NorsePlay.

 ... welllll, we confess there is no such Heathen offshoot of Witch House -- NorsePlay just conjured it up. * Yet if we look at the horror -derived, experimental noise, ASCII-"rune" occulted, and shamanic facets of Witch House, one can already see resemblances in the spooky costumery of Heilung , the rune-inspired ritualistic music of Wardruna , some of the Viking Metal drive of Amon Amarth , and the dark theatrics of Norwegi an  Black Metal , it would make for a perfect cauldron of things just ready to emerge with a sound to match. Just draw the bows across the  kraviklyr, whisper some half-heard Voluspa , and then lay some dirty, grimey bass layers over it and we'd be across the Gjöll Bridge via your headphones already. And it just seems that the H alloweenery of Witch House gets its aesthetic skeleton from the ancient feelings summoned by Arch-Heathen  sacred trees filled with hung sacrifices , bogged bodies, hidden cart goddesses that to behold meant death , an...

Shetland storyteller Marjolein Robertson has alot to say about Yule , or more correctly, the Yules. Somewhere in this turn of the year during its long nights, there would be travelers in disguise, or "guisers/guizers", which one had to feed or invite in, since there was always the possibility they could be a Norse God in disguise . This regional word could also be a lingual descendant of "Grøliks" and be related to "ganga Grýla", the nearby Faroese Islands tradition of people dressing as  Grýla, the bad child eating ogress . A variant of this practice is the "skelker", and given the specific straw covering costume  (which feels very  Midsommer / The Wicker Man ) , we might NorsePlay that it has something agricultural to do with Frey r  (or perhaps Byggvir, Freyr's servant, the root of whose name means barley) , inviting him in, and/or giving him food/drink/treats so that next year's harvest grows plentifully, but should any Norse God or...

We recently read Graham Hancock's Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilisation (2015 CE) , and while NorsePlay doesn't necessarily endorse Hancock's theories, we feel that he's got an interesting take on things that makes for provocative discussion. And we couldn't help looking for elements of the Norse Lore in some of what he puts forth, so behold the above photo of the Great Rift, a  dark obscuring mass that appears as a huge gap in the Milky Way galaxy, and think for a moment about Ginnungagap, the primorial void at the beginning of Norse Cosmology. There are a portion of academics who believe the Norse Gods, cosmic animals, and other elements are to be found in the heavens as constellations and other celestial bodies , but we suspect this is in part a combined astrological Greek and post-conversion overlay of placing deities in the sky "up there", whereas the Norse Lore shows them distinctly housed in Asgard or, as per ...

While on the face of it, Draupnir's being a priceless magical treasure is obvious: It's a bracelet that generates its own wealth every ninth night by duplicating eight more of itself. Yet the Eddic narrative of Draupnir could also be read as a measure of gifting & worth. Odin sacrifices Draupnir into the burning boat of Hringhorni with his dead son because that is what this person he loves was worth to him in his life -- Baldr was an endless treasure that had an unexpectedly premature end. The infinite wealth of that sacrifice doesn't matter to him, only the possible return of that priceless person does. In Odin's act of gifting there is an attached value, the intention of sentiment, a moment bonded to a physical object on a supernatural level. The force of those feelings are an act of energy sacrifice, and once made that energy flows down into the well of the past, waters the great tree that holds the very worlds, coming back up through the branches to feed the pr...

  This early 1980s CE liquor ad campaign probably captured the attention of many, it being so remarkably over-the-top for its time. We present you the two magazine versions in order to see the inspired mixture of Frazetta/Vallejo-styled art, an amazingly predictive Golden Compass polar bear mount , Odinic eyepatch, and luminous magic sword (possibly lightsaber?!?). As with many fantastically depicted women warrior s, we have to ask if she's so battle-hyped up on body warming liquor that any midriff, leg, and arm armor's not required, or if she's just so valkyrie that she's divinely immune to the effects of low temperatures. Beyond these concerns, there's an aesthetic reaching for Northernness that is very, very NorsePlay, and if  placed ahead of us in time (again, possible lightsaber?), she could be a post-Ragnarök second generation goddess questing through the remnants of a Fimbulwinter-zone for a dwarven superweapon . #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV k...

We've read this black sour has oak notes, which makes sense if the dragon gnaws for all-time on the one of the three tree roots that holds the Nine Worlds in place, so really any consumable by-product of said dragon would taste of said World Tree wood. In any case, we applaud whatever efforts are being made to bleed this wyrm of entropy dry and thereby save Yggdrasil . Plus given the benefits of dragonblood consumption to Sigurd in the Saga of the Volsungs , understanding birdspeak may very well be a side-enhancement from drinking this. If any of you have tried this brew , do give us a review in the comments below and let us know what those birds really have to say about things . [brewed by Fierce Beer in Aberdeen, Scotland.] #    #    # 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...

