Show Notes:
Today is part two of two where we are talking to Karli Rush about her novels. Over the next 2 weeks you will hear about taking inspiration from anywhere, including music to write a book, how writing a book is like building a house, how she chooses her narrators, and what’s coming next for her books.
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Karli Rush was born in the heart of Cherokee Nation and lives in its capital. Her Native American heritage holds sway over her writing in many ways. She has the patience of a brain surgeon operating under fire in a war zone. You can chalk that up to her being the mother of an autistic kiddo. With the passion of a starving artist, she writes. The obsession to tell her tales has led her to write novels in the worlds of Dark Paranormal Romance, Dystopian, and Vampires. She walks in two worlds, one grounds her and the other frees her imagination.
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Transcript:
Speaker A: Welcome to Freya’s Fairy Tales, where we believe fairy tales are both stories we enjoy as children and something that we can achieve ourselves.
Speaker A: Each week we will talk to authors about their favorite fairy tales when they were kids and their adventure to holding their very own fairy tale in their hands.
Speaker A: At the end of each episode, we will finish off with the fairy tale or short story read as close to the original author’s version as possible.
Speaker A: I am your host, Freya Victoria.
Speaker A: I am an audiobook narrator that loves reading fairy tales, novels and bringing stories to life through narration.
Speaker A: I am also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.
Speaker A: We have included all of the links for today’s author and our show in the Show Notes.
Speaker A: Today is part two of two where we are talking to Carly Rush about her novels.
Speaker A: This is the final week where you will hear about taking inspiration from anywhere, including music to write a book, how writing a book is like building a house, how she chooses her narrators, and what’s coming next for her books.
Speaker A: Strings of which love Story book One.
Speaker A: In a world where witches live among humans, Oliver Lockhart keeps her magical traits a tightlipped secret, until one night, while out with a friend, she discovers another witch seducing a crowd with his sirenesque voice.
Speaker A: His lyrics are more than just words.
Speaker A: They are the emotions drawn from the sea of people gathered around the stage.
Speaker A: Oliva refuses to succumb to any of this because she feels it’s all smoke and mirrors.
Speaker A: Luke Pierce, the spellcaster’s lead performer, holds many abilities, and one is capturing feelings from others.
Speaker A: He uses this to his advantage, but when he strikes the wrong chord with the beautiful, dark haired girl with electric blue eyes standing in the crowd, everything changes.
Speaker A: Both witches have secrets which must be kept under lock and key, for these secrets hold a fear they both have and hold on to as if it’s forbidden to show anyone which which will cast the first spell to unlock the other’s heart, or will their past overrule them.
Speaker B: Now, in Strings of Magic, it’s kind of our world, but you don’t really get into details of, like I mean, you don’t really get into at all, like, the fact that they could possibly be on a different planet or anything like that.
Speaker B: At least not that I remember it.
Speaker B: I mean, I read through it and then narrated through it and then listened through it again.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: With Strings of Magic.
Speaker C: And that’s why I kind of titled it as or tag it as contemporary fantasy, because I’m playing with the world that we’re really in a realistic world where people can be attached to.
Speaker C: So you can relate to it.
Speaker C: You can relate to it.
Speaker C: You told me that you can relate to the story and everybody.
Speaker C: That’s right.
Speaker C: It says it’s relatable.
Speaker C: But what I do is I toss in my magic.
Speaker C: And I’ve done a lot of research on witchcraft and a lot about the belief system.
Speaker C: And part of mine is the belief system of that he harm none.
Speaker C: That’s just a big thing in my rich world.
Speaker C: And actually in the real which world?
Speaker C: And just being able to create things to help have blessings for your family and your loved ones, being able to be connected to nature, having that insight into a real which world that other people could connect to and learn from.
Speaker C: So I’m also giving you a lesson a little bit about witches, real witches that are out there.
Speaker B: You also gave me a Latin lessons because I definitely had to look up some of those words because I’m like, I don’t know how to say this.
Speaker A: That’s bad.
Speaker C: There’s a lot of things in there if you ever get a chance to go through the Crestnut Bound series, because there’s a lot of background in it.
