Stephan Grundy
Encyclopedia
Stephan Grundy is an American author
best known for his modern adaptations of legendary sagas
and also a non-fiction writer on Germanic mythology
, Germanic paganism
, and Germanic neopaganism
, often under the pseudonym Kveldulf Gundarsson (with some variations in spelling).
Grundy grew up mainly in Dallas in the U.S. state
of Texas
.
during his first year at Southern Methodist University
in Dallas, where he was studying English and German philology
. Originally, the novel was intended to be based on the Anglo-Saxon epic poem
Beowulf
, but Grundy was convinced by his professor Dr. Stephen Flowers
(author of numerous widely respected works about Germanic history and magic
) that the Nibelung
legend would be a more appropriate basis for a first novel.
Grundy wrote most of the novel in a dormitory
at the University of St Andrews
, Scotland
, where he spent one year as an exchange student
. He also spent a year as an exchange student in Bonn
, Germany
- virtually at the foot of the Drachenberg - spending some of his time on research for his novel (which also led him all across Scandinavia
). Rhinegold — a retelling of the entire Sigurð cycle dedicated
to, among others, Richard Wagner
and J. R. R. Tolkien
— came out in 1994, and quickly developed into an international best-seller
. In the same year, Grundy received his PhD from the University of Cambridge
with a dissertation on Odin
: ("The Cult of Óðinn: God of Death?").
Terri Windling
identified Rhinegold as one of the best fantasy debuts of 1994, describing it as "both scholarly and entertaining".
than on Grundy’s favorite legendary figure, Hagen
. This novel, too, was an international success, but to a lesser degree than the forerunner novel Rhinegold.
ian Epic of Gilgamesh
that attempts to address directly the homosexual nature of the original text largely ignored by modern scholars. This was less well received than the two earlier novels.
and Germanic magic
. He has since edited and co-written both editions of the handbook of The Troth
, Our Troth, and written other works on ancient and modern Germanic paganism
and Germanic culture
.
Grundy was previously Lore Warden and Master of the Elder Training Program for the Ring of Troth (now known simply as The Troth) and carried on the organization's tradition of being based in scholarship, started by Edred Thorsson
. Mattias Gardell also regards him as important in the organization's move to the left and development of a "strict antiracist and antisexist ideology." He is cited by other writers on Germanic paganism inside and outside academia, for example as Grundy by Jenny Blain in her discussion of the social role of seiðr
in Iceland, also as Grundy by Julia Bolton Holloway on pagan priestesses, and by Charlotte Hardman and Graham Harvey in their survey of neo-paganism for editing Our Troth, "a large work collecting articles about almost every conceivable issue of importance to Asatrúar" as well as having "clarified the group's objection to fascism and racism."
American literature
American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...
best known for his modern adaptations of legendary sagas
Norse saga
The sagas are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during the voyages, about migration to Iceland and of feuds between Icelandic families...
and also a non-fiction writer on Germanic mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
, Germanic paganism
Germanic paganism
Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...
, and Germanic neopaganism
Germanic neopaganism
Germanic neopaganism is the contemporary revival of historical Germanic paganism. Precursor movements appeared in the early 20th century in Germany and Austria. A second wave of revival began in the early 1970s...
, often under the pseudonym Kveldulf Gundarsson (with some variations in spelling).
Grundy grew up mainly in Dallas in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Rhinegold
Grundy began working on his first complete novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
during his first year at Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
in Dallas, where he was studying English and German philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
. Originally, the novel was intended to be based on the Anglo-Saxon epic poem
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
, but Grundy was convinced by his professor Dr. Stephen Flowers
Stephen Flowers
Stephen Edred Flowers is an American Runologist and proponent of occultism and Germanic mysticism. The Bonham, Texas-born author has over two dozen published books and hundreds of published papers on a disparate range of subjects. He is also known by the pen-name Edred Thorsson...
(author of numerous widely respected works about Germanic history and magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
) that the Nibelung
Nibelung
The German Nibelungen and the corresponding Old Norse form Niflung is the name in Germanic and Norse mythology of the royal family or lineage of the Burgundians who settled at Worms....
legend would be a more appropriate basis for a first novel.
Grundy wrote most of the novel in a dormitory
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
at the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, where he spent one year as an exchange student
Student exchange program
A student exchange program generally could be defined as a program where students from secondary school or university choose to study abroad in partner institutions...
. He also spent a year as an exchange student in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
- virtually at the foot of the Drachenberg - spending some of his time on research for his novel (which also led him all across Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
). Rhinegold — a retelling of the entire Sigurð cycle dedicated
Dedication
Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church or other sacred building. It also refers to the inscription of books or other artifacts when these are specifically addressed or presented to a particular person. This practice, which once was used to gain the patronage and support of...
to, among others, Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
and J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
— came out in 1994, and quickly developed into an international best-seller
Bestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
. In the same year, Grundy received his PhD from the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
with a dissertation on Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
: ("The Cult of Óðinn: God of Death?").
Terri Windling
Terri Windling
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award...
identified Rhinegold as one of the best fantasy debuts of 1994, describing it as "both scholarly and entertaining".
Attila’s Treasure
Two years later, 1996, Grundy completed Attila’s Treasure, focused less on Attila the HunAttila the Hun
Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...
than on Grundy’s favorite legendary figure, Hagen
Hagen (legend)
Hagen or Högni is a Burgundian warrior in tales about the Burgundian kingdom at Worms. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King Gunther .In the Nibelungenlied, he is called Hagen of Tronje...
