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...