Speaker C: And I didn’t want to go too deep into it.
Speaker C: The strings of magic, because to me, the baseline was Luke and Liv, the main characters.
Speaker C: And I wrote about her because of the fact she was trying to deal with something that was really hard for her to overcome, which was her husband passing away, which is something I wrote from my own experience because my husband passed away when he was 49, and that’s been about six years ago.
Speaker C: So I incorporated that.
Speaker C: And I had a lot of people write and say, do you mind if I ask was that about your husband passing away?
Speaker C: And I was like, yeah, those parts are my feelings in it.
Speaker C: So I incorporated all of that among all the magical things in there.
Speaker C: You need to just start writing.
Speaker C: You just need to start writing and creating your own world because it’s really fun to write.
Speaker C: It’s such an outlet.
Speaker C: Plus you’re giving other people a way to escape from maybe they’ve had a hard day at work.
Speaker C: I’ve had somebody else write me one time and said that they were with their child in the hospital.
Speaker C: And I do give out free books once in a while.
Speaker C: And she said she had downloaded one, and she went through the entire cross of Bouncers.
Speaker C: She said, you know what, I’m going through this stuff with my family, and I really appreciate you writing these stories because it kind of took myself out of some really serious situations that she was going stressing over.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker C: Anybody would be stressing over that kind of thing.
Speaker C: And it just made me feel good that I was able to write something somebody could enjoy and be able to help them through a stressful situation.
Speaker C: And that’s kind of what to me, writing is about when it’s kind of.
Speaker B: Cathartic for you as well.
Speaker B: Now, I had no idea about your husband until just now, but one thing that I did notice in your writing of the book.
Speaker B: I’ve read a few that they touch on the characters past, but it’s so lightly touched on that you’re like, did I miss a book?
Speaker B: One somewhere that goes into this deeper?
Speaker B: Yours wasn’t like that.
Speaker B: You gave enough detail where you knew what was up the whole time you went into it enough where you knew everything that was happening.
Speaker B: You didn’t feel like you missed a huge piece of the puzzle.
Speaker B: It was done very well.
Speaker B: The touching on her past without like, hey, we’re going to take half the book and cover her past before we get into what the book is supposed to be about.
Speaker B: As far as my books, first book is very much our world, but is set slightly in the future, so I could get away with some medical terms without getting too much into the story.
Speaker B: There’s, like, a medical experimentation going on, so I can get away with a little bit more of that.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker B: This next one will be our world way in the future, but will also include created worlds, so a little bit of both.
Speaker C: There you go.
Speaker C: You have a blast writing it.
Speaker B: So how many books do you get going on now in the works?
Speaker C: Well, wishes of magic will be next, and then I have Earthbound.
Speaker C: Hopefully I can get those two down this year.
Speaker C: And like I said, then I want to go revamp pine needles.
Speaker C: That’s a completely differently different world.
Speaker C: It’s just a different world.
Speaker C: I can’t even explain to you where it came from.
Speaker C: I really don’t know.
Speaker C: I get a lot of inspiration from looking at images.
Speaker C: I saw an image.
Speaker C: I started listening to different kinds of music.
Speaker C: I’m always on YouTube, and I have several different playlists, and it just started forming.
Speaker C: It was just, like puzzle pieces just clicking together.
Speaker C: And I wrote a story about a couple, and their whole world changes.
Speaker C: An earthquake happens.
Speaker C: A veil appears around her side of the town.
Speaker C: They’re separated, and very alien type warriors started attacking her side of the town and actually starts taking people as prisoners.
Speaker C: And it goes from there into kind of an alien world and what she wants to do to survive.
Speaker B: What picture or music inspired that?
Speaker C: Oh, gosh.
Speaker C: It was a picture of a couple in a pine forest, and she’s kissing him, and I don’t know why, but she’s wearing it looks kind of like a rugged top cloth top.
Speaker C: It looks like she kind of was, like, living in the woods or something.
Speaker C: And he’s in just shirts and pants, but they’re in the midst of this pine needle, beautiful pine needle forest.