  There's a certain misguided amount of people who read The Binding of Fenrir story and feel sorry for the wolf. What they don't realize in their anthropomorphizing the animal is that he's by literal & figurative scale a huge problem, a monster of unchangeable nature, and not even close to human or divine at all. To NorsePlay, Fenrir is hunger unbound, a force so large it's cosmically unfair to begin with. If the Gods had come at him on his own brutally honest terms, there's no one strong enough to outstrip this creature, and he'd have won. Just like Thor wrestling Old Age, no one can beat Hunger itself. And so the wolf must be tricked before he eats them, and he would've eventually eaten all the material of the Nine Worlds. Fenrir is a devourer . In focusing Fenrir's appetite on Odin alone, this diverts him and saves us. And so Odin wins the rest of this cycle to figure out how to save everything including himself. Unless another strategy is inv...

Flipping through Andrew Lang's The Crimson Fairy Book (1903 CE), I read  a pretty brilliant NorsePlay  remix in the story of  The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnföder . This story is full of loans & borrowings from across the lore, the large ones being the hero named Sigurd (from The Saga of the Volsungs ), the horse Gullfaxi (from the race in  Skáldskaparmál ) which one is forbidden to ride (this rule from  Hrafnkels saga applied to his horse Freyfaxi), and a weather effecting magic item that summons hail (from The Story of Thorstein Mansion-Might ). There are a couple other lesser parallels to be divined, but the above are the most certain & definitely present. [story illustration by Henry Justice Ford.] Even without being well-versed enough in the Norse Lore to identify any of the above, the story in itself stands alone as a fun tale. Sourcewise, Lang adapts the story from an 1884 CE German translation by Viennese politician & Scandinav...

  I've successfully plotted 600 mappoints for my Map Of Midgard Project! This is the fifth update since  the initial blog post ,  the first update ,  the second update , the third update , and the fourth update . As of now, I've finished reading & researching the last of the included book sources,  The Sagas of Fridthjof the Bold .  Fridthjof proved far more time consuming in terms of mapping. While fornaldarsögur (legendary sagas) are our favourites, they then  require a lot of extrapolation & speculative assignment depending how inexact/exotic/otherworldly locational they get, but when dealing in the currency of legends and applying that to mythic cartography, it's sometimes all you have to go on short of actually confirming through fieldwork and digging up a magic sword . †  You're given pieces and then have to search past the boundaries of those pieces to find those mappoints. [runic map puzzle piece from Ultima: Shroud of the Av...

After acquiring a blue pocket 1930 CE hardback copy of In The Days Of Giants  by Abbie Farwell Brown, I ran across this brilliant interior illustration by Elmer Boyd Smith of  Iðunn : " He flapped away with her, magic apples and all " (originally 1902 CE) Look at that jerkface Loki , clown-haired and so pleased with himself. And even though she's being abducted,  Iðunn has this statuesque elegance about her, the dress falling just so to show off its floral pattern, her back with just enough romanticist swoon to indicate the not-rightness of the moment, her ornate cask of apples, and the nice detail of that runescript embroidered gown hem . We have to presume Heimdallr 's posted on the other side of Ásgarðr in the background, or eagle form jötunn Þjazi  would so not be getting away with this. The implied NorsePlay of the narrative's situation would be that only  Iðunn can tend, coax, & then pick the apples of youth, since  Þjazi has arranged to ta...

In the Saga of Fridthjof the Bold ch 2, the hero-to-be despairs & evaluates his chances at courting the king's sister Ingibjorg: " Although I have a lesser title than her brothers, yet I believe myself to be no less worthy than them ." His sworn-brother Bjorn then immediately encourages him to action: " Let's do this! " NYT writer William Safire sources  American Heritage Dictionary editor  Joe Pickett as  tracing the modern usage to Korn's song Let’s Do This Now (2003 CE). But we seriously hate Korn, and NorsePlay takes exceeding pleasure in removing those linguistic laurels by pointing out the above saga quote is from circa 1300 CE . So suck it, Korn. Sooner than later no one will remember your awful band, but the skaldic constructs of this legendary saga will endure via this expression as long as the Gods stand. [... and he does marry her in the Temple of Baldr depicted in this amazing vintage NorsePlay'd illustration.] #    #    # Guil...

  We have a strong suspicion that when Alistair M. Hunter in 1963 CE wrote this installment of The Hardy Boys that it was inspired by two Viking placement in  North America  archaeological events : The purported  Kensington Runestone 's discovery in 1898 CE with its enduring subsequent debates, and explorer Helge Ingstad's finding the site of Leif Erikson's camp at L'Anse Aux Meadows in 1960 CE, the latter just four years earlier. Have any of you read this? If so, let me know how NorsePlay it is in your comment below. #    #    # 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...

