NorsePlay.

These are more visuals screengrabbed from The Viking Myths TV series I mentioned last week : I really like the graphical minimal linearity of the first one, while the second one draws together more common-ish depictive elements seen from some books, comics, & videogames where we can hear the cosmological voiceover about The Nine Worlds, which probably was precisely happening as this was onscreen, but the little differently coloured worlds are expressively distinct, and the strange Urnes-style vining in the not-snake-but-snake shapes as a frame are a neat synthesis of Nordic designs layered atop a much later romantically painted tree background. When I last mentioned how A.I.'s being tasked to tell the Norse Lore, I think these illustrations are great example of how artificial intelligence can visually NorsePlay things (like the Odin on laptop via my prompts in this post ) in variant ways we might not have thought to present them before in the last 800+ years of retellings sinc...

Buried deep within the obscure streaming app Xumo, I ran across a French-produced 2024 CE 10-episode voiceover documentary-styled series called The Viking Myths . While there's a whole list of animators in the credits, as I watched the first episode there was an artifice to its style, a sort of motion-comic storyboard presentation, and an artistic lack of fine details with far more easier choices of solids and simple lines in many instances. When we talk about the uncanny valley of A.I. being unable to replicate the natural/creative aspects of humanity, this show has a possible tell of artificial generation to it. While that simplification attempts to err toward the iconic, much like Jeffery Alan Love's cut-out silhouettes with texturing/spot colour illustrations for the Candlewick Studio's 2017 CE edition of Crossley-Holland's Norse Myths , it feels like a workaround to just get something finished. Maybe that leaves fill-in-the-blanks for the viewer's imagination ...

Ran across these paper punch-out hex shaped runes in a recent book. While I'm not going to mention the book (kinda New Age-y, and see that nonsensical "blank rune" inclusion), I think this design's a good springboard for broadening & NorsePlaying what the runes could be both aesthetically & revealatorially. When the runes appear to Odin at the end of his nine-night ordeal and he screams at their appearance , this could be the cognitive shift he needs to see something that was hidden in plain sight. Previously I've posted that maybe they were there in the World Tree's branches all along, but it took passing through starvation, pain, & death for Odin's one-eye to finally behold them. When we look at shapes in nature, the hexagonal 6-sided shape stands out, and for the Norse the honeycombs required for mead, or the basalt columns that make up some of their landscape & rocks evoke stories of dwarven strongholds, giants' bridges, or elf s...

Iðunn's terror at being hoisted off by eagle-form jötunn Þjazi in P. Craig Russell's Norse Mythology graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics. While the focus here should be on the crucial loss of the Gods' irreplaceable harvester of youth-sustaining apples , I can't help but look backwards at the golden halls of Ásgarðr she's being hijacked from. Russell's nouveau fantasist stylings have given Elric and Dr Strange otherworldly cityscapes over the past decades and I'm glad to see him turn his hand to NorsePlay the home of the Gods as an important location in the lore. Note this specific drawing for V2 #5 recently sold on eBay for $2K+ as PCR's original graphite page that was only digitally colored by another artist, but he put his own mixed media colors on his original to make the only physical copy that differs from the cover everyone else got on their comic or in their graphics. Also note that PCR's auctioning off other pieces like this, so if you...

In my recently completed rewatch of the 1974-6 CE The Land of the Lost , I capstoned with the 2009 CE film, and had completely forgotten that a pretty near match to the Oseberg Viking Ship shows up among the sands that also have an Urban Outfitters and other odd cross-temporal Midgardian displacements. Yet given the Vikings' achievements in exploration, it instead implies that they might've purposefully come there. This pretty much duplicates the far overplayed viral meme where an astronaut finds a drakkar on the lunar surface right after he arrives: With the raft-over-the-falls-into-a-time-door mechanism that's used in the classic show's intro, the idea that a ship gaining entry into The Land Of The Lost via one of the many Viking "routine expedition"s river route for trade combined with a possibly exceptional Loki-quake could also explain its presence. Or when colonizing Greenland, only 14 of 25 ships actually make it, so it could potentially be one of those...

On the contrary, YouTube Trophy Quiz Whiz, but to brag is to Heathen! Dr Irina-Maria Manea's channel, Shield of Skuld, regularly runs quizzes in her community feed, and today I won this badge for being the Norse Lore expert I know I am. Reading pays, kids, so go hit those Sagas like Thor hammers those jötnar! [and go check out Irina's powerpoint lectures 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 .

Found in The Wicked Griffin 's post on Healing Goddess  Eir , this Valkyrie lineup hearkens back to Mucha's seasons, except in a more martial fashion. The Victorian/Belle Époque ideals of decorative beauty intersect quite well here to contribute to what NorsePlay has dubbed the Norse Nouveau . From what I can make out, Freyja 's at center with a pauldron-inclusive  Brísingamen that splays pointily downwards, and Eir is at far right with a herbily decorated placard and bearing  a healing elixir in a tankard. If you can figure out specifically who the other Valkyries are in this tableau, do let us know 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...