. This novel, too, was an international success, but to a lesser degree than the forerunner novel Rhinegold.
Gilgamesh
This was followed in 1999 by Gilgamesh, a modern adaptation of the SumerSumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
ian Epic of Gilgamesh
Epic of Gilgamesh
Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literature. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the protagonist of the story, Gilgamesh king of Uruk, which were fashioned into a longer Akkadian epic much...
that attempts to address directly the homosexual nature of the original text largely ignored by modern scholars. This was less well received than the two earlier novels.
Falcon Dreams Series
With Melodi Lammond-Grundy, Grundy has since published the Falcon Dreams series, a trilogy first published in German and available in English in e-book format: Falcon’s Flight (2000), Eagle and Falcon (2002), and Falcon’s Night (2002).Non-fiction works as Kveldulf Gundarsson and influence in Germanic neopaganism
Before publishing his first novel, Grundy published, as Kveldulf Gundarsson, two books on Germanic neopaganismGermanic neopaganism
Germanic neopaganism is the contemporary revival of historical Germanic paganism. Precursor movements appeared in the early 20th century in Germany and Austria. A second wave of revival began in the early 1970s...
and Germanic magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
. He has since edited and co-written both editions of the handbook of The Troth
The Troth
The Ring of Troth, now called simply The Troth, is an American-based international Germanic neopagan organization. The Troth was founded on December 20 , 1987 by former Asatru Free Assembly members Edred Thorsson and James Chisholm. However, neither is any longer involved with the organization...
, Our Troth, and written other works on ancient and modern Germanic paganism
Germanic paganism
Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...
and Germanic culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
.
Grundy was previously Lore Warden and Master of the Elder Training Program for the Ring of Troth (now known simply as The Troth) and carried on the organization's tradition of being based in scholarship, started by Edred Thorsson
Stephen Flowers
Stephen Edred Flowers is an American Runologist and proponent of occultism and Germanic mysticism. The Bonham, Texas-born author has over two dozen published books and hundreds of published papers on a disparate range of subjects. He is also known by the pen-name Edred Thorsson...
. Mattias Gardell also regards him as important in the organization's move to the left and development of a "strict antiracist and antisexist ideology." He is cited by other writers on Germanic paganism inside and outside academia, for example as Grundy by Jenny Blain in her discussion of the social role of seiðr
Seiðr
Seid or seiðr is an Old Norse term for a type of sorcery or witchcraft which was practiced by the pre-Christian Norse. Sometimes anglicized as "seidhr," "seidh," "seidr," "seithr," or "seith," the term is also used to refer to modern Neopagan reconstructions or emulations of the...
in Iceland, also as Grundy by Julia Bolton Holloway on pagan priestesses, and by Charlotte Hardman and Graham Harvey in their survey of neo-paganism for editing Our Troth, "a large work collecting articles about almost every conceivable issue of importance to Asatrúar" as well as having "clarified the group's objection to fascism and racism."
Books
- Kveldulf Gundarsson: Teutonic Magic: The Magical & Spiritual Practices of the Germanic People, Llewellyn, 1990, ISBN 0-87542-291-8
- Kveldulf Gundarsson: Teutonic Religion: Folk Beliefs & Practices of the Northern Tradition, Llewellyn, 1993, ISBN 0-87542-260-8
- KveldúlfR Hagan Gundarsson, ed.: Our Troth, The Ring of Troth, 1993
- Stephan Grundy: Rhinegold, Michael Joseph, 1994, ISBN 0-71813-742-6
- Stephan Grundy: Attila’s Treasure, Bantam, 1996, ISBN 0-553-37774-4
- Stephan Grundy: Gilgamesh, William Morrow, 1999, ISBN 0-38097-574-2
- Stephan Grundy and Melodi Lammond-Grundy: Falcon’s Flight, 2000, e-book Double Dragon, 2006, ISBN 1-554-04326-3
- Stephan Grundy and Melodi Lammond-Grundy: Eagle and Falcon, 2002, e-book Double Dragon, 2006, ISBN 1-554-04329-8
- Stephan Grundy and Melodi Lammond-Grundy: Falcon’s Night, 2002, e-book Double Dragon, 2006, ISBN 1-554-04351-4
- Kveldúlf Gundarsson, ed.: Our Troth, 2nd ed. volume 1 History and Lore Booksurge, 2006, ISBN 1-419-63598-0; volume 2 Living the Troth Booksurge, 2007, ISBN 9781419636141
- KveldulfR Hagan Gundarsson: Elves, Wights, and Trolls, Studies Towards the Practice of Germanic Heathenry 1, iUniverse, 2007, ISBN 0-595-42165-2
Articles
- Stephan Grundy, "Chapter Four: Freyja and Frigg" in Sandra Billington and Miranda Green, eds., The Concept of the Goddess, Routledge, 1996, republished Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2000, ISBN 0-203-45638-6, pp. 56–67.
- Stephan Grundy, "Shapeshifting and Berserkergang" in Carol Poster and Richard J. Utz, eds., Translation, Transformation and Transubstantiation in the Late Middle Ages, Disputatio 3 (1998), pp. 104–22.
- Kveldulf Gundarsson: numerous articles in Idunna and Mountain Thunder.