Speaker C: And that’s why I named it pine needles, because they were going to get engaged anyway, so things changed, and it is a story more about Selene and her survival.
Speaker C: I know people are like, you really don’t you have that romance in the beginning?
Speaker C: And I show you the beginning of kind of what the world is like before.
Speaker C: It’s a normal world.
Speaker C: Everybody’s going to work, everybody’s doing their thing.
Speaker C: But then all of a sudden, an earthquake happens and this veil appears and she can’t get out and everything changes.
Speaker C: Her entire life changes.
Speaker C: So I’d like to get that revamped new cover, put on it and start with, I’m hoping two more books out of it.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker B: And so when you revamp, is that just new cover or you, like, completely reediting it and rewriting or what is it?
Speaker C: Well, revamp basically means that a lot of authors like to change the covers.
Speaker C: I kind of want to make mine more post apocalyptic kind of feel.
Speaker C: I don’t know.
Speaker C: I don’t know yet.
Speaker C: I’m going to be quite on it, but I don’t know yet.
Speaker C: I definitely know I want to change it.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker C: But basically go in reedit it, maybe add some more, build it in some things more, maybe take out some things.
Speaker C: I’m not going to do a lot to take out, but I want to fill it in more and put it back out.
Speaker C: And like I said, it’s booked one of the Ville Realm series, so maybe we can see where it goes.
Speaker B: I imagine you don’t have audio for it yet, if you’re talking about doing all this.
Speaker C: I do.
Speaker C: I do have an audio on it already.
Speaker C: It’s pine needles.
Speaker C: And she did an amazing job.
Speaker C: I listened to it.
Speaker C: She read the first part of it, and I just immediately fell in love because I listened to her do the script I sent her.
Speaker C: And it was like listening to a movie.
Speaker C: It was just like listening to a movie.
Speaker C: So I was just like, okay, this is it.
Speaker C: This is it.
Speaker C: This is the one I need to, but I got to get all my other books.
Speaker C: I’ve got to get finished, and then I can really focus on this.
Speaker C: This, to me, is my big one, the big project I really want to dive into.
Speaker B: So how do you go about if you already have audio?
Speaker B: How do you go about is there a way to change that?
Speaker B: I mean, I know on the narrator side, technically, you can buy us out if it’s royalty share or if it’s per finished hour.
Speaker B: You can, like, pay extra for the changes or whatever I’ve had.
Speaker B: Well, I haven’t had anyone buy me out yet, but I’ve had.
Speaker B: Hey, can we change this?
Speaker B: I’ll pay you happen.
Speaker C: How do we end up doing that and contact her again?
Speaker C: I know she’s really booked.
Speaker C: She’s pretty busy, but I’d probably ask her.
Speaker C: Like I said, I’ve got a lot of time.
Speaker C: Probably another year or two before I can get.
Speaker C: So I surely can get booked in with her and talk to her about, you know, paying to see what we can do to change it and creating an even a better audiobook.
Speaker C: So that’s the goal on that.
Speaker B: Yeah, that’s cool.
Speaker B: That’s my goal.
Speaker B: And I don’t know how everybody when I read a book in my head, I hear it is like a movie.
Speaker B: I see in my head happening.
Speaker B: What’s happening?
Speaker B: All the characters have their own voices based on, like, the personalities that have been written into the book.
Speaker B: But I have one author that says all he hears is his own voice talking.
Speaker B: I don’t know that I’ve ever had anyone say that that’s how they hear their book.
Speaker B: But I’m like, that’s a very interesting like, everybody’s different.
Speaker B: I just would not.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: Because that’s not how my brain does readings.
Speaker B: I’m like, okay, well, I tell them up front.
Speaker B: I’m like, well, your book is definitely going to have character voices because that’s what I do.
Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker C: So you’re going to be able to do it on audio to show him how you can change each character’s voice, right?
Speaker B: Well, I’ve at this point.
Speaker B: So his series, he has a trilogy written so far, and so I’m contracted on the first two.
Speaker B: The third one is being edited right now, but yeah.
