Excerpt below from the Preface to Gateway to Nifleheim.
Gateway to Nifleheim is the first story in a new collection of the adventures of the ancient warrior-hero most commonly called Angle Theta. Although the original, historical manuscripts that detail the life and times of this classic warrior remain unavailable to the general public, my contacts and travels have afforded me rare opportunities to study and duplicate some of the source material, which consists of more than ten thousand documents stored in protected archives at leading museums and universities scattered across seven countries.
Due to the inaccessibility of these documents, few modern scholars or authors are familiar with the “Thetian manuscripts.” Consequently, the public knows little or nothing about this ancient hero, who some scholars believe helped shape much of the ancient world and perhaps was the historical inspiration for the legends of Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and others.
Until now, no scholar has attempted a detailed compilation of the entire Angle Theta saga, although several notable works that contain Thetian stories have been penned through the centuries. Grenville's work, Ancient Warriors of Scandinavia (1884), and Addleson's, Lost Cities of Prehistoric Europe (1921), each contain several stories of Theta's exploits. The Warlords (1408), by Chuan Chien contains two tales of Theta's adventures in Asia during the Neolithic Age. Although there is no complete English translation of Chien's text, the accounts contained therein provide independent evidence of the existence of Theta as a historical figure. The essay, Forgotten Empires by Charles Sawyer (1754), and Da Vinci's manuscript, Of Prehistory (1502), also contain story fragments and references to the historical Theta. The voluminous treatise, Prehistoric Cities of Europe and the Near East, by Cantor (1928), presents noteworthy, though inconclusive evidence of the historical existence of the city of Lomion in what is now southwestern England.
Despite the robust written record, some modern scholars dispute the historical accuracy of the Thetian manuscripts due to the limited corroborating archeological evidence for the ancient cities and cultures detailed therein. Thus, they relegate Theta to the realms of myth, legend, and allegory. Others maintain that the scholarly texts mentioned above, coupled with the original archived manuscripts, are sufficient evidence to verify the historical existence of Theta, the man. One can only hope that in time the archeological record will further reinforce this position.
Several years ago while researching Theta for a story that I planned to write, I had the good fortune to meet and begin a long-standing collaboration with several leading Thetian scholars, most notably, Professor Augustine DiPipcorno of the University of Padua, and Dr. Ann Lewis of Indiana University, who have for many years been actively translating the entire body of available original manuscripts. These professors lead a multidisciplinary team that is preparing a series of detailed scholarly texts that include all the original Thetian tales, supplemented with extensive commentary and a thorough critique of the corroborating scholarly, historical, literary, and archeological evidence.
Using the professors’ translations as my primary source material, I re-envisioned the first volume of their work into modern prose and added additional dialogue and descriptive language to make the Thetian stories more accessible and entertaining to the typical reader. That resulted in a novella length work entitled, The Gateway, which was published in 2008.
In 2011, “Thetian” scholars were shocked to learn that the traditional Gateway story is actually a significantly shortened version of the complete tale, the only known copy of which was discovered in near pristine condition that year in the Ashmolean Museum archives in Oxford. The Ashmolean’s thirteenth-century vellum copy, written in Old Norse, contains an impressive array of additional detail about Midgaard’s Land of Lomion and augments the Gateway story with new action-packed battles and additional scenes that flesh out the backgrounds of some of the Saga’s most beloved characters. The discovery and translation of the Ashmolean vellum inspired me to revise and expand The Gateway into the work you are now reading. To distinguish between the two versions of the tale, I chose to give the longer version a different title: hence, Gateway to Nifleheim was born.
Interestingly, the Ashmolean vellum doesn’t contain the Gateway story’s epilogue, further reinforcing the long held suspicion of the epilogue’s apocryphal nature. Consequently, I have chosen to omit the epilogue from this version. Readers wishing to read it may refer to The Gateway, which contains the brief epilogue in its entirety.
In each version of the story, I often refer to the various exotic peoples and fanciful creatures described in the original manuscripts using terms such as “elves,” “gnomes,” “dwarves,” and the like, which are familiar to readers of fantasy and science fiction tales. The chapter titles are my own and are meant to be entertaining. In all cases, however, the central plots, facts, themes, and spirit of the original tales remain unchanged.
You will find that the Thetian tales span continents and are filled with numerous colorful characters. To aid you in the journey and to help keep track of whom is whom, I’ve included a detailed glossary at the end of the book (which is easily accessible via hyperlink from the Table of Contents). I encourage you to make use of it.
