The first novel in the Hidden Gods series by R.K. Varden, The Wolf Who Held the Sky is a dark, mythic fantasy romance that sets out to tell the “true” story behind a lesser-known piece of Norse mythology: Sköll, the wolf who chases the sun across the sky. The book takes place a thousand years ago, in a world where chimeras, people born part-human and part-animal, are hunted by a fanatical inquisition that burns “what they could not tame.” It’s an ambitious, beautifully written, and ambitious debut.
The story follows Sköll, a wolf chimera who can control gravity. He has lived alone in the mountains for decades, terrified that his power will slip and bring the mountain down. One night he crosses paths with Sadi, a hind (or female deer) chimera whose touch can make dead wood bloom or rot living things to ash. She keeps her hands bound in linen so she never hurts anything by accident.
Their first meeting is anything but romantic. “Take another stride up this rock,” she warns him, “and I will rot the meat off your paws.” With inquisitors and their hounds close behind, the two wary strangers agree to travel north together toward a rumored sanctuary in the high crags. On their epic journey, they will meet Norse mythology fan favourites like Loki. Before long, Sköll and Sadi’s relationship will develop and be tested in ways neither of them can predict.
The book’s biggest strength is its imagination, and the author’s skill at bringing a rarer piece of Norse mythology to life. From the first page, it feels like the world the old sagas came from: “Above the timberline of the northern spine, where jagged teeth of stone divided the taiga from the frozen wastes… It was a realm of frost and stars.” The author gives a classic Nordic myth a clever twist, showing how Sköll might have originated. Small touches, like an inscription in Old Norse (Skǫll ok sólin hans, “Sköll and his sun”), show the care put into every page of the book.
The prose is vivid and perfectly suited to the material. The cold, the wind and the sheer scope of the environments come through. Some of the strongest moments, though, are the plainest, “The coal settled. The night held.” I also really enjoyed the book’s examination of loneliness, and it’s a good book for anyone dealing with isolation.
The characters and their powers are just as strong. I loved how imaginative they are. I’ve not read anything quite like Sköll’s powers over gravity, or Sadi’s ability to make things grow or rot with a touch. Each one comes with a built-in cost, which keeps the story tense and stops the characters from feeling overpowered. As Sadi puts it, “The Bloom cannot move without the Blight. It is the Law of it: growth paid in rot.” The supporting cast shines too, especially Loki, the joking shapeshifter, and Nara, the lioness who can heal from almost any wound.
Although the book isn’t purely a romance, the love story is its emotional core, and for the most part it works. The author uses the slow-burn trope well, with our two main characters gradually realising their similarities. The turning point, when Sadi’s bare hand lands on Sköll’s chest and her rot can’t harm him, is a highlight, “The rot pooled against his chest and stayed hers. Nothing died.” Readers should know the romance also includes several explicit scenes.
One of the most satisfying things about the book is how it uses Norse mythology. Rather than retelling familiar stories in ways we’ve seen a hundred times before, Varden builds an origin story backwards, and the payoff is clever. Names, images and small details that seem like simple worldbuilding early on turn out to be the seeds of legends the world will later remember wrong. Readers who know the myths of Sköll, Hati, Loki and Ragnarök will enjoy spotting the references, especially once Loki’s role in the legend becomes clear. Readers who don’t will still get a self-contained story that works on its own.
The book does have a couple of debateable minor flaws. For much of the book, the characters, Sköll especially, talk in clipped, solemn statements that sound more like proverbs than conversation, “I count what can kill us,” “A mountain does not talk back,” “It is what I have.” That fits a wolf who has barely spoken in forty years, but it makes the dialogue feel a bit dry and humourless at times. The tone is also quite serious. Apart from Loki’s jokes there’s little lightness, and the steady stream of darkness can wear you out by the second half. Likewise, for some, the prose may once in a while slide from lyrical into slightly overwritten.
That said, these flaws are far outweighed by what the book gets right. The seriousness that can feel heavy also gives the story a sense of epicness. This is a book about what power, love and mercy cost, and it never pretends those costs are small. At 108 pages (likely slightly longer in the physical book version), it never outstays its welcome, and it builds to an ending that is pretty moving.
On the whole, The Wolf Who Held the Sky is an imaginative debut that tells an unforgettable myth and romance that sticks with you. Despite a few rough edges, turning a Norse myth into an origin story for a doomed love is a great hook, and Varden delivers on it with images and lines that stay with you long after the last page. I’d happily read the next book in the Hidden Gods series.
Final verdict: For fans of Genevieve Gornichec, Sarah J. Maas and tragic love stories inspired by ancient myths like Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles, this is an easy recommendation. Just come prepared for heavy themes, ornate prose, and an ending that will hurt.
