Rachel Burge’s debut novel is a 21st century retelling of an ancient Nordic myth, as Simone Hellyer discovers
It was while on a course with tarot reader and shaman Maddy Elruna in Rose Hill that Rachel first came across the card of the hanged man and learned about its connection to Norse mythology, as she explains: “If you get that card in a reading it usually signals a time of waiting around, but Maddy explained that there is much more to it.
“The card is very much associated with Odin, the main Norse god. He wanted to learn the secrets of the Norns – the three women who weave fate in the tree of life. When they wouldn’t tell him, Odin hung himself upon the tree for nine days and nights.”
In her novel, The Twisted Tree, Rachel takes this myth and brings it into the 21st century: “While Maddy was telling me this story, I was wondering whether I could give it a twist by incorporating a woman helping Odin down from the tree and starting a family with him. And then I started wondering what a modern day teenage descendent of his would be like and what sort of powers she would have,” Rachel says.
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Denne historien er fra April 2019-utgaven av Sussex Life.
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