woman stiffened and paused, her knife poised in midair.
    He resumed the story. “Thor, the god of thunder and Loki’s brother, said he would forge a strong chain to bind Fenrir with the help of Miolnir.”
    “Who’s Miolnir?”
    “Miolnir is Thor’s mighty hammer. It looks like the one I wear around my neck.” He lifted his chin to show the little girl the small silver hammer.
    Kimbery rose up halfway, as if she planned to walk over to get a closer look.
    Like all mothers, the woman apparently had eyes in the back of her head, for she called over her shoulder, “Kimmie, stay where you are!”
    “I am!” the little girl insisted, sitting back down.
    Brandr continued. “Thor hammered all night on the chain. The next day, because Fenrir wasn’t afraid of the other gods,” he said, narrowing his eyes pointedly at the woman’s back, “he let them slip the chain around his neck.”
    “And nobody was allowed to go near him,” Kimbery guessed.
    “That’s right. But much to the surprise of