What we are, and what we are not

We are a site of stories from the North: myths, sagas, legends, tales and history from Scandinavia and the Nordic world. We publish no news, we are not an academic source, and we do not replace a history book. We tell stories, and we say where they come from.

Who writes

The texts are narrated by artificial intelligence. The responsible editor, Paulo Fernando de Barros, sets topics and rules and answers for publication. Every text is read by him before it goes online.

AI systems make mistakes: they can swap a date, a name or an attribution. That is why each text lists its sources, and any error pointed out is corrected openly.

The nature of each text

Every text states, at the top of the page, one of four natures.

Documented history is what archaeology, documents and historians support. Where specialists disagree, the text says they disagree. Uncertain dates appear as uncertain.

Saga or medieval source is what a saga, a chronicle or another text of the period tells, always attributed to it. Many were written centuries after the events, by authors with their own interests, and we do not treat them as exact record.

Myth or legend is the tradition of gods, beings and heroes, told from the sources that preserved it, such as the Eddas. It is never presented as fact. Where the sources carry different versions, we say which one we follow.

Original tale is fiction invented for this site, inspired by the folklore and myths of the North. It is not documented tradition and carries no list of sources.

Sources

Every text other than an original tale lists its sources at the end: medieval works, editions, and studies by historians and archaeologists. We do not invent quotations, we do not attribute to a source what it does not say, and we do not reproduce translations protected by copyright. Quoted passages are short and attributed.

Respect

Norse mythology is still a living religion for many people, and we treat it with respect. We do not use Viking symbols, runes or stories to promote supremacism, hatred or extremism, and we say so when the Nordic past is distorted to that end.

Images

Images may be illustrations generated by artificial intelligence. When they are, the caption says so. An illustration is not a photograph of a fact or a portrait of a real person.

Advertising

The site carries network advertising, served by third parties and visually separated from the text. We do not choose the advertisers, they do not choose the content, and none of them sees what we publish in advance.

We publish no sponsored content, advertorial or branded content. Should we ever do so, it will be labelled as such, prominently.

Readers who want the next stories by email can subscribe to the free newsletter. It opens no content: the whole site is free.

Corrections

Factual errors are corrected at the same address, with a dated note explaining what changed. We do not delete published text to hide a mistake; we correct it and record the change.