NorsePlay.

  You'd totally think this was one-eyed Odin at first glance, and DC's Elseworlds is certainly NorsePlaying that to some degrees in their Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter limited series. Wandering mercenary Deathstroke anti-heros as a sort of Odinic analogue on their medieval fantasy Earth 118 where a continuing 21-year-long winter has the world in its frozen grip while Jarls war over territory among the isles of Jarnlünd. Part of the fun of Elseworlds is seeing how the usual figures of DC heroes & villans get recast, and this is no different. Published in 2024-5 CE, I just only ran across the first issue, but it's got some serious Nordic flavour for starters. Any of you read this, and does it keep up the NorsePlay? #     #    # 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 pot...

The Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur translation (1916 CE) of the Prose Edda names the leather cord that Brokkr uses to sew Loki's mouth shut as "Vartari". By breaking this cord's name down into its two Old Norse component parts, I’ve discovered something quite telling: " Var " can mean "pledge", while "Tari" can mean "to kill by repeated stabbing". If we look at Loki's role in the "Gifts For The Gods Contest" story from Skáldskaparmál (§35), he loses his head to mastersmiths Brokkr & Sindri after the Gods pick their gift  Mjölnir as most valued over all those crafted by the competing dwarven Sons Of Ivaldi . Yet the dwarves cannot chop off Loki's head without touching his neck, a technicality that Loki fends the fatal claim off with. Cheated by Loki's logic, Brokkr then grabs Loki's head and sews his lips shut with the aforementioned leather cord, repeatedly stabbing around his lips with an awl to thre...

  After buying this book a year & a half ago , NorsePlay finally gets into the text inside this crazy Thor versus this Jormungantic starship cover, and we were not disappointed. Project Millennium  (1987 CE) by Curtis H. Hoffmann is a strong-handed conceit where a real war is set up to celebrate the 1,000-year anniversary of Muspell's Planet who has hired the megacorporation E.C. (which actually just stands for Entertainment Company [obvi-simple, right?]) to stage the battle in 100 years. The android who handles such under-the-table questionable high-cost private arrangements sets up two A.I. computers to head up each side, make armies, and square off. Now here's where the NorsePlay comes in: One computer decides to take on the identity of Snorri Sturluson, and because of this, begins vat "growing a force of mutant fighters" based on the Æsir ! The other computer decides to avatar as King Richard III, but follows Snorri's lead in creating the Norse adversarial...

Elvis might be bardically setting the pace with a swivel of the hips, but he's not the King of the ship -- the chainmail bikini wearing Valkyrie's definitely running this historical line-up of a crew. From the blurb inside I gather there's a Vikings versus Mongols story in the weird post-death Riverworld, which is why the Valkyrie, but I've always wondered if Farmer's mashup fantasy world tends to the too farcical? Anyone read this, and if so, does the one story stand alone, or do you have to have read all five novels beforehand to get it? Anyhow, I thought the Viking ship cover with its chooser of the slain leading her slain at oars was a NorsePlay worth presenting here. [1992 CE book cover by Don Punchatz.] #     #    # 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 M...

While wandering gobstopped through Meow Wolf Santa Fe 's forest area last week, I heard a weird voice speaking above me that turned out to be a huge automated raven sporting a gold chain hung with a fat ruby. Of course this had to be Muninn manifesting his way into the densely accrued materials of this former bowling alley turned into its own elaborate sci-fi saga installation.   But I didn't quite catch what the raven said, so I waited in the area for at least 20 minutes looking at other things while expecting the bird to launch into an audio loop, or be activated somehow into speaking again, but it never happened, which made me wonder if he only spoke once-a-day at Noon, which makes his input a rare clue in the Pastore family's story. After being wowed and absorbing as much as I could of the deep narrative on-site from its videos & exhaustive documents, I longed for even more context and bought the giftshop book  Don’t Read This! The Private Diary of Piper Pastore ...