Speaker B: So he’s gotten samples of the first chapter from each of the two books I have so far.
Speaker B: So he hears the difference in the character voices and stuff like that already.
Speaker C: He’s like, I don’t know.
Speaker B: I don’t know how you do that.
Speaker B: It’s what I’ve always done when I’ve read out loud.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker B: It’s very interesting.
Speaker B: I never thought that this was an option.
Speaker B: Podcasting included, too, but like the narrating and creating the stories and all of that, I have listened to audiobooks.
Speaker B: I just never thought, how do I go about doing that?
Speaker C: So do you like it so far?
Speaker B: I do.
Speaker B: So I started not too long ago.
Speaker B: So I’ve been narrating professionally, we’re going to say, since September of last year.
Speaker B: And so I started on audition for everything, but I would only get hired on nonfiction.
Speaker B: So from September until December, like Christmas, all I did was nonfiction, which is a lot different than fiction because you don’t have to do character voices.
Speaker B: And so in January, so December, I narrated until Christmas.
Speaker B: We went on vacation for a week, came back, got coveted, had to recover from that.
Speaker B: So my voice was normal again.
Speaker B: And then I’m like, you know what?
Speaker B: I had kind of stopped auditioning for fiction because I wasn’t getting any.
Speaker B: I’m like, Clearly, I just don’t have a voice for that.
Speaker B: So it is what it is.
Speaker B: So I had stopped auditioning for them.
Speaker B: And so in January, I’m like, we’re going to start auditioning for fiction again and just see what happens.
Speaker B: There you go.
Speaker B: I got yours fairly early on.
Speaker B: I got like a bunch of them.
Speaker B: And now everything on my schedule is fiction.
Speaker B: I love it so much.
Speaker B: Fantasies are my favorite to do.
Speaker B: I love the world and the storyline and all that.
Speaker B: Now, don’t get me wrong, I like the spicy part, too, but I prefer story with spicy.
Speaker B: Not spicy with story.
Speaker B: You get to that point in the little bit of like, is it going to happen?
Speaker B: Is it not going to happen?
Speaker B: Because, like, your story Liv is so, like, in her mind about her husband that she’s lost that you’re like, well, maybe that’s going to be too much for her and she’s not going to want to go there or whatever.
Speaker C: It kept you guessing.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: It keeps you guessing.
Speaker B: And anyone that does just story in general, that’s not a romance, because romance, you expect they’re going to get together in the end or something tragic is going to happen at the end, and they’re not going to get to be together or whatever.
Speaker B: But yes, it definitely keeps you guessing.
Speaker B: And then any book like this, when it finally happens, you’re like, yes.
Speaker B: So how far into the next book are you?
Speaker B: The name is escaping me right now.
Speaker B: How far into the next strings book are you?
Speaker C: Wishes of Magic.
Speaker C: I am in chapter five right now about let’s see, I think I hit 12,000 words yesterday.
Speaker C: What is yesterday?
Speaker C: Friday, right.
Speaker B: Friday.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker C: I got my days, right?
Speaker C: I think so.
Speaker B: You’re about 12,000 words.
Speaker B: And how many words do you think?
Speaker B: Because Strings of Magic was pretty big.
Speaker B: Are you planning on Wishes of Magic being about the same size?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: Usually I’ll try to aim for 90,000 words.
Speaker C: I think that’s generally a good, nice chunk to give you.
Speaker C: And what’s kind of nice about writing the second book?
Speaker C: Because everybody kind of already knows the characters.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker C: Everybody kind of has an idea who they are, what their demeanor is like.
Speaker C: So this is kind of just filling in a little more, kind of reminding people this is who they are, this is where they’re at, but just kind of getting I kind of like writing stories where I’m kind of easing you in, like riding a roller coaster, sitting you inside and saying, okay, here we go.
Speaker B: Quite honestly, for the ride, you had so many teasers in Strings of Magic that I’m like, I’m pretty sure I.
Speaker A: Know what’s going to come next, but.
Speaker B: I don’t know if that’s what’s going to happen next.
