Let’s flash back to 2002. A little girl sits on a friend’s sofa, watching a movie she hadn’t even cared about seeing. Then, a voice, ethereal, haunting, and unmistakably Cate Blanchett, delivers an opening monologue that would reshape pop culture for the next decade.
I was that little girl. And that monologue? It was from The Lord of the Rings.
The Spark That Ignited a World
I was always a nerdy kid, the kind who re-read The Chronicles of Narnia so many times before age 12 that it was borderline embarrassing. But The Lord of the Rings was different. It had danger, mystery, and grandeur. It had elves, graceful, enigmatic, and utterly captivating. And, let’s be honest, it had Orlando Bloom, who my tiny, pubescent heart was absolutely (and unashamedly) obsessed with.
This love for Tolkien’s world soon led me deeper into mythology and history, and inevitably, I discovered Norse mythology. The stories of Freyr, Loki, and Freyja fascinated me, not just because of their epic battles and divine powers but because of their humor and pettiness. Their antics, their witty (and often brutal) jabs at one another’s honor, all made the gods feel real.
The First Attempt at Storytelling
Inspired by these myths, I set out on my first true attempt at writing. I created a small cast of characters:
- Two elves, a princess on the run from her destiny, and her lover, mysterious and skilled in magic
- A dark elf, brooding and full of secrets
- A human knight, desperately in love with a woman he could never have, burdened with duty to a rival king
- An evil queen, ruling a kingdom in need of liberation
The world-building was weak, and the names were atrocious, but I loved the story. It was raw, unpolished, and completely mine. I wrote the entire 21-chapter novelette on the family computer—a trusty old machine running Windows 98. Unfortunately, technology was not my ally. Right before I could write the final chapter, the computer crashed, wiping out everything.
That loss stalled the story. My characters, particularly Anya, my elven protagonist, lingered only in my sketches and half-finished short stories, never fully brought to life.
Bringing Leifthasir to Life
Then, in January 2024, I decided it was time. Time to revisit the world that had been living in my mind for years, to finally bring Anya’s story to life. I polished, refined, and expanded upon my childhood ideas, and in doing so, Leifthasir was born.
The World of Leifthasir
Leifthasir is a land where myth and reality intertwine, where ancient magic lingers, and where the gods have vanished, leaving behind a world teetering on chaos and legend.
It is a world where:
Elven magic flickers like dying embers, Dragons have been forced into servitude, and Men fight over the remnants of power left behind by the gods.
At its heart, A Tale of Scorched Ash & Elm tells the story of a world struggling to hold onto its magic, a world where the battle between mortals, elves, and forgotten powers is far from over.
It all began with a little girl watching a movie she hadn’t planned to see. Now, it has become a fully realized world, shaped by mythology, history, and the imagination of the child I once was.
And this time, no Windows 98 crash is going to stop me.