So, my next story for Tales From Midhgardhur should be available on Wednesday, March 30th, 2016. The title is "The Harp of the Sisters" and I think it took as much research as either of my novels. The reason is that it is based on a very old story that now has literally hundreds of versions, and I researched as many of them as I could, in as many languages as I could, to create a Midhgardhur-based version that incorporates elements from most of the versions.
I was inspired by an article from Atlas Obscura entitled "How 2 Sisters and 1 Murder Inspired 500 Songs". It was a great article. The more I delved into the story, the more I knew I wanted to do a version set in Midhgardhur (some of the oldest versions are set in Scandinavia, after all!).
For inspiration, I also searched for images connected to the story. Some old images still exist, but the most horrific were often the modern interpretations. Check out this image of the bone harp that appears in the story, for example.
I used an online collection of English versions of the ballad. I enjoyed a Reddit analysis of a Norwegian version of the ballad. I plumbed a scholarly paper on Swedish and other Nordic variants. I found a good, clear English text with which I could work.. I found an old, scholarly comparison of various Nordic versions to English and Scottish. One page also listed more modern musical variants of the ballad, which sent me off to find versions like Jerry Garcia's Dreadful Wind and Rain and Tom Waits' Two Sisters. So much research! In the midst of it all, there was a death in my family, and I had to abandon all work for weeks at a time, so it is coming out much later than I had intended. I hope the wait was worth it!
Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd
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