NorsePlay.

In Skáldskaparmál §5  Snorri Sturluson quotes the example of poet Ulf Uggason using " the god of lamentations " kenning for Baldr. While we have the universe-stabilizing presence of Baldr's handsome light while he's alive, Hel 's request that all things weep for his return explains this characterization shrouded in the sadness of loss. [the stones, grasses, and flowers weep tears of dew and condensation for Baldr. (prompts by me, produced by Gemini.)] Yet, what if there's more to this? Could this kenning potentially refer to a ritual to Baldr where worshippers must lament to recreate the mythic event in the Baldrs draumar narrative? And would it be too much to say that such a ritual would grant the space and grace of participants to mourn the loss of their own sons, daughters, kin , and pets as a purposeful function? The loss of the brightness Baldr grants clearly mirrors all loss of love and companionship taken by death, tilting one's personal world...

While reading the Faulkes' translation of the Prose Edda , there's some hard numerical facts being thrown at King Gylfi by High, Just As High, and Third. In using these exact figures, it lends a level of concrete certainty and reportage to their account of things, which as readers and potential participants/victims of this fate, is unsettling. So to give ourselves an idea of the exact scale of The Twilight Of The Gods , and hopefully some sort of edge when the time comes, let's do some pre-doomsday math crunching so we know what to expect. When the three start speaking about Ragnarök , the scale of Vígríðr, the plain where this final battle unfolds, is brought up and given as 200 by 200 leagues, so this makes it 600 by 600 land miles, which means this becomes 360,000 square miles! To compare historically, we've only got WW2's Battle of Moscow which had a front of 373 miles, or if we go naval there's WW2's Battle of Leyte Gulf that spread over 100,000 square...

Inspired by the dark, dark Icelandic magical practice of making a pact with someone who will allow you to dig their body up, flawlessly skin their lower half and immediately wear that second epidermis over your own, then activate that skin by stealing a coin from a poor widow to place in its scrotum with a magic stave which will then always generate more coins invisibly stolen from those around you, the ritual of which the Necro Pants pedal grabs its name from. Known as the Nábrók from the 17th century Icelandic grimoire  Galdrabók , this effects pedal 's namesake and artful outline is taken from the hanging legs at the Galdrasýning á Ströndum (Museum of Sorcery & Witchcraft) in Hólmavík, where the exhibit has a reproduction of the necropants in a case. While one might perhaps imagine a semi- draugr -like dry skin-rubbing/chafing shuffle sound from wearing them, this effect pedal's been characterized as a filthy ripped speaker garage fuzz sound, which also seems invasivel...

Looking at the Norse Mythology themed art of Milivoj Ćeran , it takes one back to the core classic fantasy artists: the Brothers Hildebrandt, Frazetta , Vallejo, Lee , Elmore , and Howe. Ćeran's technique is flawless, the depictions are stylistically on point, and beyond this there's a reflexive integration of high fantasy's modern visual tradition which acknowledges those tropes' roots in the Norse Lore, which mirrors what one discovers when looking at the fantasy literature it comes from. You gamers might recognize Ćeran's brush as he's also done work for Wizards of the Coast, Fasa, Monte Cooke, Privateer Press, Fantasy Flight, and others. Hopefully the "Art Book 1" in the above title means there's more of his Norse-themed work on the way. [check out his other gallery selections and shop the above book and prints here !] #     #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'A...

I've presented a theory before about curative flowers potentially associated with the Healing Goddess Eir , and recently ran across yet another Norse God attached by name to a plant. While most of the Gods are spoken of as handsome, it's Baldr the Bright who gets made into an exceptional standard, so when things get named after him this quality transitively becomes a namesaking compliment and reflexive reference to the Bright God. From  Gylfaginning §22: "A certain herb is so white that it is likened to Baldr's brow; of all grasses it is whitest, and by it thou mayest judge his fairness, both in hair and in body." This gives us the Icelandic Baldursbrá, or Baldr's Brow (but this can also translate to be his eyelashes), which is the sea mayweed : [Tripleurospermum maritimum] Like the Eirflower being used as an anti-inflammatory, Baldursbrá also has herbal medicinal properties: it's good for regulating menses, which is a very thank-the-Gods aspect, and may...

