Excellent choice for a campaign inspiration: heroic combat in a relatively low population setting, especially if you roll back to the early- and pre-Viking era before more centralized kingship. There is a perpetual fascination with all things Viking and alot out there but some material I used for my own Norse-inspired setting:
- The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland
- The Vikings by Durham and Heath. Very accessible and nicely illustrated book that is a wonderful source book for the period.
- Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney.
- The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1) by Bernard Cornwall, especially the first book.
- 13th warrior of course although read the history books first so you can pick out the more historical aspects. I think it is really good for capturing the spirit of a small adventuring band.
- The recent (2007?) Beowulf movie but better watched after reading #3 and something like #2 so you can take it with the appropriate grain of salt (even the director supposedly said he wished he had read #3 before filming the movie).
I used a second myth book and second Viking survey book but can't seem to find those at the moment. My books are in a bit of disarray.
I highly recommend #2 if you want to limit your sources.
I didn't actually use Beowulf for my own setting (
http://affliction.wikidot.com/ with the
history page a good place to start if you want to limit your browsing) because I hadn't read it at the time. I'd always steered well clear of Beowulf because I don't like that sort of exercise. No Chaucer, Dante or even Shakespeare for me, sorry, it makes my head hurt to read the original or a stilted translation. But my wife picked up Heaney's translation and it is wonderfully illustrated and written. Beowulf is pre-Viking era but depending on exactly what you are trying to capture of the norse spirit in your campaign it could still be quite appropriate.
One thing I'd suggest is not to try to co-opt the Norse myths (or honestly any earth mythology) verbatim. The myths people tell for living in the real world are not all that appropriate for actual divine charactes and not because of their human foibles but because the stories are so fantastic. For instance, Thor is supposed to have started the tides by being tricked into drinking from a vessel connected to the oceans. Makes for a good laugh around the fire but could you really have such a god walking the earth? The mechanics and scale seem inconsistent with the other myths let alone trying to integrate into a FRPG. You could certainly take the myths as they are and layer them on top of more limited divine gods and chalk them up to
exaggeration, willful by the gods or otherwise, though.
Anyway, a very fertile analog for a FRPG setting; have fun with it.
One other point- if you are looking for historical analogs of heroic periods on earth, consider looking to the Trojan war era. There are some good books on that period out in the last fifteen years and I can post a few if you are interested. Both are more similar than you might think: Both Trojan Greeks and Norse Vikings were pirates who stressed heroic combat and hero-leaders.
