So far I’m digging Substack a lot so I got on the second post a little early. This week I’ve shared the second half of my short story The Bog, which originally appeared in issue #308 of Heavy Metal Magazine. I’ve continued my Northern Inspiration column but remember it’s full of spoilers so readers beware, check out the actual story before reading this “director commentary” style section ;)
Heavy Metal Magazine #308 - Cover B
I’ve included more artwork and a second playlist of what I was listening to while coming up with this story, the same as I did last time. It’s still metal AF. Enjoy!
My goal is still to try and post bi-weekly at a minimum and I currently have enough material to go for a couple of months. Beyond that, I really need to make sure I’m still writing new stuff :D For the next entry (which may be early again!) I’ll be sharing the first half, or perhaps the entire new story completely unrelated to this one. As I mentioned last week, these short stories are intended to be individual chapters in what I hope will turn out to be a pretty cool anthology I’ll self-publish… eventually. Without giving anything away, you can expect similarities in style, tone, and setting.
Until next time, #SteveOnSub
The Bog Part II - Go Into the Water
“Over here, I found it!” he shouted.
Everyone ran over, the girls were excited to see if their man could brave the swamp and bring them a colorful keepsake. Only Anders was discouraged by the discovery of this place. This hidden pool of snake-infested mud and dead trees drowning in black water was nothing to be excited about, save the flowering lily pads. As they all gathered around the bank, two giant ravens suddenly cried out and burst into flight away from the smoky waters in a flurry. In the center of the water stood alone a single blackened tree. It looked as if it had been set ablaze. Maybe someone had camped the night here once before the water had taken over, letting their fire grow too big and too close to the tree and charred it with the flames. Or perhaps it had been struck by lightning. There was an unnatural feeling about this place, like it had been forgotten by the Gods.
Original Artwork by Thedor Kittelsen
“That one!” said one of the girls, “That pad by the black tree is the one you must bring back a flower from, it’s the only one with any around it.” Anders began to make his way towards the back of the group, slouching low behind the tallest boy he could find. There was no way he was going to run out through the freezing, dirty water for a tattered flower that looked as if it were growing out from the depths of Hel itself.
“I’ll do it, no problem,” boasted the very boy he was hiding behind. Anders was safe for now, one of the older boys was going to tempt fate to impress one of the girls who had come along. His name was Horik, he stood over six feet tall and was built as strong as a giant. He weighed as much as a grown man and would soon be leaving with his father in search of fame and fortune, already mastering sailing and violence at an early age.
Horik tossed his boots and shirt off to the side and passed his dagger to Siggy, a cute blonde girl who had been eying Horik all day. As he stepped into the water, the cold bit at him, inching deeper into the bog until it was reaching his knees, then his waist, slowly it crept up to his chest. The water usually does not go this high, normally one would not have to swim through the swamp but rather run clumsily through the sticky mud and dirty water. Finally, while standing on the tips of his toes the ground evened out as the freezing water choked him around his neck.
“Old” by Kim Diaz Holm
“Go on, swim!”, “It isn’t that far!” they were all shouting. But to him, it may as well have been an eternity away in this bone-chilling swamp. Just before Horik could push off the ground to swim to the black tree, something grabbed him by his foot. It was wrapped around his ankle and pulled him under before he could let out a plea for help. There was a quick splashing and then nothing; the water was completely still, and the bog fell silent. No one understood what they had just seen.
“Horik?”, “Horik are you there?” they took turns shouting. Before anyone could think to run screaming back the way they had come, the water erupted and gasps for help were coming from the Horik’s flailing body, desperately trying to stay above water. Several of the boys ran in after him, boots and daggers and all, heroes indeed. Horik was stuck in place, unable to free himself and in a panic. The first to reach him slipped below the surface of the water right in front of him, thrusting a single hand up in desperation. The other two reached the reckless attempt of a rescue and pulled them both up.