NorsePlay was proud to help crowdfund When The Wolf Comes , the tabletop role-playing game based on the Vikingverse novels , and was glad to see it surpass its needed monetary goals to get to publication in 2024 CE. Only now have I recently had time to sit down and give my shiny hardback copy the reading it deserves. [Because in the Vikingverse's Hulfviðr Torga , I'm the center square! Photo from a 2024 CE Shieldwall backer mosaic.] Forwarding context: I'm writing this review only after reading the core rulebook without having ran it, so I'm not addressing the mechanics (which use  Shadow of the Demon Lord ) or playability, just the contents. If you want the flavour of how it does play, author/creator Ian Stuart Sharpe did a 23-episode gaming podcast called Vikings & Valkyries that was superfun to listen to, and had great cybervikingsphere guests like Saga Thing podcast hosts John Sexton & Andy Pfrenger, and exceptionally talented Heathen Artist  Sam Flegal ...

This amazing depiction of Heimdall's Nine Mothers (2021 CE) by Brazil-based illustrator Runar Hall has so much going for it. The merging of early petroglyphic Sunna symbol with later runestone curlicue-jointed figures, the brave integration of a Hollywood Bathing Beauties film choreography as a still in the daughters' arrangement, and the just enough modern linear shaping & speckle work is so brilliant, plus the breaking of the 2D wall with the boat coming out toward the viewer to ferry all that mythic past into the artistic present as a single package is a serious delivery and achievement. We have to presume Odin's being handed infant Heimdallr, and it's likely this specific visual identity cue that we can't see the boatman's left eye , and the Prose Edda 's  Skáldskaparmál  §8 does attribute Odin as his father, otherwise some posit that he's a Vanic deity from his qualities mentioned in Þrymskviða  §14, but these could also accounted for by Odin ...

So many of you have asked if you can order the  Óðinnsvegr: The Path Of Odin  map online since you're nowhere near a retailer in Tucson. Well, now you can globally via Nexus Books' eBay Store! The  current direct listing's here , or if this one's sold by the time you read this, here's the search link for the "Óðinnsvegr" from Nexus' eBay Storefront here  for when they relist! There will also be a separate listing for framed prints forthcoming! Note that the listing's photos (like the one here) have been watermarked & partly altered to protect the intellectual property of the image, but know you're purchasing a whole map that's nicely printed and visually intact. The map's on thicker #65 stock, reproduced from its hand-drawn original and scripted in period-correct Carolingian Insular, which is the same script used in both primary Norse Mythology sources, the Edda s! For those of you reading about  this map  for the first time, this s...

Last year I flew to Minnesota and went on many adventures with some old friends who were willing to road trip to all extreme points of their wonderful state for the NorsePlay Investigates series of entries . This is the first entry about that trip, so stay tuned for more! While NorsePlay has posted before about the 1965 CE World's Fair fiberglass statue that is Big Ole in Alexandria, MN , there's nothing like seeing the kitch Scandi-majesty of this roadside attraction firsthand. [Big Ole & I raising our spears! Hails brother!] Ole is supposed to measure at 28-feet tall, but in real life, he seems to tower wayyyy larger. At its most basic, there's a sort of mini-golf quality sculpture about Big Ole -- a fiberglass hollowness, the bright enamel paint, theme park/casino lobby play deco, that pronounced stagey winged-helmet Wagnerian hyper-Viking image -- but Ole transcends all that. [my pal 'Stine at right for scale.] There's too much meaning & history pinned...

While browsing The Book Stop's vintage juvenilia section in homebase Tucson, I found a hardback copy of Edith Heal's Siegfried from 1930 CE, which would be a then-kids' novel adaptation of The Saga of the V ö lsungs . Printed on the flyleaves there was this handsome Map of the Siegfried Country : While some of this doesn't line up NorsePlay's placements in The Map Of Midgard Project (i.e. The Hall of the Volsungs should be in Ezinge, Netherlands, not up in Finland, or Fafnir and the "Flaming Hedge" not in Scandinavia, but down in Germany), I really love the art style of this. Also interspersed in the text there were some great illustrations: So why is Siegfried naked, you ask? American illustrator Milo Winter (1888-1956 CE) must have been thinking of the logistics for when Siegfried stabs Fafnir from below and gains nigh-invulnerability from being almost completely drenched in dragon's blood that this could only happen sans clothing. Character-wise...

