Northlore

Northlore is a quiet library of Norse, Finno-Karelian (Kalevala), Icelandic saga, Sami, and Inuit folklore — read the old tales, meet the gods and tricksters behind them, and wander the mythical map of the Nine Worlds. If you have ever wanted a calm, offline-friendly place to read real Nordic and Arctic mythology instead of scrolling, this is it.

Open the app to a Tale of the Day and pick up wherever you left off. Every tale is a public-domain translation or transcription — from the Poetic and Prose Eddas, the Kalevala, Icelandic sagas, and ethnographic Sami and Inuit sources — presented in a calm, candlelit reading view with adjustable type size and line height, a choice of serif or sans body text, and glossary terms you can tap for an instant definition and pronunciation guide. Illustrations are drawn from Wikimedia Commons public-domain art (Kittelsen, Bauer, Gallen-Kallela, Larsson) or bundled with the app.

KEY FEATURES
✓ Folklore Library — dozens of tales across five branches (Norse, Finno-Karelian, Icelandic Sagas, Sami, and Inuit), filterable by branch, mood, and reading time
✓ Pantheon — browse every god, hero, creature, and spirit, with portraits, sacred symbols, and family relationships
✓ Family Tree — a pinch-to-zoom, tap-to-explore map of who is related to whom, branch by branch
✓ Mythical Map — a pin-by-pin tour of the Nine Worlds and the lands of the Kalevala, from Asgard to Muspelheim
✓ Daily Trial — a five-question quiz generated fresh every day, plus untimed practice by branch and difficulty
✓ Glossary — every name and term with IPA pronunciation and a read-aloud button
✓ Reading Lists and Bookmarks — save a passage mid-tale, and build your own collections alongside the curated ones
✓ Reading streak — a quiet daily habit tracker with milestone badges
✓ Read Aloud — built-in text-to-speech with adjustable voice and rate
✓ Parchment Day and Candle Night themes, or follow your system setting

HOW IT WORKS
1. Pick a tale from the Library, the Tale of the Day, or a curated Reading List.
2. Read at your own pace — tap any underlined term for its meaning, long-press a paragraph to bookmark it.
3. Explore the Pantheon and Mythical Map to see how the beings and places in the story connect.
4. Take the Daily Trial to test what you have learned, or practice by branch and difficulty.

WHY NORTHLORE
Every tale is a public-domain translation, not a summary or a rewrite — Henry Adams Bellows' Poetic Edda, John Martin Crawford's Kalevala, saga translations published before 1928, and Sami and Inuit legends transcribed from public-domain ethnographic sources. There is no account to create, no ads, and no social feed — just a library, built to be read by candlelight.

PRIVACY
Northlore does not require an account and does not track you. The only network activity is fetching public-domain illustrations from Wikimedia Commons; your reading history, bookmarks, streak, and progress stay on your device.

Questions or ideas? We would love to hear from you.