John Gardner's novel  Grendel  (1971 CE) is slated for a live-action screen adaptation from Jim Henson Company, and is currently in pre-production. For those of you who haven't read this NorsePlay novel, Gardner retells  Beowulf  from the monster's viewpoint. While spiteful & envious, Grendel as a character is given a more empathetically tragic narrative in his fateful defeat . The book's a successful exercise in internally departing from the story , but it's of course limited by Grendel's death, so you miss out on the latter two-thirds of the original epic poem's plot as a big drawback. The above concept art seems more of a lion-wolf hybrid, which'll be voiced by Jeff Bridges. I'd hope for a practical effects creature from Jim Henson's son Bryan, but have to imagine there might be some CGI augmentation when needed to surpass mechanical /performative limitations. Other notables are Dave Bautista as Beowulf, and Bryan Cranston as King Hrothga...

This week NorsePlay won a YouTube Trophy from the esteemed disseminator of Old Norse Philology, Dr Jackson Crawford! While I've left many quite longer, helpful , insightful, and far more erudite comments on his content over the years, I'm glad to get some love back from him. Jackson, my challenge to Crossbows & Catapults still stands , and I would like you to teach me your gunfighter's competitive quick draw techniques sometime you're in Arizona. Hails to you for bringing the Norse Lore to as broad an audience as you do -- NorsePlay loves you back for it. #     #    # 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...

This week's NorsePlay comes from the world of darts with a line of Viking-themed darts complete with shield holder made by Shot Darts! The barrels appear to be highly tactile & partly grooved for easier grip (though this is argued that such a feature in turn makes for a less-smooth release), come in anodized colors, and bomber, taper, or straight in a range of weights depending on which model you get, but all in 90% tungsten. [check out those cool Huginn & Muninn flights!] [whoa, that engraved tip!] While outside of the sewing term of a dart, there isn't an Old Norse reference to darts as we know it now, but the origins are probably the medieval English doing archery, or axes, or spears into the ends of logs with their organically ringed wooden target-like circles & distinct centers, which would way later become the more formal dartboard "clock" we know of once someone wanted to move the action indoors, but decided that battle weapons probably weren't...

  There's something definitely Odinic & Icelandic Saga outlaw-ish in Snake Plissken. I mean, sure, the eyepatch & top tier warrior bad arsery. There's also the ticking clock of Ragnarök against which Odin's taking action against and his wandering into the impossibly hostile territory of Jotunheim to bring out knowledge as a Bolverk-ian operative, much as Snake is compelled to go into dystopian America's prison/rebel zones to go rescue/retrieve critical assets that are important to keeping the nation operational. There's also the implication that Snake essentially sacrificed his eye during his tours of duty. While NorsePlay can find no direct throughline from the Norse Lore to director/co-writer Carpenter's anti-hero (and it was Kurt Russell who suggested the eyepatch), it appears as though some hint of metaphysical manifestation's possibly occurred here if you think about it. #     #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in...

  " ... ladies beware the stickies in our hair. " As I recently went out for buffalo wings, only to wayyyyy later look in the mirror to notice tiger splotches of orange and some blue cheese dressing in my goatee, I thought of this behind-the-scenes photo of Harald & Halfdan unable to eat ice cream without their beards catching an unfair share of it by unavoidable default. The English would complain about the fastidious Vikings' dress horse & silver-clad ways out-gaming them with their own ladies, characterized by this quote credited to the Abbot of St. Albans: "[...]  thanks to their habit of combing their hair every day, of bathing every Saturday and regularly changing their clothes, were able to undermine the virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles to be their mistresses. " And yet the above photo's some proof of looking less than A-game when feasting despite how careful groomed a Freyrsman you are. (This also might've m...

While at The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures in Tucson, I ran across some curious Barbie Doll scale mythology-based creations by maker George S. Stuart : Taking more inspiration from Wagner's Ring Cycle , there's something uncanny & overexpressed about how the figures are depicted, which is performatively operatic , and this interpretation has alot to say about the endurance of Germanic Romanticism & Victorian ideas , and their specific reception with this artist. One could say the level of immodest reveal here (and hey, they're The Gods, no shame in their game) has more on-loan from Classical  statuary , also hearkens to the cloth-clad illustrations of Lorenz Frølich. Sure, you can't help but look at the Freyr's legs, but also note his vest designs! This might be the very moment his gives his sword away for the love of  Gerðr . And Odin brings new meaning to the term "skyclad". Oddly NorsePlay has featured this cosmic garb on the All-Fath...

