The Lore

Stories of the North

The real history and myth behind the music — raiders who became kings, hammers forged by dwarves, wolf-coated warriors, and the long twilight of the old gods.

History · 9th–10th century

Rollo, Bluetooth, and the Ravens of the Seine

How raiders became kings — and one of them named your phone

From the album · Legends of the Norse
Mythology · the Eddas

The Hammer, the Choosers, and the Bound Wolf

Three myths forged in iron, blood, and tide

From the album · Blood, Iron, and Tide
History & saga

Wolf-Coats and Bear-Shirts: the Truth About Berserkers

The warriors who bit their shields

From the album · Wolf's Blood
History · the conversion of the North

The White Christ and the Old Gods

When the North changed its gods — slowly, and not always by choice

From the album · The Northern Cross
Tradition · Tibetan Buddhism

The Jewel in the Lotus, and the Golden Path

A mantra of compassion and a deity of true abundance

From the album · The Golden Path
Mythology & history

Odin's Nine Nights: the Secret of the Runes

What the runes really were — and the god who hanged for them

From the album · Runes of the Long Night
Mythology · Buddhist cosmology

The Asura: the Demon Behind Your Own Eyes

The jealous gods, the wheel of samsara, and the syllable that frees them

From the album · Om Mani Padme Hum
History & belief · 13th-century Mongol Empire

The Sky That Chose a Khan

A shaman's word turned scattered tribes into an empire — and a buried thread finally ties their story to the North

From the album · Tengri's Awakening
History · the Mongol conquests

The Golden Horde: the Army That Rewrote the Map

How a nation of horsemen conquered more land in 25 years than Rome did in four centuries

From the album · The Iron Hooves Hymnal
History · the Mongol Empire

The Women Who Ran the Empire

While the Khans rode to war, their mothers, wives, and daughters ruled — and one of them out-wrestled every man who challenged her

From the album · Valkyries on the Steppe
History & mythology · the Viking Age

The Seeress and the Eagle That May Never Have Flown

One woman who really did read the future — and one legendary punishment that probably never happened

From the album · Saga of the Winter Seas
Mythology · a deliberate mash-up

The Real Myths Behind a Jarl Called Sparrow

Northern Tides is an open homage to Pirates of the Caribbean — here's the genuine Norse mythology hiding inside the joke

From the album · Northern Tides: The Jarl of Tortuga