Hel is The Shapeshifter's Daughter.


While the cover of this looks pretty mid, the provenance of this NorsePlay'd contemporary fantasy is not. Author Sally Magnusson is not only an accomplished BBC broadcasting personality for 30 years, and a multi-titled author, she grew up under her father Magnus Magnusson (1929-2007 CE), possibly the most famous Icelander outside of Iceland (well, pre-Björk), who not only also was a longtime BBC broadcasting personality, but a prominent popular translator of many Icelandic Sagas and wrote a travel book about visiting the sagasteads which has been in NorsePlay's TBR pile for a long time now.

From the blurb material about The Shapeshifter’s Daughter, both Hel and a terminal cancer patient converge and help each other realize who they really are.

The book was just released last week on November 5th 2025 CE in Orkney, and doesn't seem available in North America yet. Have any of you Orcadian NorsePlayers already read this? If so, let us know what you think in the comments below!

[thanks to storyteller/folklorist Tom Muir's Orkneyology Podcast for bringing this publication to our attention. Go subscribe to him, he's spellbinding!]

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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.

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