Speaker B: Are her dreams actually going to happen or we’re not going to give character names here, but the character that’s having dreams and stuff like, is that going to come to pass in the next book?
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker B: That would be cool, but you never know.
Speaker B: But you dropped lots of little, like, breadcrumbs throughout the book that it’s like, this might be in the next book, or it might just be like, hey, this is a dream that she had the end.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: That’s exactly what I was doing.
Speaker C: And you know what Stephen King says, and he’s one of my favorite authors.
Speaker C: He always says you never tell all your secrets in one book, right.
Speaker C: Kind of just did a little here and there.
Speaker C: Just so that, you know, kind of just kind of, you know, to the side.
Speaker C: I didn’t really want to focus, like, you know, this is where it’s going to go.
Speaker B: It’s kind of planned.
Speaker C: Yeah, originally.
Speaker C: And I just wrote a post on my blog yesterday, and I originally was not going to make this into I’m thinking of two books from this.
Speaker C: Actually, it’d be three, but I had people writing and saying, I want more.
Speaker C: I need more who can live?
Speaker C: And the ending, I knew.
Speaker C: I don’t know why.
Speaker C: It’s just the character was screaming at me, and I just did it because of the character.
Speaker C: You can blame the character.
Speaker C: Blame her.
Speaker C: And I ended up just the next one fell into place, and I’m able to use those.
Speaker C: So it was kind of like, hey, I do have these.
Speaker C: The breadcrumbs, as you said, and those can be my next to drop it into the next one and fulfill that.
Speaker C: That’s how I see it.
Speaker C: So we’ll see where it goes.
Speaker B: Seriously, those last couple of lines of the very, very end when you’re, like, seeing the flash to the other character, like that last thing that they see from her.
Speaker B: There are very few books where I have lines that are just like lines that jump out at you.
Speaker B: And that thing I’m like, man, that is so sinister and rude.
Speaker B: And I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Speaker B: Oh, that’s good.
Speaker B: She was a fun character to voice, too, because I had to do and I think I told you, you’re going to hear my head b**** voice, because I’m like, she’s got to have something.
Speaker B: And I have a couple of different ways that I do that.
Speaker B: But the way that you had written The Sisters, like, one of them, I felt had at least when I was reading the character, felt like she had more, like, sass to her voice, but that’s like one of the kind of mean girl voices that I’ll go to.
Speaker B: So the other one is more that like whiny, irritating, pesty voice.
Speaker B: That was the mean girl that I went for this time, because I’m like, well, I can’t have her sister and the mean girl have the same voice because that’s just not okay.
Speaker B: Confused.
Speaker B: Is her sister the mean girl?
Speaker C: Yeah, right.
Speaker B: I feel like if I ever narrated a book where I came across one on ACX auditioning the other day that it was like, or maybe it was in one of the groups talking about it, where it was like, the villain is the villain he’s in throughout the story, but he doesn’t turn into a villain until most of the way through the book.
Speaker B: But you’re seeing flash forwards of him and it’s like, but you can’t use the same voice because that’s going to give away at the end who the villain is.
Speaker B: If all these flashes are like, how do you go about voicing someone when it’s like, you’re seeing what he does bad early in the book, but that gives away the whole plot twist.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker B: My gosh, at the end of the day, I’m like, I don’t know how you go about narrating that.
Speaker B: I hope I never get one like that.
Speaker C: Oh my gosh.
Speaker B: Alright, so you are so far.
Speaker B: How long do you typically wait before you do audio on a book?
Speaker B: When wishes of magic comes out, how long do you typically or now that you know, like you already have audio for the one, do you plan on doing it pretty immediately or wait a couple of months and see what happens?
Speaker C: Well, I’m going to try to see how fast it’s going to take me to get this book written.
Speaker C: And like I said, I usually take some downtime to do the editing and then I’ll go in and try to see about doing audio, but I try not because like I said, my life is so changed now.
Speaker C: My youngest son has autism.
Speaker C: He doesn’t really talk.
Speaker C: He’s 19 and he’s pretty reliant on me and my other two boys.
