New Year's News (Patreon)

My biggest news is that my publisher and I are talking about two new books: 1) a translation of a pack of mythical sagas, including Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, Gautreks saga, Hrólfs saga kraka, and Norna-Gests þáttr, to appear in one volume, and 2) a textbook for learning Old Norse, usable either for people learning the language on their own or for college-level courses. These will join my previous translations of The Poetic Edda and The Saga of the Volsungs with The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok on shelves hopefully within a couple years.

I did go through with a few changes to Patreon tiers for 2018. I added the much-requested $5 tier, and clarified a maximum word count for translation requests for each tier (though all tiers can now request translations of appropriate length into runes). I also added study help (much-requested) as a bonus at the $5 tier and above; this means giving and "grading" exercises in Old Norse or related languages you might be studying. At the $10 tier there will also be periodic small gifts during the year that I have planned.

The cut-off for requesting cards has passed, though I still need to get to the last round of requests (roughly those made since about Dec. 21 or 22). Since I'm temporarily out of cards and have a lot of family obligations over the break, it may take a little longer to get those out. Also note (since this has been asked), the verses from Old Norse poems that I write on the cards are in the original Old Norse, not in translation.

Meanwhile, I'm very pleased at the interest in the stanza-by-stanza breakdown of Hávamál. I'm going to take a break from those for a couple of weeks while I post the long-ago-made Njal's Saga videos during the very busy end of December and first half of January, but for those of you who haven't, if you want a fix of Hávamál I hope you'll check out my Cowboy Hávamál, which I often think about this time of year.

Happy new year!