Product Code Database
Stephan Scott Grundy (June 28, 1967 – September 29, 2021), "Stephan Grundy" The Three Little Sisters, retrieved October 5, 2021. "Pagan Community Notes: Week of October 4, 2021", The Wild Hunt, October 5, 2021, retrieved December 15, 2021. also known by the pen-name Kveldulf Gundarsson, was an American author, scholar, goði and proponent of Asatru. He published more than two dozen books and several papers. He is best known for his modern adaptations of legendary Norse saga and was also a non-fiction writer on Norse mythology, Germanic paganism, and Germanic neopaganism.
His entire catalog of works was given to The Three Little Sisters, who has spent the last few years, redoing all of his previously published and unpublished work with consent of his widow Melodi Grundy.
Before publishing his first novel, Grundy published, as Kveldulf Gundarsson, two books on Germanic neopaganism and Germanic magic. He served as Lore Warden and Master of the Elder Training Program for the Ring of Troth (now The Troth) and carried on the organization's tradition of being based in scholarship, started by Stephen Flowers.Kaplan, Jeffrey, "Chapter Nine: The Reconstruction of the Ásatrú and Odinist Traditions" in Lewis, James R. (1996) Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft SUNY Press, , pp. 224, 233 (note 48). Mattias Gardell also regards him as important in the organization's move to the left and development of a "strict antiracist and antisexist ideology."Mattias Gardell, Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism, Durham, New Hampshire: Duke University Press, 2003, , p. 163. He edited and co-wrote both editions of The Troth's handbook, Our Troth, and has written other works on ancient and modern Germanic paganism and Germanic culture.
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,Jenny Blain, Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism, Routledge, 2001, , p. 99. also as Grundy by Julia Bolton Holloway on pagan priestesses,Julia Bolton Holloway, tr. and ed., Saint Bride and Her Book: Birgitta of Sweden's Revelations, new ed. Cambridge: Brewer, 2000, , p. 8. and by Charlotte Hardman and Graham Harvey in their survey of neo-paganism for editing Our Troth as well as having "clarified the group's objection to fascism and racism".Charlotte Hardman and Graham Harvey, Paganism Today, London: Thorson's, 1995, , p. 59.
He died in Shinrone, County Offaly, Ireland, where he was studying medicine.
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 Drachenfels - spending some of his time on research for his novel (which also led him all across Scandinavia). Rhinegold – a retelling of the entire Sigurð cycleJohn Clute and John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, New York: St. Martin's, 1999, p. 692. dedicated to, among others, Richard Wagner and J. R. R. Tolkien – came out in 1994, and quickly developed into an international best-seller.Like Wagner, Grundy used the Scandinavian version of the story. The German translation proved more popular than the English original. Winder McConnell, A companion to the Nibelungenlied, Columbia, South Carolina: Camden House, 1998, p. 140.
Terri Windling identified Rhinegold as one of the best fantasy debuts of 1994, describing it as "both scholarly and entertaining"."Summation 1994: Fantasy," The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighth Annual Collection, p. xviii
Novels
Rhinegold
Grundy began working on his first complete novel during his freshman year at Southern Methodist University. Originally, the novel was intended to be based on the Anglo-Saxon epic poetry Beowulf, but Grundy was convinced by his professor that the Nibelung legend would be a more appropriate basis for a first novel.
Attila's Treasure
Two years later, 1996, Grundy completed Attila's Treasure, focused less on Attila the Hun 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.
Gilgamesh
This was followed in 1999 by Gilgamesh, a modern adaptation of the 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.
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).
Bibliography
Books
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Categories: 1967 Births, 2021 Deaths, 20th-century American Novelists, 21st-century American Novelists, American Fantasy Writers, American Information And Reference Writers, American Male Novelists, American Social Sciences Writers, American Modern Pagans, Adherents Of Germanic Neopaganism, Writers On Germanic Paganism, Modern Pagan Writers, Modern Pagan Novelists, 20th-century American Non-fiction Writers, 21st-century American Non-fiction Writers, American Male Non-fiction Writers, 20th-century American Male Writers, 21st-century American Male Writers, Writers From New York City, Writers Of Mythic Fiction
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