Speaker C: My older boys, they’re doing their thing, living their life.
Speaker C: And so I’m trying to maintain life as normal as I can and try to write.
Speaker C: So that’s why I’m not really giving anyone a deadline or even a date or possible date.
Speaker C: I’m not really saying that because things can change.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker C: Well, you know, the coveted thing last year really threw people for a loop.
Speaker C: Everybody was having to change things around.
Speaker C: Two years ago, I completely understand.
Speaker B: I thought we were in 2023.
Speaker B: A couple of years ago, I was talking to someone at my day job and I’m like, It’s 2023.
Speaker B: I just Typed the wrong date and she went, huh.
Speaker B: I don’t know what year it is.
Speaker B: I have no idea.
Speaker C: You’re ready for it?
Speaker B: Wake up and do what I’m supposed to.
Speaker B: I don’t know exactly.
Speaker C: So you know what I mean.
Speaker B: Well, that works out too, because I haven’t booked a book in a while.
Speaker B: But depending on if you still want me to do the next book, when we get to that point, we’ll have to obviously work it around.
Speaker B: Whatever I have going on at the time, right?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: Usually I’ll try to check in and see probably a month before just to see how it’s going to be.
Speaker C: I’m not really in big rushes because I know with Fire Bound, I had a really great guy.
Speaker C: His name is Jake won’t shut up.
Speaker C: He’s on Instagram.
Speaker C: He did Fire around.
Speaker C: He was amazing.
Speaker C: He did amazing.
Speaker C: Hit every character perfectly.
Speaker C: And when we finally got it done and approved, it took about a month, I think, for it to finally come back and was live.
Speaker C: And then with Icebound, I had another really great guy that was phenomenal.
Speaker C: I think it took just a couple of weeks, so it can vary.
Speaker C: It really can.
Speaker C: So I’m not on pins and needles, so I’m just kind of like, take it as it comes.
Speaker C: So when it’s ready.
Speaker C: So I try to do a little promoting to get people to know it’s going to be out there.
Speaker UNK: Right.
Speaker C: And then focus on my writing.
Speaker C: So when I go quiet on social media, that’s what I’m trying to just really lock down and get my task done for writing.
Speaker C: If it’s 1000 words that day, 2000 words, whatever.
Speaker C: And I try to get that done.
Speaker C: And then when I find out, hey, audio is out, I try to release it.
Speaker C: And I also try to go wherever I can to promote it and give those codes out, some free codes so people can get the chance to listen to it.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker B: And I told you this a couple of days ago, it should be out.
Speaker B: I don’t know if they approve stuff on the weekends.
Speaker B: I don’t usually pay attention, but it should be out in the next few days from now that we’re recording this.
Speaker B: By the time this episode airs, it will definitely be out.
Speaker B: But their turnaround for me has been like two weeks or less recently.
Speaker C: That’s pretty good.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I think yours is the only one.
Speaker B: I have a couple that I’m waiting for the authors to listen through, but yours is the only one currently pending quality right now.
Speaker C: I’m glad I had a chance to do this with you.
Speaker B: Yeah, it was great.
Speaker B: All right.
Speaker B: Well, you have a great Saturday.
Speaker B: Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker B: And I look forward to reading the next part because I have to know if some of my predictions come true or not.
Speaker C: Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker C: And yes, definitely.
Speaker C: I will keep you informed.
Speaker C: All right.
Speaker B: Good luck with your writing.
Speaker C: All right.
Speaker A: Carly today enjoys the show Vikings Vikings is inspired by the sagas of Ragnar Lodbrock, a Viking who is one of the best known legendary Norse heroes and notorious as the scourge of Anglo Saxon England and West Francia.
Speaker A: The show portrays Ragnar as a farmer who rises to Fame by raiding England and eventually becomes a Scandinavian King with the support of his family and fellow warriors.
Speaker A: In the later seasons, the series follows the fortunes of his sons and their adventures in England, Scandinavia, Kievan, Rus, the Mediterranean, and North America.
Speaker A: Today we will be reading some of the stories of Ragnar.
