Various (Editor: Beech, Mark) - Songs Of The Northern Seas

A collection of bitter cold adventures. When I began reading this, temps were 17° F outside. My home was never built for cold, nor was I. Tattered comforter around my legs, pot of black tea within easy reach, physical insulation to stave off the chill each tale heightened.
“The Ghosts Of The Great Northern Sea” makes a strong opener. A missing lover, apparently murdered, a suspicious stranger, and the tall tale of skating 200 miles across frozen seas.
Missionaries and whalers contest for the goodwill – and souls – of the Nunats in “The Tupilaq.” Nor are they alone, for there are shamans and ill faced spectres.
“Oil” as in lamplight, as in the face in the flickering flame, is an hors d’oeuvre. A soured savory, this feels like the subsection of a longer work. Tasty, but unfulfilling.
The following tale, “In Orbis Alius,” is more substantial. Owing to warmer temps, a Viking ship, in superb condition, has thawed from an ice cave. A party of two are dispatched to secure the site until a larger team arrives. To wait. Waiting, however, proves increasingly difficult.
As with most collections, there are a few tossed bones. “The Salon In The Woods” is overlong and over written. The main character, the naked, wild-man poet, like the story itself, is akin to the nutter on the bus, rambling incoherently and interminably. No song, no Northern Sea, only miasma.
“Excerpts From The Filed Notebook Of Dr. Eveline Cohen” reads like a missing story from Weird Tales. An anthropologist, trekking far north in Russia, hopes to study, perhaps write about, the “uncivilized” before progress wipes them. The style harks to the 1930’s, although I imagine Farnsworth Wright would read and reread the ending quite a few times.
“The Ice You Can Hear” is an icy lament that should haunt you.