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valhalla-worthy volvos?

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  I recently spotted this in traffic: With the Volvo being an iconic Swedish car (though the manufacturer was once owned by Ford and was later sold to China's Geely automotive company), it sort-of makes humorously contextual sense that their vehicles might end up in Valhalla . If we talk about the idea of swords , axes , and ships having names and therefore some personal agency in terms of performing a function and being judged to earn a reputation of worth based on that performance, then Norse Cosmology might extend to them a battle death or Odinic pass into the Hall of the Slain, though in the Lore there isn't really a stand-alone object example of this outside of being in tow as someone's grave goods . So what we do have archaeologically are mound burials that are ship, wood cart , and/or horse inclusive, and this makes for the implied idea that you get to ride your Midgardian transportation of choice into the afterlife for use as valid. Nowadays more realistically a

the Wagnerian castle-dwellers of Battlestar Galactica.

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I've a feeling that in 1978 CE the producers of Battlestar Galactica somehow got ahold of Wagner's Ring helmets and decided to build their Episode 11, The Young Lords , around these Siegfried costume props. The fearless guerilla teen Kyle (Charles Bloom) confidently tells Colonial Warrior Starbuck that his siblings are a well-oiled army that've been successfully striking Cylon targets long before he gracelessly wrecked his Viper on their homeworld. On the planet Attila (which given the context just also happens to refer to the latter chapters of the Burgundian Song of the Nibelungs ) Starbuck is rescued by the operatic clad martial family which includes young Valkyrie-esque vixen Audrey Landers as Miri, the eldest daughter: [yes, they ride unicorns!] Of course flyboy Starbuck's flirty bad boy charm wins her over pretty quickly. After using B-roll long shot of an actual Rhineland castle, there's closer interiors/exteriors of a Universal Studio's Stage 30 set I

Savage-ly pulp cover Vikings.

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Pulp hero Doc Savage apparently meets his match versus some erzatz Vikings that attack a yacht off Long Island! Spoiler, they turn out to not be Vikings (boo! hiss!), so I didn't bother buying this since it's not actually a true NorsePlay in terms of content, but these pulp series covers are pretty "Viking"-riffic and show the cultural persistence of Nordic motifs. Far before these covers, the story was first presented in Doc Savage Magazine from July of 1935 CE. #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer

the Huldufólk of Tayos.

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In Ecuador there's the Tayos' Cave (Cueva de los Tayos/Cave of the Oilbirds), which after Hungarian explorer Janos ‘Juan’ Móricz returns from in the 1960s with a fabulous/dubious tale of discovering a cavernous library of books made of inscribed Golden Tablets . The story gets alot of attention, garnering a series of expeditions, some with Móricz, some without, but the independent ones don't find the tablets, and in the guided ones Móricz instead declines to lead them to the library, claiming that the knowledge contained in the golden books can only be revealed to a ready & responsible contingent of men. In the above documentary of the 1976 BCRA expedition (which included astronaut Neil Armstrong [!]), at the 48:00 minute mark an explorer relates his missing time experience in the cave to later recall his encounter with a pale backless female with a tail-like coccyx. [ Huldra by Steve Ebdon.] This account corresponds to the Norse Lore's Huldra , a female of the Hu

the origin of the Runes?

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One theory has it that the ancient Germanics based their runic writing from the Etruscans. I'm not definitively weighing in on this, but I happened upon a photo of the Pyrgi Gold Tablets where the right two are in Etruscan characters bearing some resemblance to the runes : From 500 BCE, and it wouldn't be so hard to conceive of the characters evolving or changing into Elder Futhark as time went forward. Here's a transcription for more clarity of the letter forms: Sinistrodextral and boustrophedon are present in surviving runic examples, so the left-to-right in the Etruscan above allows for runes later being pretty fast & loose with whichever direction they were written. The Ansuz ( ), Isa (ᛁ), Sowilo ( ), and Laguz ( )-like characters in mirror/reverse seem pretty dead on. These tablets are also a dedication to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, and that could also be seen as a sacred throughline with uses of the runes on amulets, wood staves intended for magic, and runes

the implications of your UPG.

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You saw something. Maybe Sunna passed by on her way overhead and snuck a flapjack off your morning breakfast plate for needed calories to burn & shine with. Perhaps Freyr helpfully left you a package of condoms to find when you needed them most. Eir got you that appointment with an impossible-to-book medical specialist. Your cat meowed & stared at a not-so-empty room's corner for two hours only to reveal your crouching  húsálfar drinking your feline's milk . You refused some change to a monocular vagrant dressed in blue before the on-ramp and then you immediately  got into a horrible car accident. You asked the sky a question and literally heard an answer within the deep growl of thunder on a rainless day. For whatever reason, totally unprovoked, accidentally seen, ritually summoned, or externally selected, you had an Unverified Personal Gnosis. No, don't straight out tell me about your UPG, because if you just start off with that to anyone, odds are its only going

their hair is the waves.