“Tarn with Water Lilies” by Th Kittelsen
“I’ll try to free their legs,” one boy shouted as he dove below the shadowy waves. He needn’t have to, for as soon as he did their legs had unbound. They were able to drag the foolish boys to shore just before they all went under. Soaked and out of breath, the boys gathered themselves while Horik got dressed. “What happened?” asked Siggi. Neither Horik nor his ill-attempted rescuer replied at first.
“It felt as if someone had grabbed me by my leg.” Horik eventually admitted, “I couldn’t move, it pulled me under.” The other boy nodded in silent agreement as the group looked down at Horik’s ankle. There were red lines across his skin like burns from a rope. The second boy rolled up his pant leg, they both had the marks. Even through his clothing, the same red lines were across his skin as well. “We must have been tangled in some plants under the water, vines perhaps,” claimed Horik.
“Here, you dropped this,” said Anders as he handed a small knife to the boy sitting in the mud next to Horik, still breathing heavily and trembling. Everyone agreed that they had all had enough and decided to go home. They walked back in silence, in an unspoken pact to keep tonight’s occurrence between only them. In the distance, they could hear rustling and the faint sounds of what might have been their horse.
*** It is Thursday afternoon now, and Anders is sitting under the trees enjoying his solitude at the edge of the village. Somewhere between an illusion and a dream, he’s startled back to life by the sounds of a song. It sounds like a fiddle or violin, but there were no fiddlers in their village, and no one even knew how to play one. Anders rose to his feet and looked around, but he was quite alone. The music seems to be coming from within the tree line of the forest, just out of eyesight. Against his better judgment, Anders enters the woods where the music is coming from. The song grows louder as he goes; it’s beautiful and entrancing. He loses focus and begins to move in a daze in the direction from which the song comes. It’s so hypnotizing that he doesn’t even notice the fog slithering around his feet.
Kim Diaz Holm
He follows the song deeper into the forest than intended, not yet realizing where he will end up. Anders floats through the leaves and spider webs, over the snakes and frogs completely spellbound by the music he now longs for. It almost hurts to not be near it, he can no longer see what is right in front of him. There were flies in the air now, buzzing in circles as if something had died nearby. Anders’ mind became disoriented, his body felt numb and motionless. He thinks to himself, “Just turn and run” in a final free thought until his eyes catch the ripples moving over the water. They are slow at first, just a few. Now they’re more and more, faster and faster as they dance. They move with the sounds of the song, bouncing to each note as it is played. It almost seems as if the music were coming from underneath the water. Anders will feel compelled to look into the murky abyss, if only for a moment.
Original Artwork by Theodor Kittelsen
And so he does, he kneels next to this mysterious water, leaning closer and closer. The flies would not leave Anders alone now, biting at his already dead skin. He doesn’t notice a thing. My melody is in the air he breathes. I am inside his head; I consume his heart and command his body. I have been watching him for some time now, he is so very different from the other ones. He makes an excellent addition. I pull him under the cold water and into the darkness of my bog. Here he stays with me and the rest of my children. We are like a family; I am building a village of my own down here. The Gods won’t likely hear their prayers.
The End
“Nokken” Original Artwork by Kim Diaz Holm
Northern Inspiration The Bog pt. II Explained (SPOILER ALERT)
Stop reading now if you haven’t actually read The Bog.For a timeline, I chose the two days of the week specifically because of their meaning. Wednesday, or Wodensday, is Odin’s day and the beginning of events. Odin is also known to always have two ravens with him, Huginn and Muninn. When the children first approach the bog in my story, on Wodensday, two ravens fly away - obviously, my little hint that the two are watching the events below. I purposefully kept the timeline between two consecutive days, Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday, or Thorsday after Thor, my narrator (the bog creature) is known to attack, according to his traditional background. This both simplified my timeline and seemed a convenient match in keeping with the multiple mythologies as well.
The pale white horse is called a Brook Horse and comes from old Nordic folk tales. Its appearance is not random or a figment of the boy’s imagination in my story, though it may seem that way. It has been described as being several colors, most frequently white, and lures people to chase them near water where it then drowns them. The narrator under the bog is a Nokk or Nokken, a water spirit with a weakness for metal. I intentionally have Horik leave his dagger and another boy drop his by accident during the rescue. This allows Horik and the second boy to be temporarily caught in the water, and the others to free him by exploiting this weakness unknowingly (they still have their knives – which are made of metal).
