NorsePlay.

  I've successfully plotted 800 mappoints for my Map Of Midgard Project! This is the seventh progress update since  the initial blog post ,  the first update ,  the second update ,  the third update ,  the fourth update , the fifth update , and the sixth update . Of the original backlist of 360 mappoints left to plot, 178 potential sites remain. Again this list would be less by now, but additional data for other mappoints does keep appearing in the course of research to add to the grand total number. This update in point, of the 100 points mapped since last update 30 are additional! [text mural by Dane EB Itso thrown up in Vardø, Norway, on the southernmost building of the island.] The above in-real-life memepaint appeals to my project's sense of discovery & wonder. It is also the above piece's incidental self-countering reflexive function to then label this unknown but evocative Scandinavian building's physical truth, which then actively puts it on the cognitive ma

The flaw of the short handle was just one possible outcome in the creation of Mjölnir. What if Loki's horsefly form had stung a bit harder? Or, what if Brokkr hadn't paused at all? What if Eitri & Brokkr had extra time to forge something even more artful if they hadn't been on a deadline for the crafting contest? What if they had integrated additional mystical materials? Could a more infused hammer defeat Jörmungandr from a greater distance to save Thor from the serpent's poison at  Ragnarök ? In Thor concept artist Charlie Wen's multiple hammer design submissions, we see the implications of the above questions NorsePlay out. And maybe it isn't too late for the Thunderer to go get some hardware upgrades and change his fate. #    #    # 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 pot

In Ibn Fadlan's Risala  (§ 85) , when Viking trading trips to Russia didn't work out after their first four attempts at the market after leaving offerings at the large godpoles , merchants would then employ a roundabout appeal via Gods' wives & children   by instead leaving offerings at their smaller statues surrounding those godpoles  to then intercede for them and get their Gods' attention & favour that way. This one-degree-removed hierarchy networking seems amusing, yet let's NorsePlay this idea from a religious practice standpoint and look at the divinity of the children themselves. Some modern Asatruar point out that the Æsir Gods & Ásynjur Goddesses are usually too busy to attend to individual appeals since on a cosmic level they are big picture beings keeping the Norse Níuverse in order . For instance, Odin's chessmastering things so Ragnarök either never happens or to make it so that the Aesir get the upper hand to  defeat the prophecies

We're not exactly sure what specifically's going on in this bear-a-riffic illuminated illustration from the  Spiezer Chronik by Diebold Schilling. The 1484-85 CE manuscript is an early history of Bern, Switzerland, from the founding of the city to events that took place in the mid-15th century. To NorsePlay, this looks like a medieval stylization of a marching army of berserkers in full-on bear form. The flute & drumming bears leading could also make it a ritual procession  or dance . Given that Bern may be named for the bear, emblazoned the bear on its flag & coat of arms, installed a Bärengraben or bear pit as a municipal feature since 1857 CE, that the Swiss Plateau was overrun & settled in ancient times by the Germanic Alemanni & Burgundians staring in the 5th century CE and looking at that in tandem with Tacitus' earlier accounts of tribal elite warrior s in Germania , and the bears in the 6th–8th century CE Torslunda plates,  this depiction could very