NorsePlay.

It's Conan's Heathen Worldview that frames his internal vision of Bêlit. As the captain of the Argus warns him of her merciless piratical scourge, the Northman instead envisions a sea queen raider, valkyrie-esque, ideally pale , half-dressed in a scalemail made from her wealth of coins, the woman that all warriors of his stripe long to be claimed by in their final moments. The artist delivers Conan's desire's-eye view  of  Bêlit  insouciantly enthroned, with burning  eyes, and thirsting embloodied lips. [page from Conan Volume 13: Queen of the Black Coast , 2013] #    #    # 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 spearhea...

Okay, total spoiler which we dislike doing, but there's no way around it: While not the best episode of The Librarians , "And the Reunion of Evil" (season 3, 2016) includes a surprising jotun NorsePlay element where two librarians stumble from the heart of a snowstorm into a Swedish ski lodge hotel while possessing an artifact that a trucing private reunion of giant clans have gathered to consume. The jotun are presented as troublemaking descendants  of Loki, who instead revel in causing the ills of the world (disasters, plagues, insurance fleecing, etc), which is something of a downgrade as major adversaries of the Gods, but then it would explain how they've stayed under the radar for so long. The giants wear Scandinavian patterned sweaters, and some fur accent garments, while overdrinking and playing hnefatafl and k ubb in displays of oneupmanship. [watch in mirrored format here .] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something spe...

Perspective check yourself on that girl: For Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, Helga the Fair's his childhood intended, and his inability to let her go eventually costs him his life in a duel with her husband, which Gunnlaug wins but then dies from his wounds. Way before this tragedy, his father advises him: " And don't set so much store by yearning for just one woman. Behave as though you haven't noticed, and you'll never be short of women. " Yet if he'd listened to his just-play-it-cool Dad, then we might not still be reading his saga 800 years later, and one can make a case for both acceptance of his own unavoidably fatal desire-bound Wyrd and that rival poet/husband Hrafn Önundarson certainly had his own death coming by opportunistically mis-bargaining his way into his marriage. Or, to NorsePlay this, would Gunnlaug's poetically skilled tongue otherwise have gone on to weave its way into the hearts of even more becoming & worthy ladies, princ...