The Nokk/Nokken is also nameless on purpose, as being named is another weakness of his and can stop his attack, according to some versions of his folklore. The two creatures, the Brooke Horse and the Nokk were at times combined and told as being one spirit that can shapeshift, being both horse and water creature. In my story, it is up to the reader to decide if it is one entity or two working together. To me, it works either way and I honestly don’t know which I prefer so I won’t claim one way or another is correct. These creatures are known as water spirits and usually bad omens throughout Scandinavia and the surrounding old Germanic regions. This website has a pretty good summary. There are several versions of the Nokk and Brook Horse, with multiple names and specifics on how they interact with humans. As with many old tales, there are variations with their own uniqueness, I merely combined some aspects I liked and left other things out in my story for how I wanted to depict the creatures. I combined a few of the legends here and there, as I suspect happened constantly around the campfire a few hundred years ago.
Editors Correction from last week: I mentioned my character’s names are all Scandinavian, and that Horik and Siggy were real Viking royalty (popularized by the TV show Vikings) but those characters don’t appear until this week’s “Part II’ - My bad. Speaking of names, with the abundance of musical inspiration I draw from, it’s a bit ironic that it’s music that is used to bring Anders back into the forest and get him killed (Anders is named after the lead singer of In Flames, remember?) I also chose the last few songs to this week’s playlist accordingly. I think they sort of go with the vibe I was imagining for this song. And on that note…
The Unsung Bog Song
I had this idea while I was writing The Bog. I wanted to do a short poem as part of the lyrics to the song that lured Anders back into the forest, but I decided against having any singing. As far as the reader is concerned it’s an acoustic song being played on an instrument (typically a fiddle according to the Nokk’s history), which was my intent. If I were to change my story here and incorporate singing into the story, I think I would have done something like this:
Join me for a spell, will you? Stay a while and have a few. It won’t take long to finish my song, And soon you won’t be feeling very strong. Through the marsh is where I’ll be, Singing my song for you, you see. Across the forest and far from home, Please make sure you come alone.
I would want the lyrics to be inviting with an underlying dark intent, as my story goes. I used an AABB pattern and tried to use rhymes within lines and alliteration so it would flow constantly like a song. This idea was inspired by The Lord of the Rings & Hobbit books and how they have more singing and poems in them than the movies portray.
YouTube FTW: Some other places I stumbled upon that gave me ideas along the way include Anna Bridgland - Folklore, Mythology & Fairy Tales YouTube channel and her video for The Nøkk Explained from her Nordic Folklore collection. Her videos are fantastic and I highly recommend them for anyone even remotely interested in this stuff. I honestly watch her videos a lot to get ideas for what sort of monsters to write about. She also has an updated version of this video called What is the Nøkk? Nordic Folklore Explained. For those of you with little time on your hands, see the TLDR videohere.
*Fun fact: This picture was the original thumbnail cover for this post.
The Nokk Gallery
Bog Art
As per the Norwegian National Museum, Theodore Kittelsen’s art is in the public domain and free to use with no known copyright restrictions as per Creative Commons.2
Kim Diaz Holm’s Artwork & Influence This first one seems to be Kim’s attempt at re-creating Theodor Kittelsen’s Nokk and I think he nailed it.
Cover Art by Kim Diaz Holm - “Nokken”
Nokk/Nokken Artwork by Kim Diaz Holm
Trees by Kim Diaz Holm
Kim believes that art should be free and offers his work as free to use and share.
”I make art and release it under Creative Commons licences, so you can use it exactly as you see fit. While doing so, I also release merchandise, prints and originals for those who would like to support me on my way.”3 - Kim Diaz Holm
Northern Hymns on Spotify Check out the second totally brutal Northern Hymns playlist of awesome artists and the songs I was listening to that helped inspire and motivate my writing. \m/
*Yes, I am aware that most of them are Finnish and therefore TeChNiCaLlY, not Viking. I don’t care.
