Re-imagining A Myth: ‘Endre’ Blog Tour

I don’t know if you guys will recall my posts from back in July as part of Team Ull. I even wrote limericks. Four of them. Well, Ull is the tres sexy main man in The Elsker Saga by ST Bende, and — in case you also missed yesterday’s post — the second book in the series, Endre, came out yesterday. I’m very pleased to have ST herself here to talk to you about re-imagining a myth.

Hei hei. I’m ST Bende and I write about Norse gods with a good clean dose of romance on the side. I love spending time with my imaginary friends in Asgard (and I really love spending time in their secret lair in the Cotswolds, England!). And I love learning about the world they come from. Researching Norse mythology was one of my favorite parts of writing the books of The Elsker Saga, but it was also one of the most difficult. Because when you have an endless supply of amazing stories you could re-imagine, how do you possibly choose between them?

I strongly considered re-imagining the incredibly silly story about everyone’s favorite Norse God, the God of Thunder himself. When Thor’s beloved hammer, Mjolnir, was kidnapped by an evil jotun (who naturally would only return the hammer in exchange for an Asgardian bride), Thor dressed in drag and traipsed off to Jotunheim in full bridal regalia. He returned, Mjolnir in hand and a trail of dead jotuns in his wake.

I also thought about sharing the story of Loki, Odin’s blood-brother, who seriously ticked off the God of Thunder when he cut off Sif’s gorgeous hair.  In order to avoid death-by-Thor, Loki had to convince the dwarves to weave Sif some new hair made of actual gold. This eventually led to the creation of the mighty Mjolnir.  (It always comes back to that hammer with those gods.)

In the end, I chose to tell the story of the relatively unknown God of Winter, Ull. He was the son of the Goddess of Beauty (Sif) and the stepson of the God of Thunder (Thor). He was once worshipped pretty widely across Scandinavia, but there aren’t many stories out there about him. He made the perfect blank page — I got to create the god of my dreams, and make him the perfect match in every way for my human heroine, Kristia.  And then I got to give them the perfect Asgardian wedding. (I nearly lost myself in Pinterest for a few weeks. Best. Research. Ever!)

I set Ull and Kristia’s love story against the heartbreaking tale of Ragnarok. The fall of Asgard and Midgard (Earth) was fated long ago, a necessary evil for the redemption of humankind.  But my version of Ragnarok has more than a few surprises, courtesy of the newest Asgardian. After all, sometimes finding your destiny means doing the exact opposite of what the Fates have in store. Don’t you think?

Now tell me in the comments — if you could re-imagine any myth or fairytale, which would it be? And why?

The gorgeous ST Bende

Before finding domestic bliss in suburbia, ST Bende lived in Manhattan Beach (became overly fond of Peet’s Coffee) and Europe… where she became overly fond of McVities cookies. Her love of Scandinavian culture and a very patient Norwegian teacher inspired the books of The Elsker Saga (TUR, ELSKER and ENDRE). She is an audio co-host of #NALitChat, and helps compile indie new releases for the USA Today HEA blog. She hopes her characters make you smile and that one day, pastries will be considered a health food.

Find ST on Goodreads, Twitter, Pinterest, her blog, or send her an e-mail at stbende(at)gmail(dot)com. While you’re at it, introduce yourself to @UllMyhr on Twitter — when he’s not saving the cosmos from dark elves, he loves meeting new friends. Especially the human kind.

Endre is availalbe from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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