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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,MorwenEdhelwen1 Help: Adapting a classic legend? (11) Help: Adapting a classic legend? 26 Mar 13


How do the writers on Mudcat adapt legends, myths or folktales when they retell them?

I've put most of my other projects on the back burner, and my current project is an urban fantasy, a futuristic retelling of my favourite Norse saga, the thirteenth-century Icelandic Volsunga Saga, the legend of Sigurd the dragon slayer and the Volsungs, Brynhild, Gudrun and a cursed hoard of treasure, and one of the many sagas that inspired Tolkien in his Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings (Aragorn's upbringing in Rivendell under the protection of Elrond, the reforging of Narsil, his ancestor Isildur's broken sword) and which also inspired Wagner in his Ring Of The Nibelung opera cycle.


I've covered two major scenes (the story of the dragon's hoard, the encouragement of Sigurd to kill the dragon.) Now I'm up to the famous reforging scene, but I have no idea how to adapt that to a futuristic setting, even though the setting is one where the Norse gods run a mega corporation, and dragons, elves, dwarves, "hobbits", trolls, goblins/orcs and the rest have come back to Earth, as the concept is that these mythological and fantasy creatures originally came here from another world. I have some idea of how I want to rework it, but I'm only slightly comfortable with my idea of "dragons can only be killed by magical dwarven-made swords". Could someone give me some suggestions? Thanks.


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