Dear Wendy and the Deathing Of Odin.

With my relatively recent deep dive into personal defensive equipment, I decided on a timely re-watch of Dear Wendy (2005 CE). There's a sequence before the climatic shootout at the end where The Dandies (pretty much a warrior ritual-centric männerbund) break a bottle and take a cut along the arm in order to undergo a sort-of death analogue experience, that way when they do march off into the town square they've already faced and gotten passed the idea of being killed and so can then proceed fearlessly toward their fate.

If we look at the Norse Lore, Odin sacrifices himself to himself, running a spear through his body to hang on the World Tree for nine days & nine nights, passing through a state of death that reveals the Runes and unlocks their magical uses. While the deathing's a means to that end, it's also a very exceptional experience, and one has to consider that Odin having that under his belt must now look at the cosmos he created & himself, and the shared fate of these, more fearlessly & resolutely than before. One could also guess that maybe Odin's own passage through death might have inspired him to create Valhöll as a space where the Einherjar could have that experience daily on the practice field, and thus be that much more prepared for Ragnarök.

While none of this is what director Thomas Vinterberg or writer Lars Von Trier intended as a critical comment on American gun culture (they are both from Denmark where guns are allowed but ownership is highly regulated), this film is one of those instances where it transcends intent and can totally be read as an opposition of that. There's alot going on in Dear Wendy, and probably some of the aforementioned residual Heathen trickle-down of the above ideas from its Danish creators within its construction.

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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.