GAMETECH: All aboard for a Viking adventure

WITH all the dodgy beards in Ireland, you’d think the Vikings never left. We’ve a lingering fascination with our ancient Norse raiders, who took a blade to everything but their faces. We’re not alone in that fascination, either. The world remains intrigued by Viking mythology and culture.

Chief among those myths is the promise of Valhalla for fallen warriors. In Old Norse, the word Valhalla means ‘Hall of the Slain’ — it’s a place for those who died in battle. To reach that place is the dream of every Viking warrior.

In Jotun, the Viking Thora has died an inglorious death, by shipwreck. Thus, she awakens not in Valhalla, but in a kind of purgatory, faced with a sequence of tests to ‘prove herself to the Gods’.