I hope that you will come to enjoy the Thetian tales as much as I have.
Glenn G. Thater
New York, USA
Due to the inaccessibility of these documents, few modern scholars or authors are familiar with the “Thetian manuscripts.” Consequently, the public knows little or nothing about this ancient hero, who some scholars believe helped shape much of the ancient world and perhaps was the historical inspiration for the legends of Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and others.
Until now, no scholar has attempted a detailed compilation of the entire Angle Theta saga, although several notable works that contain Thetian stories have been penned through the centuries. Grenville's work, Ancient Warriors of Scandinavia (1884), and Addleson's, Lost Cities of Prehistoric Europe (1921), each contain several stories of Theta's exploits. The Warlords (1408), by Chuan Chien contains two tales of Theta's adventures in Asia during the Neolithic Age. Although there is no complete English translation of Chien's text, the accounts contained therein provide independent evidence of the existence of Theta as a historical figure. The essay, Forgotten Empires by Charles Sawyer (1754), and Da Vinci's manuscript, Of Prehistory (1502), also contain story fragments and references to the historical Theta. The voluminous treatise, Prehistoric Cities of Europe and the Near East, by Cantor (1928), presents noteworthy, though inconclusive evidence of the historical existence of the city of Lomion in what is now southwestern England.
Despite the robust written record, some modern scholars dispute the historical accuracy of the Thetian manuscripts due to the limited corroborating archeological evidence for the ancient cities and cultures detailed therein. Thus, they relegate Theta to the realms of myth, legend, and allegory. Others maintain that the scholarly texts mentioned above, coupled with the original archived manuscripts, are sufficient evidence to verify the historical existence of Theta, the man. One can only hope that in time the archeological record will further reinforce this position.
Several years ago while researching Theta for a story that I planned to write, I had the good fortune to meet and begin a long-standing collaboration with several leading Thetian scholars, most notably, Professor Augustine DiPipcorno of the University of Padua, and Dr. Ann Lewis of Indiana University, who have for many years been actively translating the entire body of available original manuscripts. These professors lead a multidisciplinary team that is preparing a series of detailed scholarly texts that include all the original Thetian tales, supplemented with extensive commentary and a thorough critique of the corroborating scholarly, historical, literary, and archeological evidence.
Using the professors’ translations as my primary source material, I re-envisioned the first volume of their work into modern prose and added additional dialogue and descriptive language to make the Thetian stories more accessible and entertaining to the typical reader. That resulted in a novella length work entitled, The Gateway, which was published in 2008.
In 2011, “Thetian” scholars were shocked to learn that the traditional Gateway story is actually a significantly shortened version of the complete tale, the only known copy of which was discovered in near pristine condition that year in the Ashmolean Museum archives in Oxford. The Ashmolean’s thirteenth-century vellum copy, written in Old Norse, contains an impressive array of additional detail about Midgaard’s Land of Lomion and augments the Gateway story with new action-packed battles and additional scenes that flesh out the backgrounds of some of the Saga’s most beloved characters. The discovery and translation of the Ashmolean vellum inspired me to revise and expand The Gateway into the work you are now reading. To distinguish between the two versions of the tale, I chose to give the longer version a different title: hence, Gateway to Nifleheim was born.
Interestingly, the Ashmolean vellum doesn’t contain the Gateway story’s epilogue, further reinforcing the long held suspicion of the epilogue’s apocryphal nature. Consequently, I have chosen to omit the epilogue from this version. Readers wishing to read it may refer to The Gateway, which contains the brief epilogue in its entirety.
In each version of the story, I often refer to the various exotic peoples and fanciful creatures described in the original manuscripts using terms such as “elves,” “gnomes,” “dwarves,” and the like, which are familiar to readers of fantasy and science fiction tales. The chapter titles are my own and are meant to be entertaining. In all cases, however, the central plots, facts, themes, and spirit of the original tales remain unchanged.
You will find that the Thetian tales span continents and are filled with numerous colorful characters. To aid you in the journey and to help keep track of whom is whom, I’ve included a detailed glossary at the end of the book (which is easily accessible via hyperlink from the Table of Contents). I encourage you to make use of it.
I hope that you will come to enjoy the Thetian tales as much as I have.
Glenn G. Thater
New York, USA