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The Nine Daughters of Ægir & Rán are each named after a type of wave, which probably means they are personifications & manifestations of differing sea tops themselves. Perhaps this artistic interpretation NorsePlays more exactly how that is by making the waves their very hair : And since Norse & Classical Mythologies are descended from common Proto-Indo-European roots, one can maybe associate the depiction of these sisterly beauties with the idea of Aphrodite being born of seafoam, which is almost equally as curious as Heimdallr having all nine of them as his mothers. Given water's fluidity, perhaps a shared or traded once-a-month foam-lined womb gave the golden-toothed watchman of the Gods his níu-maternal origin.  [ Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán (2021) by Rim Baudey, graphite on paper & digital mixed media.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods an

NorsePlay Investigates: The Heavener Runestone.

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I know what you're thinking: a runestone in eastern Oklahoma?!? Yet if the Norse traveled east to the Black Sea, maybe even further into Asia via the spice roads, why not the same reach past Leif's Camp in Newfoundland and extending into America via coastal circumnavigation, rivers, and portages? [detail from park sign with proposed river route & location.] So I, as a proactive Investigative Norse Mythologist , used this legendary stickpin from my Map Of Midgard Project data to go take a firsthand look at the contested Heavener Runestone. [runes with me for scale.] Objective Observations: Out in small vale of the wilderlands of Heavener stands a 9' x 9' x 2' slab of sandstone, like a huge billboard facing west. From the collapsed layers of rock behind it, it seems to have detached and neatly planted itself upright in the earth. Whether that's incidental, or it was raised, or detached by force, and even possibly carved first then erected, one can't say,

a bearserker girl mural.

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During a recent trip in Willcox, AZ, I ran across this awesome bearserker girl mural : Adorning the southwest exterior wall of Bear's Vintage Thrift, my Heathen Worldview suddenly did a double take. There's a narrative in this art, a semi-sad introspection. Perhaps it's berserker-like battle-lusty Hervör Angantyrsdottir at the moment she decides to relinquish the formidable but cursed sword Tyrfing, stop raiding, and settle down to a more traditional life at her foster-father Jarl Bjartmar's hall. One might imagine this face of resignation at such a point of change in her life, the trade of her being done with risk & adventure for more secure domesticity & differing rewards of marriage. While there's no mention of her wearing a bearskin in  The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek  (though her birthfather was a berserker, so maybe passed on?), the mural could be allegorical of her ferocity cowling or even emanating from her person. On the commercial surface this wo

the other Grýla.

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  While doing a backup on the Map Of Midgard 's Jötnar layer's stickpin for the Child-Eating Giantess Grýla's Cave, I noticed that the above is a different version of Þrándur Þórarinsson's  Grýla (2009 CE) than the one I'd previously posted  back in 2017 CE: The top one's more chiaroscuro Caravaggio, while the bottom one's lighter palette seems to be occurring a couple moments before with it's arterial pressure bloodspurt happening in that instant. One must guess Þrándur made two different versions? Which do you prefer, NorsePlayers? And tell us why in the comments below! #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand Nors

Map Of Midgard side update: The Óðinnsvegr is now YouTube famous!

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Why, look who dressed their latest video set wall with their new framed Óðinnsvegr: The Path Of Odin map : YouTuber Walter Jones’ing! Hails to my workie & pal Walter Jones who showed his support for NorsePlay by buying a framed copy of the map! (Hey, go get yours here , here , or here .) Walter's passion is collecting films (when he's not writing screenplays), the enthusiastic acquisition of which is the mainstay of his content. If you like Criterion Collection, Arrow Special Edition s, Steelbooks, and  TTRPG mini s, go watch, like, and subscribe his channel to enjoy a kindred spirit happily waxing on about his latest stack of movie magic, and leave him constructive comments, encouraging praise, or much-needed warnings about his blind buys. Also, Walter said he wants to expand his content to interview s, and had threatened to have NorsePlay on as a guest, so do stay tuned to him for that if it indeed is fated to happen ... ! #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there w

thirsty like the wolf.

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Next-level sculptural drinking horn crafted by Phillip Montgomery/Bonecarverpm, inlaid with bone teeth made of cowbone and ruby eyes! This would make a really sweet Úlfheðnar enthusiast's gift, and NorsePlay would love to see more work of this caliber, especially a Berserker bear version in this high-relief style. [check out Montgomery's other work and ask for a commission on his DA here .] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer,  do contact him .

there has to be an exception.

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In  Neil Gaiman 's retelling Norse Mythology , he poetically NorsePlay'd that mistletoe's consent to not harm Baldr couldn't be obtained because it was too young to cognitively agree to Frigg's compact. [book art illustration by Charles E. Brock (1930 CE).] I myself have speculated that perhaps mistletoe was a very latecomer in the spectrum of mythic time, a parasitical growth that appeared only after Frigg had locked down everything else's oath, which would make the most sense. As I read Marvel Universe 's entry on Baldr this week, the comic adaptation alternatively plays it this way: "Because of prophecies that Balder's death would help trigger the coming of Ragnarok , the destruction of Asgard and its inhabitants, Odin, ruler of Asgard , commanded his wife Frigga to make Balder invulnerable to harm. Frigga cast spells that would protect Balder from harm by any living or inanimate thing while he was in the Asgardian dimension. (The legends describ