I have posted a recording on Soundcloud of a reading of one of the ballads from the new book, The Faraway North.In this ballad, Young Sir Svedendal calls upon the assistance of his dead mother to help him free himself from a love curse ...This medieval Scandinavian ballad was instrumental in reuniting two separated poems from the poetic Edda. In the 19th century, Grundtvig, a ballad scholar from Denmark, realised that an Eddic poem (called Groagaldr) starring a young hero named Svipdag corresponded to the first half of the Danish/Swedish ballad here called Sir Svedendal, but also known as Unge Svejdal etc. Then, Bugge, a ballad scholar from Norway, pointed out that the second half of the ballad corresponded to a second Eddic poem, also starring Svipdag, called Fjölsvinnsmål. Since then, these two Eddic poems have usually been treated as a single poem, called Svipdagsmål, following Bugge's suggestion.The ballad tells the story in typical ballad style ... listen to my translation of the ballad here:Scandinavian folk ballads --- Skadi Press Books(C) 2016 Ian Cumpstey