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
Northern Tides: The Jarl of Tortuga doesn't hide its inspiration — it's built on Pirates of the Caribbean from the keel up, with Hans Zimmer's cello-and-horn swagger deliberately married to Tagelharpa and war-drum North. But underneath the wink and the rum joke sits real Norse mythology, borrowed just as deliberately as the soundtrack style.
The serpent that isn't just a Kraken
"Raid of the Kraken-Serpent" names its monster twice for a reason. The Kraken is the film franchise's beast; Jörmungandr is the real one — the Midgard Serpent of Norse myth, a monster so vast that in the old stories it circles the entire world with its own tail in its mouth. It sleeps in the deep sea until Ragnarök, when it rises to fight Thor one final time; both god and serpent are fated to kill each other in that battle. The album's mash-up isn't just for size — it's genuinely putting two world-ending sea monsters, one Hollywood and one Old Norse, on the same stage.
The bridge that was never meant to hold an army
"Storming the Bifröst Bridge" borrows its finale from a real piece of Norse cosmology: Bifröst, the burning rainbow bridge linking Midgard, the world of humans, to Asgard, the home of the gods. It was guarded day and night by the god Heimdall — who could hear grass growing and see for a hundred leagues — precisely because the myths knew what would eventually happen to it. At Ragnarök, the fire giants of Muspelheim ride across it to storm Asgard, and the bridge collapses under their weight. A pirate ship 'storming' that bridge is fan fiction; the bridge itself, and its coming destruction, is scripture.
The real treasure in the jar
The album's own soundtrack references a real piece of film trivia: in the actual Pirates of the Caribbean films, Jack Sparrow's 'jar of dirt' is a running gag — a jar of ordinary Caribbean soil he insists on keeping, because as long as he has land with him, Davy Jones (whose curse is tied to the sea) can't fully claim him. It's a joke about superstition, not a treasure. But the album's closing title pairs that gag with something genuinely mythic: Odin's eye. In the Prose Edda, Odin travels to the Well of Mímir, guarded by the wise being Mímir himself, seeking a drink from its waters of wisdom and foresight. Mímir's price is one of Odin's own eyes. Odin pays it without hesitation — and that sacrifice is why the Allfather of the Norse gods is depicted with only one eye, and why he can see further than any god who kept both.
The music it inspired
Northern Tides: The Jarl of Tortuga
A pirate captain washes up on Viking shores — Jörmungandr in the deep, a Draugr in the fjord mist, and a jar of dirt that's worth more than a throne. Home of “A Jar of Dirt and Odin's Eye.”
The whole album is the joke, on purpose: “Jarl Sparrow's Entrance” gives its swaggering captain a proper Viking debut, “Raid of the Kraken-Serpent” fuses Davy Jones' monster with a Norse one, “The Ghost of the Fjord” is a Draugr playing Davy Jones, “Storming the Bifröst Bridge” is the final battle, and the closer — “A Jar of Dirt & Odin's Eye” — trades the film's running gag about a jar of Caribbean dirt for a very different, very real Norse relic.