glory & gore & the viking ethos.

While rollin in the NorsePlay mobile, we were bumping Lorde's Glory and Gore track and couldn't help but notice how lyrically evocative the song seems to be of holmgang duels, battle readiness, craving for achievement through confrontation, and warrior ethos.

Lorde, on the other hand, actually wrote this song as a "black satire to express disdain towards modern emphasis on violence, and compares celebrity culture to gladiatorial combat".


Yet sometimes art can miss its target, transcend its creator's intent, and even be flipped into opposition of that. Perhaps the straight-on bloody fistfight imagery of Lorde's breakout single Royals video carried over into how its audience reads Glory and Gore (and we suspect these aspects may actually have led to her curation of the 2014 Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 soundtrack, definitely a combat-centric franchise), but it's obvious we're not the only ones to instead embrace it as a martial anthem, given this S2 teaser trailer for History Channel's Vikings from 2013:


The idea of establishing reputation and fame through deeds (martial or otherwise) only dials in the working recontextualization of Glory and Gore as a NorsePlay'd montage in your quest for Valhalla.


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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 then 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 employment/opportunities in investigative mythology, field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.

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