Speaker A: Don’t forget we are also continuing the original story of Beauty and the Beast on our Patreon concerning Thora Town Doe Harriet was the name of a great and powerful Jarl in Godaland.
Speaker A: He was married and his daughter was named Thora.
Speaker A: She was the most beautiful of all women to look at, and she was the noblest in every woman’s skill that might come up, or that it might be better to be with than without.
Speaker A: The nickname she was called by was Town Dough because she exceeded other women in beauty, just as the dough exceeds all other animals the Jarl loved his daughter dearly, and he made a little house for her near the King’s Hall, with a fence around it.
Speaker A: It was the Jarl’s custom to send his daughter something to play with every day, and he said that he intended to continue doing so.
Speaker A: It is told that one day he had a small snake brought to her that was very pretty.
Speaker A: She liked the snake and let it sit in a small chest, and she put gold underneath it.
Speaker A: It did not sit there long before it began to grow, and the gold grew that was under it.
Speaker A: Finally, there was no more room for it in the chest, and the snake lay coiled in a ring around it, and later there wasn’t even enough space for it in Thora’s cabin, and the snake kept growing, and so did the gold.
Speaker A: Now it lay outside and encircled the cabin so that its head touched its tail, and it did not like to be approached.
Speaker A: And no one dared come near the cabin because of this Dragon except the man assigned to feed it, and the Dragon required a whole steer for every meal.
Speaker A: The Jarl thought this Dragon was a curse, and he swore that he would marry his daughter to whatever man could kill it, no matter what family he was from, and also give him the gold that lay beneath the Dragon as a wedding gift.
Speaker A: This news was spread widely around the land.
Speaker A: Although no one dared to kill the great Dragon.
Speaker A: Ragnar Kills the Dragon At that time, Siggard Ring ruled Denmark.
Speaker A: He was a powerful King and had become famous after his battle against Harold Wartooth on Brevlier when he killed Harold, which has become known to everyone in the Northern half of the world.
Speaker A: Siegard Ring had a son named Ragnar.
Speaker A: He was a big man, handsome and well provided with wisdom.
Speaker A: He was good to his men and cruel to his enemies.
Speaker A: As soon as he had grown old enough, he assembled an army and a fleet of ships and became the best kind of warrior so that there were few who could equal him.
Speaker A: Ragnar heard tell of what Jarl Herod had said, but he paid it no attention and acted as if he had never heard it.
Speaker A: But he ordered some clothes made for him of a strange type shaggy pants and a shaggy cloak, and when they were done, he ordered them boiled in pitch, and then he put them away.
Speaker A: One summer, when Ragnar sailed with his army to Godaland, he hid his ship in an inconspicuous spot in a fjord not far from where Jarl Herod rolled.
Speaker A: And when Ragnar had been there one night, he woke up early in the morning, rose up and put on the same clothes as have been previously described.
Speaker A: He took up a great spear in his hand and left the ships on his own, and he went down to a Sandy place, and he rolled around in the sand, and before he continued, he took the nail out of his spear that held the shaft to the point, and now he went alone from his ships to the Jarl’s residence and came early in the day when everyone was sleeping.
Speaker A: Now Ragnar turned toward Thora’s cabin, and when he came inside the fence where the Dragon was, he stabbed his spear into the Dragon and pulled the spear back and then stabbed at the Dragon again.
Speaker A: The spear pierced the Dragon’s back, and then Ragnar twisted the spear so swiftly that the spearhead came loose from the shaft.
Speaker A: The Dragon made so much noise as it died that the cabin shook all around.
Speaker A: Now Ragnar went away.
Speaker A: A splash of the Dragon’s blood hit him between the shoulders, but it did not harm him because the clothes he had made protected him.
Speaker A: The people inside the cabin awoke from the noise and went outside.
Speaker A: Sora saw a big man walking away and asked his name and where he was going.
Speaker A: He stopped and spoke this poem, beautiful woman, I have honorably risked my life, 15 years old to fight the serpent.
Speaker A: I would be dead from the snakes bite if my spear had not bitten the Viper’s heart sooner.