A friend who frequents the charmingly small but vibrant historical city of Bisbee, AZ, USA, spotted this very random runestone perched in front of a house: My friend was also good enough to leave my card & a note of inquiry at the house whose sidewalk this happens to be on and I was contacted by Ben, the property owner, who was kind enough to tell me what he happened to know about it, the information which I've integrated into the following investigation. [Note that I'm only working from two photos my friend took, and the by-text interview that Ben, it's current owner, gave me. At some point I know I'll be back in Bisbee and have a firsthand look at it myself, but felt it was more important to report this curiosity secondhand in a timely manner rather than wait on an indeterminate future road trip.] Objective Observations: Ben reports that it's a granite stone weighing "300 pounds" at ~26" tall with a ~13" diameter. The above photo shows thre...

While I would hope the cacao would hammer out a chocolate darker than 70%, this isn't to say if Thor doesn't conche this right it's not going to taste darker, yet 77% tends to be the standard for dark bars. And while this Mexican can tell you "white chocolate" isn't actual chocolate mass, it's cocoa butter, the company has also made a Freya bar in this style for those of you who like that faux confectionary byproduct: The missed opportunity here is a Sæhrímnir bacon bar. At $10 USD a 3 oz bar, it really depends how good these are. If Thor's Chocolate wants to send NorsePlay a sampler to review, I wouldn't say no, but I'm not going to pull any punches in my taster's notes since I'm seriously spoiled in terms of the bars I have tried. Have any of you NorsePlayers had these? Let us know how they taste in the comments below! #     #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of t...

This bronze Valkyrie-laden medal was a random eBay find. Aside from a similar Etsy listing saying it's from the 1920s CE, and the eBay one stating it's 1.5"D and 23g, there's nothing else about it. It makes me wonder if this was a souvenir from a Bayreuth performance of Wagner's Ring , otherwise I might hope there'd be medals for all the Valkyrjur . And if so, does Brunhilde only merit a bronze since she was demoted for her compliant defiance? Are the other usual 12 choosers of the slain (but this number goes up to 39 if more unusual citations are included [and honestly, if that's it, then those 39 have to be working nigh-eternal overtime to pick out ~16K battle dead each to assemble Valhalla's total of 614,400 Einherjar, so there has to logistically be over 39 to delegate that]) cast in more precious/meritorious/other base metals? For a possible other context, in The Nibelungenlied , Brunhild is the Queen of Iceland, and it is the hidden gamesmanship ...

Maybe you need an altar-starter centerpiece, or a big cosmic representation that'll embody your Heathen Worldview. Well, here you go: Straight outta Kyiv, Ukraine, are wood crafters Mihaylo & Olha Melnichuk of Blagowood. The above's a 15.7" H x 6.9" W stunning relief of Yggdrasil with all the worlds and accompanying tree-dwelling beasts . But if that's a bit too large in terms of available shelf space or scale, here's an equally amazing version with somehow even more stylistically finer detail at only 9.1" H x 3.9" W: And look, I know some of you out there are going to say "hey, there shouldn't be a doubled gebo in the rune line! You don't double letters!", and hey, you're probably right, though applying absolute syntax rules in a varied script that was commonly riddled by users' mistakes at that time is probably also way pedantic. But look, Blagowood has personalization options and can carve it for you without the dou...

If we look at the transition from Elder Futhark to Younger Futhark, we lose a whole eight letters, and there's lots of dissertation-length ideas as to why that amputation occurred, and how that makes later translations of this truncation in Old Norse compared to Proto-Norse such a pain ... but that's not the linguistically deep can of worms I want to open here. What I want to draw your attention to is this one instance below of how language organically evolves to use foreshortening, abbreviations, and contractions for convenience's sake, plus how generational change in language happens to create subcultural exclusion, delineate age-group differences, and just to sound "cool". Now, I'm not recommend ing the tween graphic novel series Barb: The Last Berserker by any means. In fact I only read the first 20 pages or so before I put it down, but during my shallow preview of its low-end juvenile-target art and flip self-aware camp fantasy trope dialogue I ran acros...