NorsePlay.

Little did you know the baked goods serpenthole went down so far into these Hel-ishly delicious depths: [Valknut & Mjölnir from CoolCookieCuttz on Etsy.] [Drakkar from Drukowanko on Etsy.] [Sleipnir & Winged Helmet cutters from Bakerlogy on Etsy.] So for your next Fika, Kaffepause, Kaffemik, Kindred/Tribe Moot dessert, or Mead 'n' Cookies over-indulgence, go bake yourself some self-rising reputation with these NorsePlay'd cookiecutters!  And do post any similarly themed oven fresh Norse Mythology inspired goods you've made in the comments below. [thanks to Miss Kelsey Reinhard for incidentally inspiring this post.]  #    #    # 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 ...

The All-Father and the Feathered Serpent palavered. Odin's grim visage creased itself even more at the bitter chocolate & chile in the jade vessel, while the golden horn of mead caused Queztalcoatl to speak in galdralag, which warped his Nahuatl into a honeyed knot. But they both knew the other for his kin-mirror; that they could trade hard-won runes for stone glyphs, learn the reshaping of themselves into eagle or plumed snake, laugh at each others' outlandish versions of forming the world, and just possibly help one another defeat their fates ... . [Odin and Quetzalcoatl, sculpted bronze figures by Lee Lawrie. Door detail, east entrance, Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, D.C.] #    #    # 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, pa...

A long time ago, a bestie of mine constructed a small backlit diorama featuring this painting, The Valkyrie's Vigil (pre-1915 CE) by Edward Robert Hughes. This piece is more inspired by 19th century Germanic Romanticism and Wagner (note the operatic winged helmet), plus the castle, the off-the-shoulder pre-Raphaelite gown, and her late medieval sword held by the unedged ricasso. Yet in the idea of mythic time being irrespective of linear time, and the Sagas' conventions of pulling from later period tropes & ideas, this NorsePlay is par for that atemporal storytelling tradition. I love the luminosity of this work, the implication that a siege before a battle is about to occur, and that maybe the Valkyrie's job & patience has extended itself into a later medieval period where she waits for a conflict that she knows is going to unfold as the sad concern and resignation expresses itself on her face, her hand already reaching toward tomorrow's battlefield in a gestu...

One of the tragic backend notes on having to move the blog to norseplaymythologist.blogspot.com is that I can't transfer the traffic count data from the old URL, but I thought I would take a moment to let you all know that  I appreciate all the hits from all over the globe!  Thank you for continuing to make NorsePlay the cosmopolitan success that it is. While I would celebrate the Norse Lore no matter the size of this blog's audience, it's rewarding to see the attention it's garnered so far, and am posting the above graph of how much NorsePlay 's been read as a pre-move transitional record. Big peaks on the graph aside, let me know about your favourite NorsePlay post in the comments below! Again, hit that blue follow button at left, thanks for being a part of NorsePlay thusfar, and for following me 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 ...

If you're here, thank you for finding NorsePlay's new home at this very URL: norseplaymythologist.blogspot.com/ While your comments have migrated (yay!), your follows have not, so please again hit the blue follow button at left on this desktop page, or under the hamburger menu button on your phone/tablet to near-effortlessly get your wee sweet reader's icon back into the dedicated & supportive NorsePlay followers mosaic! And d o update your bookmarks, favourites, links, shares, feeds, and blogrolls to the above URL so you can continue to enjoy all the Norse inspired content & goodness. Note that the email link in the footer at the end of this entry has changed, so do update that contact in case you have ongoing correspondence or require direct engagement with NorsePlay. Thank you for your understanding, patience, adjustments, and continued attentions. Welcome again, NorsePlayers! #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  th...

Hello my NorsePlayers! Yes, NorsePlay is moving! Due to an oncoming service closure to my online account provider, I have to migrate all my data to a new account. With technical differences between these accounts, it appears there's no easy way to handoff ownership of this blog to the new account, and so the online URL location of NorsePlay will likely have to change , and there may be other differences post-migration. In the meantime there could be a delay as this happens, and I've not been given a timeframe for how little/long this current blogger will be up as I strive to move these 600+ entries (and 200+ drafts). In the event this location does deactivate before I get to announce the new URL, do seek out #NorsePlay in your search engine of choice for its reappearance, and you can add as a cyberbridge in that interim  NorsePlay's FB account . Note the linked email in the footer paragraph below has also been updated to reflect this, so in case you have direct inquiries...