This week Netflix premieres this promising looking animated Norse Mythology inspired show, Twilight Of The Gods . From creator/director Jay Oliva & co-director Zack Snyder, with the voice talent of Sylvia Hoeks (replicant fatale Luv in Blade Runner 2049 ), there's an intense revenge on the Gods story in the offing. Much like Sony's God Of War games, or Brin's The Life Eaters , the narrative flips the Norse Gods into the role of antagonists. While the Gods in the Norse Lore aren't beholden to the post-Conversion ideas of "good", the needle within entertainment sometime swings quite past a justifiable/explicable grey in turning them into straight-out villains that they certainly aren't, but I love both the aforementioned properties, and given how stirring the above preview looks I want to totally give this new NorsePlay a watch. #     #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'...

    In the some cosmological depictions of Yggdrasil, there's an awkward stretching weirdness in order to make the World Tree's roots reach up or around to get to Asgard , Jotunheim , and Niflheim. Franz Stassen's 1920 CE illustration of Yggdrasil from Hans von Wolzogen's Die Edda  has instead turned Yggdrasil into a monumental straddler, majestically arching over and into its three foundational worlds. This places those worlds level & below the axial trunk, here with Niflheim in the right foreground (with destructive Níðhöggr camped on that root), Jotunheim's tall mountains at left, and the last root reaching into Asgard at the back, though we maybe can see its gargantuan godly halls rising through the branches above. This makes for a more tree-centric & structurally elegant arrangement in some respects. Stassen was also noted for his illustrations in Wagner's Ring. If we stop to consider Yggdrasil being organic, subject to external forces, and change...

I recently saw an episode of Buck Rogers with the winsome Jamie Lee Curtis & the flyting-winning Gil Gerard being hunted down by a deadly android after a prison escape. I brought it up to an expert cinephile friend to ask if just maybe James Cameron might've seen this 1979 CE BR episode before making The Terminator 1984 CE. He then tells me Harlan Ellison got a settlement from Orion Pictures for The Terminator 's alleged plagiarism of his script on the Soldier 1964 CE episode of The Outer Limits , which Ellison adapted from his own short story  Soldier From Tomorrow (1957 CE). In The Tale Of Thorleif The Earl's Poet  ( Þorleifs þáttr jarlsskálds ), events which happen ~990 CE and written down ~1300 CE, the earl constructs a magical driftwood robot assassin named Thorgard who goes relentlessly from Norway all the way to Iceland to kill a guy at the crowded national meeting in Thingvellir. Thorgard strikes his fatal blow, but not before his mark hits Thorgard...

we are all ashlads -- no one is a hero born. ~ kolbítur  by Guillermo the IVth ["coal biter" runic translations from omniglot blog] In many of the Norse Sagas & stories you've got a good-for-nothing momma's boy character who does naught but lay by the hearth fire choosing lazy comfort over helping out on the farm. Then something happens in the story (i.e. like a monster shows up somewhere nearby), and he unexpectedly decides to get up and go meet the greater challenge, implementing a clever plan that far outweighs what people think of his lack of action until that moment where he proves himself a hero. That's the decision one has to make everyday. The Gods have granted you all the days before, will gift you all the days hence, and today to decide to rise to make your dream happen. And it doesn't have to happen all in one day (but if you can, do it), which is part of the clever plan, but you can slay the dragon of self-resistance one slim scale at a time w...

In Ibn Fadlan's Risala , days before the end of the amazing Viking ship burning funeral, the voluntary human sacrifice from among the deceased's slaves who essentially then becomes a funeral bride companion by choice, has sex with her dead master's huscarls individually, then on the day-of enters a tent aboard the ship where she has intercourse with six of them: " Then six men went into the pavilion and each had intercourse with the girl. " ~ Ibn Fadlan's Risal a §90   Maybe I've watched far too much Freyr-centric intimate programming, but perhaps instead of running a one-by-one train, there's something more of a concurrent sexual group crescendo for the girl with the final asphyxiation & the priestess' stabbing of her at the moment of breathless orgasm. We're talking a sept-some, which is probably something few get to incidentally have in the course of their lives, so this could be the staging & delivery of a peak experience to gift so...

After nearly another year & a half of serious grind, the Map Of Midgard 's layers, entry edits, and backups are completed! This represents a huge trio of steps forward in progress, which puts the salient work left as follows: 1. Expanding & reorganizing the map layers. 2. Copy editing existing mappoint texts. 3. Backing up the GPS & rollover description data. 4. Commissioning an artist, figuring out maps' scale & included mappoints for the physical maps based on that scale. 5. Printing maps. 6. Listing maps. 7. Posting the digital map. While I thought each of those first three items would be done separately, as I started I realized it made more sense just to do two & three at the same time when I had each entry open. More specifically on the digital map, its categories are now expanded & re-organized into 10 layers, and all 1100+ stickpin rollovers are edited & formatted into standardized entries to ensure named locations, the presence of citations,...