Speaker A: Now he went away and said nothing more to her, but his spear point remained in the Dragon’s wound, though Ragnar took his spear shaft with him.
Speaker A: When Thora heard his poem, she understood what he said about what he’d done and how old he was.
Speaker A: She thought about who he might be, but she did not know whether he was even human or not, because it seemed to her that his size for someone of his age was like that of a monster.
Speaker A: She returned to her room and went back to sleep, and when people came outside later in the morning, they saw that the Dragon was dead, wounded by the big spear point that was still in the wound.
Speaker A: The Jarl ordered the spear point taken out, and it was so large that it could not serve many men as a useful weapon.
Speaker A: Now the Jarl thought about what he had said about the man who managed to kill the Dragon, though he did not know whether this had been accomplished by a human man or not.
Speaker A: He spoke with his friends and his daughter about how he should look for the man, and he thought it likely that this man would want the reward that had been promised.
Speaker A: Thorough suggested that a great meeting should be called and declared this that all men should come who are able and who don’t want to face the Jarl’s anger.
Speaker A: And if the man who killed the Dragon is one of them, he will probably have with him the spear shaft that fits the Spearpoint.
Speaker A: The drawl thought this was a good idea, and he called together a meeting, and when the day came for the meeting, the Jarl and many other chieftains came, and there was a great crowd.
Speaker A: Ragnar marries Thora.
Speaker A: It was heard on Ragnar’s ships that the meeting was a short time away.
Speaker A: And Ragnar went to the meeting with nearly all his men.
Speaker A: And when they arrived, they stood a certain distance from the other men, because Ragnar saw that a great crowd had come, as was expected.
Speaker A: Then the Jarl stood up and commanded silence and spoke.
Speaker A: He said his thanks to the men who had carried out his orders so well.
Speaker A: And then he told of what had taken place.
Speaker A: First he told them what he had promised as a reward for the man who killed the Dragon.
Speaker A: And then the Dragon is now dead.
Speaker A: And the man who did this great deed left his spear point in the wound.
Speaker A: And if the man who has the matching spear shaft is one of you here at this meeting, Let him bring it forward and prove the story.
Speaker A: Then I will do everything that I have promised, whether he is of low or high birth.
Speaker A: And he concluded his speech by ordering that the spearhead be taken around to every man at the meeting.
Speaker A: And ordering his men to ask each man present who owned it or who had the spear shaft that it matched.
Speaker A: This was done.
Speaker A: But the man who had the spear shaft was not found.
Speaker A: Then the Jarrell’s men came to where Ragnar was standing and showed him the spearhead.
Speaker A: He admitted that it was his.
Speaker A: And the spear shaft and spearhead matched.
Speaker A: Now the men thought it was certain that it was he who had killed the Dragon.
Speaker A: And because of this deed, he became very famous throughout Scandinavia.
Speaker A: And he asked for the hand of Thora, the Jarl’s daughter.
Speaker A: And the Jarl took this well.
Speaker A: And now she was promised to Ragnar.
Speaker A: And a great feast was prepared with all the best delicacies in the Kingdom.
Speaker A: And the wedding took place at this feast.
Speaker A: And when the feast was finished, Ragnar went home to his own Kingdom and ruled it.
Speaker A: And he loved Thora well.
Speaker A: They had two sons.
Speaker A: The older was named Eric, and the younger Agnar.
Speaker A: And both were big and handsome and much stronger than most other men who were alive at the time.
Speaker A: They learned all kinds of skills.
Speaker A: And one day, Thor became ill and she died of her sickness.
Speaker A: Ragnar took this so badly that he did not want to rule any longer.
Speaker A: He set up other men to rule in his stead along with his sons.
Speaker A: And at this time, Ragnar took up the same practice he had followed earlier and went raiding.
Speaker A: And wherever he went, he took the victory.
Speaker A: Thank you for joining Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker A: Be sure to come back next week to hear Golden Angel’s journey to holding her own fairytale in her hands?
Speaker C: And hear one of her favorite fairy you.
