NorsePlay.

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? 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 too, Sie...

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 ...