NorsePlay at Southwest Frithmoot 2024.

This last weekend I attended my sixth Southwest Frithmoot!

[maps at left, stax of books at right with an iron easel on top to keep the northern Arizona wind from making off with them without bidding (greedy Hræsvelgr)!]

The big difference this year is that I went as a vendor with framed copies & prints of The Path Of Odin map! I first want to thank everyone who pre-reserved framed maps to get at the event, others who bought prints, and everyone who checked it out and had kind feedback to say about the map & questions about the research behind it! You Heathens are a large part of my audience, future users for the Map Of Midgard project, and your enthusiasm & encouragement meant alot to me & the work I do to make that proof-of-concept Odin map happen.

But back to the event: For those who don't know, Southwest Frith Moot is the longstanding annual regional Ásatrú/Heathen gathering hosted by Arizona's Wanderer Kindred's Chieftain Vince & Gythia Dani, which is held at a varying campsite, this year's being up at a campground in the Coconino National Forest.

[why yes, that is a bannered "NorsePlay godpole" at the central ramada "temple".]

While normally there's a schedule of talks, this year's SFM kept it organic & informal with anyone able to ask Vince, Dani, or anyone else about what they wanted to discuss in Heathenry, and sometimes in previous years this resulted in the best lectures/dialogues about Ásatrú. I asked Vince specifically about a recent shakeup in Troth leadership, we discussed Stephen McNallen's continued disappointing self-sabotage, and I pinged Dani about the possible use of henbane ointment by Völvas. More formally there was a small roundtable on Animism as it relates to Heathenry, and very afterhours informally there was a nuanced breakdown of Kindred structure versus Tribal structure and what the potential & practical expectations are for members in those specific contexts. There probably were other unplanned discussions, but depending on who you sat with for dinner (potluck on Friday, smoked chicken feast on Saturday) or at whose campfire/canopy you joined, the opportunities might've happened. This sort of presents a FOMO factor, but also gives you the proactive ability to scale interactions/discussions/socializations up or down depending what you want out of the event.

And there are always Saturday morning's Viking Games. Why, check out Jared's sweet NorsePlay Adventurers' Guild t-shirt as he totally rocks the Hammer Throw:

Toni bosses up the Hammer Throw as well:

A baton in midflight as an awesome Speed Kubb action shot:

And while there wasn't a knife throw event this year, I'd like to think that just maybe I'd've nailed it since I triple landed this practice round the day before:

There was also the axe throw, archery, and the new Scandinavian stone throw where everyone but one person missed even coming close to pasting a jug of lemonade with a rock, and even they only brushed it on its shoulder.

And while less athletic, there was the mead drinking contest (because Thor & Útgarða-Loki's horn, right?):

Also, I was dubbed this year "The Frithmoot Librarian" (well, hail Bragi on that!) due to my repeated annual donations of quality Norse-related non-fiction & fiction that I got to synopsize & upsell during Saturday's fundraising auction, and so the books got significantly higher bids on average this year.

NorsePlay also provided for auction a double opera of prestigious Viking glass beads, a knotwork cast hair pin, and some wonderfully classy salt & pepper placesetting shakers that were wee silverplated enamel-sailed drakkar!

All in all, it was mostly good times, good eats, and good drinking for the 50 or so of us that camped together. It speaks well of Norse dedicants in Arizona, plus some even drove in from New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas. If you have even a passing interest in the Norse Lore, are curious about modern Heathenry, have simple to complex questions about Ásatrú, and seek an existing community to explore those subjects, do consider attending, and maybe NorsePlay'll see you there next year.

[just a late dusk photo of my supercreepy campsite! Soooo many noises just outside the tent (draugr? trolls? eavesdropping squirrels?) . . . !]

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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 then 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 employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.