This book could not have been written without those great skalds of the Viking Age who showed us the road to Valhalla: Eyvindr skaldaspillir, the Eiriksmal poet, and Egill Skalla-Grimsson. To them and their fellows I am endlessly grateful also, to Snorri Sturluson, whose writings preserved so much of Wotan's lore. In more recent times, I owe special thanks to Hector Munro Chadwick and Jan de Vries, whose work has inspired much of my own. Great thanks are also due to those living folk who helped with the research and writing of this book. The thesis research on which Wotan is based could not have taken place without the kindness of those notable scholars, Professor Dr. Karl Hauck and Dr. H.R. Ellis-Davidson (to whose excellent book The Road to Hel the title of this work pays homage) and the assistance of my Cambridge supervisor Paul Bibire. In addition, I must thank Freya Aswynn, Diana Paxson, Jim Lovette, Melodi Lammond, Jennifer Holliman, William West, Garman Lord, and Mrs. Virginia Clarke, as well as all those modern-day followers of the Norse gods with whom I have spoken and worshipped for the past twelve years, and Dr. Stephen Edred Flowers (Edred Thorsson), whose writings have been one of the chief forces leading to a revived interest in Wotan and the forgotten treasures of native Scandinavian culture.

Finally, I must offer my own thanks to Wotan himself - Valhalla's lord, god of death and memory, who gives the mead's gold to his true thanes, that their staves be more lasting than the runes carven on memorial stones. May the Old Man continue to inspire us and show us the way between the worlds: the road to Valhalla.

About Author:

Stephan Scott Grundy (born 1967), in New York, United States), commonly known as Stephan Grundy, and also known by the pen-name Kveldulf Gundarsson, is an American author, scholar, go?i and proponent of Asatru. Grundy grew up in Dallas in the U.S. state of Texas. He now lives in Shinrone, Offaly, Ireland. He has over two dozen published books and a number of published papers. He is best known for his modern adaptations of legendary sagas and also a non-fiction writer on Germanic mythology, Germanic paganism, and Germanic neopaganism.

Before publishing his first novel, Grundy published, as Kveldulf Gundarsson, two books on Germanic neopaganism and Germanic magic. He has since edited and co-written both editions of the handbook of The Troth, Our Troth, and written other works on ancient and modern Germanic paganism and Germanic culture.

Grundy was previously Lore Warden and Master of the Elder Training Program for the Ring of Troth (now known simply as The Troth) and carried on the organization's tradition of being based in scholarship, started by Edred Thorsson. Mattias Gardell also regards him as important in the organization's move to the left and development of a "strict antiracist and antisexist ideology." 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 sei?r in Iceland, also as Grundy by Julia Bolton Holloway on pagan priestesses, and by Charlotte Hardman and Graham Harvey in their survey of neo-paganism for editing Our Troth, "a large work collecting articles about almost every conceivable issue of importance to Asatruar".

Kveldulfr Hagan Gundarsson Books:

- Kveldulf Gundarsson: Teutonic Magic: The Magical & Spiritual Practices of the Germanic People, Llewellyn, 1990, ISBN 0-87542-291-8
- Kveldulf Gundarsson: Teutonic Religion: Folk Beliefs & Practices of the Northern Tradition, Llewellyn, 1993, ISBN 0-87542-260-8
- KveldulfR Hagan Gundarsson, ed.: Our Troth, The Ring of Troth, 1993
- Stephan Grundy: Miscellaneous Studies Towards the Cult of Odinn, Everett, WA: Vikar, 1994; Troth Publications, 2014, ISBN 978-1-941136-03-4.
- Stephan Grundy: Rhinegold, Michael Joseph, 1994, ISBN 0-7181-3742-6
- Stephan Grundy: Attila's Treasure, Bantam, 1996, ISBN 0-553-37774-4
- Stephan Grundy: Gilgamesh, William Morrow, 1999, ISBN 0-380-97574-2
- Stephan Grundy and Melodi Lammond-Grundy: Falcon's Flight, 2000, e-book Double Dragon, 2006, ISBN 1-55404-326-3
- Stephan Grundy and Melodi Lammond-Grundy: Eagle and Falcon, 2002, e-book Double Dragon, 2006, ISBN 1-55404-329-8
- Stephan Grundy and Melodi Lammond-Grundy: Falcon's Night, 2002, e-book Double Dragon, 2006, ISBN 1-55404-351-4
- Kveldulf Gundarsson, ed.: Our Troth, 2nd ed. volume 1 History and Lore Booksurge, 2006, ISBN 1-4196-3598-0; volume 2 Living the Troth Booksurge, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4196-3614-1
- KveldulfR Hagan Gundarsson: Elves, Wights, and Trolls, Studies Towards the Practice of Germanic Heathenry 1, iUniverse, 2007, ISBN 0-595-42165-2
- Stephan Grundy: The Cult of Odinn: God of Death?, Troth Publications, 2014, ISBN 978-1-941136-01-0 (hardcover). Reprint of 1995 PhD dissertation.

Kveldulfr Hagan Gundarsson Articles:

- Stephan Grundy, "Chapter Four: Freyja and Frigg" in Sandra Billington and Miranda Green, eds., The Concept of the Goddess, Routledge, 1996, republished Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2000, ISBN 0-203-45638-6, pp. 56-67.
- Stephan Grundy, "Shapeshifting and Berserkergang" in Carol Poster and Richard J. Utz, eds., Translation, Transformation and Transubstantiation in the Late Middle Ages, Disputatio 3 (1998), pp. 104-22.
- Kveldulf Gundarsson: numerous articles in Idunna and Mountain Thunder.