A. and E. Keary

A. and E. Keary — Annie Keary and Eliza Keary — were nineteenth-century English authors best known for their retelling of Norse mythology for younger readers. Annie Keary (1825–1879) was a prolific writer of fiction and children’s literature, and together the sisters produced The Heroes of Asgard (1857), a work that brought the stories of the Norse gods to a broad English-speaking audience at a time when such myths were little known outside Scandinavia.

Their retellings draw directly from Old Norse sources, including the Eddas, and present the world of Asgard — its gods, giants, dwarves, and elves — in vivid, accessible prose. The writing is faithful to the spirit of the original myths while shaping them into coherent narratives that a general reader can follow. In “How Thor Went to Jotunheim,” the thunder god and the cunning Loki travel by chariot into the land of the giants, and the story captures both the grandeur and the strangeness of the Norse mythological world. “The Dwarves and the Elves” opens with Odin contemplating the beauty of the earth and the limitations of its people — a quiet, philosophical moment that sets the stage for the creation of two of mythology’s most distinctive races.

Recurring throughout their work are the great themes of Norse myth: the tension between order and chaos, the cleverness of gods pitted against the brute strength of giants, and the elaborate cosmology that stretches from Asgard to the darkest edges of the world. The Kearys render these ideas with care, neither over-simplifying nor losing the reader in complexity.

All of these stories are available to read in full on Ririro, completely free of charge. Whether you are new to Norse mythology or returning to stories you already love, you can read every listed work here without cost or sign-up.