Not that many elements of The Chronicles of Narnia aren't already from Norse Lore, given CS Lewis' Anglo-Saxon heritage and his mutual workshopping by co-Inkling writers' group peer JRR Tolkien whose own series draws its scope from love of that same Lore. So on top of that, note the visual origin of the Dawn Treader: The above illustration found in Annie Klingensmith's Stories of Norse Gods and Heroes  from 1894 CE finds visual continuance on every cover of Lewis' eponymous The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 1952 CE and within the later TV & film adaptation . The Elliði, anglicized into Ellida, is originally a ship seized from defeating its trollish captain in the Saga of Thorstein Vikingsson (ch 23) and characterized as a huge vessel yet super fast, with planks magically grown together, and semi-sentient enough to obey given verbal commands. The Dawn Treader being  The Elliði aside, it's not like  Eustace getting all treasure happy over a golden armring...

In Doctor Sleep , Rose the Hat leads her traveling circle of Shining followers, The True Knot. To seek others that possess The Shining, Rose sits atop her RV on a platform they call the "watchtower" in her beaverpelt low crown top hat to cast herself astrally afar. And here is where director Mike Flanagan may have NorsePlay'd us. [ Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson as Rosie the Hat.] There's some sagas where a seidkona or volva (that's a witch or prophetess) is hosted with honour as a wisewoman, usually wearing a conical lamb & cat skin hat as part of her needed accoutrements . She's normally asked about subsequent harvests, but then the Sagas become sagariffic when she tells the fate of someone in the room, which is when the story gets interesting. Sometimes these witches are hired to perform cursework, find a missing object, spy/remote-view, or attack an adversary from afar. [the wax figure from the Saga Museum in Iceland of Þorbjörg Lítilvölva {a desc...

In the Warhammer 40K Horus Heresy short story of The Harrowing , author Rob Sanders uses two neologisms, runebanks & runescreens , to describe devices of the technologically oriented Adeptus Mechanicus. We felt these two words alone were NorsePlay-evocative enough in terms of the implied uninterrupted use of runes , and wondered how we could runepunk that into our hardware/ software interfaces, so as to simultaneously NorsePlay the past, present, & future. Seeking manifestations of this, a few years ago designer MiTo made a limited-run of customizable keycaps called Canvas XDA. The alpha keys in the pictures below are the Dieter Rams rune kit based on the Elder Futhark alphabet.  (Rams was a German functionalist designer of the late 1950s to 1960s CE, whom MiTo named this modern runic product variation after.) [ergo-split futhark keyboard assembled by Xah Lee.] [wood-base version assembled by reddit user LukeNukem6.] With these in hand, code-skalds, it is ti...

In Landnamabok ( The Book of Settlements ) ch 379, Olivir Child-Sparer is so named as he chose not to " have children tossed by spear-point as was the custom of vikings at the time ." This sort-of non- deed/descriptive naming raises some questions, so let's NorsePlay this out: [Viking Spear handforged by That Works.] Aside from a prospective father not picking up his presented newborn from the floor in order to claim them thus casting outdoors the unworthy infant for slow exposure to the elements and/or wild animal predation,  what if  a quicker option besides  this was to spear them? [illustration from Northlanders : The Girl in the Ice .] This naming could also be solely  in a foreign context from when Olivir went a-viking seasonally, so perhaps on raids he spared spearing the newly-made orphans. In this case the resulting abandonment meant Olivir's name was critical of his possibly misplaced mercy. And in the sagas many men are taken down by vengeful d...

  [hey there Loki , Thor, Valkyrie, Hela , and Sif !] As the close of summer approaches, NorsePlay presents this Marvel-ous fanservice cosplay version of the Æsir having a weapon-bearing loungeabout in a backyard pool. This totally updates the seasonal  Sports Illustrated -style swimsuit issues Marvel would sometimes put out in the 1980s. Also, you can't see below the waterline, but Thor 's trunks have the four steel shield chest badges on them. It's the less-is-more/just-enough  minimal   details of this group cosplay that we appreciate. [photo by Adrienne Longo.] #    #    # 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 spearheade...

  As far as NorsePlay goes, the concept of Ragnaröks being physical objects is like mega-fusion bomb terrifying , and marketing them as Cracker Jack prizes in a cereal for trolls  to have, who as lesser jotuns will side on the destructive faction of entropy come Twilight of the Gods, is the worst idea ever! [Outside of NorsePlay, this troll-rific graphic design is the monster totem-driven brainchild of my visionary artist pal Daniel Davis, co-owner/troop leader of the Monster Rangers who have their own inclusive mythology & events . Get this design as a mini-poster here , and join the Rangers if you're feeling it.] #    #    # 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...