  A girl's body's discovered floating in the open sea by a Viking prince's ship. Barely alive, they spare some of their dwindling water for her, and when she comes to, her eyes open ... to reveal goat-like horizontal pupils! This is the hook for Vei , a two-volume graphic novel , originally a Swedish 12-issue limited series from 2012 CE, and it is a stunningly executed NorsePlay. Writer Sara Bergmark Elfgren & artist Karl Johnsson gift us a re-scripting of Norse Mythology that answers the very real question of why don't the Jotnar or the Aesir just make a pre-emptive attack now to get an early victory and not have to suffer the pyrrhic resolution of end-time Ragnarök? The answer is a détente struck by a longstanding "peace" agreement mediated by a periodic gladiatorial combat. The winning side then for that time gets the domain of contested Midgard, which makes our world & its mortal reverence the key to divine power! This gives us a sweeping story rev...

When Valheim from Iron Gate Studios released in February 2021 CE, it blew up & sold 5M copies in its first month! Watching the initial gaming streams of it, Valheim looked too grindy for my liking, and the premise that there was a separated 10th world also seemed repeated from Marvel Thor back in 2013 CE where Odin cuts off & hides a whole unknown Realm as vengeance for the occupants apparently killing his daughter (and yes, that storyline's a ridiculously heavy-handed retcon for the sake of inserting of Angela from Spawn as Thor's incredibly angry sister [!?!], do not recommend), but then I heard that the Gods make cameo s : The horizon also has a gargantuan view of Yggdrasil looming in the distance as a contextual setpiece. As an aside, there's also a weird craft called The Tolroko Flyer from an unpublished earlier game that can only be unlocked via a cheat, but it doesn't do anything other than litter the landscape & look anachronistic. What I can...

In 2020 CE, Kenny's Gelato premiered a mead gelato in collaboration with The Viking Museum of Stockholm! If only that miniature runestone was made of waffle cookie! I would like a pint of this airmailed to me from Sweden for review, please & thanks. Historically in 859~861 CE a mead gelato might have had a cultural throughline if Björn Ironside & Hastein had managed to land & take Rome as they intended with Björn seated as a Norse Emperor! Instead they pulled in further north up the boot and mistakenly took Luni for Rome, but if they'd decided to stay anyway for the more clement Mediterranean weather, perhaps in future a mead gelato might've evolved way before this. #    #    # 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...

Yes, this splash page flashback scene from The Mighty Thor #22 has Marvel Odin wistfully remembering his hottest date ever with the fiery Phoenix Force herself! Perhaps the Phoenix's flavour of ice cream's one-eyed leaders? In terms of prestige, it's All-Father Odin over Blue Team X-Men leader Cyclops in any epoch of the Marvel Universe, but if a girl feeds her emotions with whole planets of sentient beings, perhaps that dark dinner bill's more than even a Norse God can afford. This surprising panel evokes what stories could be suggested about a more nascent Odin in the Norse Lore. If his forefathers married frost giantesses, then perhaps the idea of a dating a hot Eldjötunness isn't outside the Nine Realms of possibility. Many of the hard-won dating lessons in the Hávamál implies stories attached to them, and Odin's shouting match with Thor in the Hárbarðsljóð has them both relating & bragging on experiences that came from their pasts. It makes one won...

While reading volume one of P. Craig Russell's graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology , the immediate result from the death of primordial Ymir is shown in a panel as a giant wave of blood being released. This is so enormous that the flood kills all but two of the jötnar, which implies that Ymir's sanguine deluge also drowns the giantess wives of Buri & Bor, and collaterally their grandfather & father as well if such a flood is on so large of a cosmically uncontrollable scale. Such a consequence would then explain why after the waves settle it is the third generation of Odin, Vili, & Ve that are left to craft & rule the Níu Heimar, while Buri & Bor are unmentioned after that, and maybe settle why such a cosmic creature as Auðumbla is absent as well. This isn't necessarily the answer: There could just be missing stories, or the death of Ymir & universal creation passes forward ruler-worthy powers or status or both to the three ...

  Given the Norse Lore, one might think this is possibly Thor's trophy room of jötnar skull s at Bilskirnir, or perhaps his gathered material for a borderland hunting lodge/nithing pile, and maybe that's Þjálfi at right trying to figure out how to organize his master's giant ossuary. Well, that's what my Heathen Worldview saw anyway, and one can sometimes argue a case for what personal contexts a viewer brings to a piece over artist's intent . This evocative art installation is Mass by Ron Mueck from  2016-2017 CE , detail (!), media of synthetic polymer paint on fiberglass. [thanks to Sofie Vanherpen (go read her scholarship on Aud the Deep-Minded here ) for incidentally bringing this to my attention.] #    #    # 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 truthf...

Possibly inspired by the idea of  Disney's multiversal Boastful Loki 's hammer, this 1lb 8 3⁄4 oz wooden mallet is Såssnir the Lost, Loki's lost War Hammer! This one-of-a-kind creation made of ancient reclaimed oak, white ash, & purpleheart is an Etsy offering from OutlawArtbyJAMES, who invented this flavor text lore for it: "Såssnir the Lost is the prized war hammer of the God of Sass - Loki! Who knew Loki had a war hammer with the same power as Thor's Mjölnir? Whomever owns Såssnir is granted the power of the Sassy Asgard"! And it even comes with a Pokémon-style item card: Whatever this other hammer 's provenance or special powers, it wouldn't hurt to have this in the car or carried on your person , just in case of giant problems that require such a solution. [go get Såssnir here , or maybe get a custom NorsePlay'd commission from them and let us know about it.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Nors...

Witness the power of Mjölnir-rang : This video posted by Jastino Hasni seems to feature a homebrewed boomerang. There's also another similar one posted on Pintrest by Franco Nero: NorsePlay would totally buy these, so if either of these possible creators ever decides to vend, do let us know! In the Norse Lore,  Mjölnir  is crafted by dwarves Sindri & Brokkr with its amazing returning attribute, and  aetiologically this explains why lighting appears to return from its skyward origin point.   #    #    # 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/ opportunitie...

The amazingly kitch chain-wielding Valkyrie product shot aside (well, this image has since disappeared since first posting this, but believe you me, it was total Viking Kitch), this limited edition $9,000 USD Legends Of Valhalla pinball machine features unlocks that include a wizard Valhalla mode, and a super wizard Ragnarök mode. Yes, the honoured hall of the slain can be reached for naught but a quarter . Well, unless the Gods of your local Asgardcade Hall have set it for four quarters, in which case it's still a bargain. The Odin playing field art seems strongly based on Amon Amarth 's Johan Hegg! And who ever suspected there'd be a Mammen Axe unlock in a game? #    #    # 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, embrace...

So if Jane Foster or Gwen Stacy can be Marvel Thor, why not supermodel Mary Jane Watson :  It seems someone's pinned a man-spider for their insect collection. You get that tiger, Mighty MJ. Thor's supposed to be a redhead anyhow. Still, such handoffs aren't out of the question in the Norse Lore:  If we look at  Vafþrúðnismál §51's post-Ragnarök event of  Móði & Magni inheriting their father's hammer, the idea of the thunderer being someone else, and even a shared position, is a possibility.   [ The Mighty Thor #20's variant cover by Patrick Brown, 2015 CE] #    #    # 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 neol...

In Neil Gaiman 's American Gods the operating premise for the divine is that the Gods are regionally bound and that their existence & power depends upon those who believe & worship them. In Starz' TV adaptation, Season 3's opening addresses Viking Metal 's celebration & reclamation of Heathen Nordic contexts by kicking off with this scene of faux band Blood Death lead by Johan Wengren (Marilyn Manson!?!): As the story of the ancient Old Gods versus the emergent New Gods of Technology unfolds, we see the Old Gods adapting some of that technology in order to garner digital followers, and Odin (the venerable Ian McShane) connecting with metalheads, bikers, and aggro  fans , which seems appropriate for Mr Wednesday who banks on & rewards those of the warrior ethos. The teleplays expands in notable degrees upon the book, backgrounding & filling out minor characters into fan favourites, and giving us such clever lines as Wednesday's:  "Ask and y...