NorsePlay.

This horned-helmet wearing, Templar crossed shield bearing, and longsword brandishing Viking cover art illustration is from a 1959 CE 38-page vintage pamphlet by Hjalmar Rued Holand. Holand (b.1872-d.1963 CE) was a proponent of the Kensington Runestone along with other contested Norse America artifacts, and wrote five books supporting those theories before the discovery of Leif Erikson's camp at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1960 CE . In 1950 CE Holand was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Anthropology & Cultural Studies. No matter which way you weigh in or abstain on such theories, the above illustration's a remarkably out-there NorsePlay. #    #    # 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...

In reading The War Of The Realms story arc in Marvel's The Mighty Thor , the formidable NorsePlay creation of Sindr, the Queen of Cinders, daughter of Surt , usurps Helheim , much to the dismay of the Thunder God and the rage of Hela herself . In the actual Norse Lore, Surtr has the consort Sinmara mentioned in the Fjölsvinnsmál , interpreted by some to be his wife. In running with that, it would stand to reason that Surtr has children. Using that possibility, this ally of the Dark Elf Malekith invades Helheim and solidifies her power in a meeting with the various factions of the land of the dead. Hela is understatedly displeased, and conflict ensues. Unlike the predestination of the Lore, at this point in the Marvel Comics Thor story the fate weaving Norns are are almost all dead, and it would seem that it's anyone's ball game as to how the ending will ultimately turn out, but it seems that Sindr is one to watch out for. #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena ...

While Fritz Lang's two-part, nearly 5-hour  Die Nibelungen will remain the first amazing silent film breakout Norse mythological screen achievement, there are actually a few later adaptations of The Saga of the Volsungs / The Song of the Nibelungs , some of which are fairly derivative of Lang's adaptation, and others that show more proto-Sword & Sorcery plotting. Here are three notable cinematic NorsePlays: Treasure Of The Petrified Forest , (aka The Stone Forest,  1965 CE) is more Wagner than Volsungs, setting up hero Sigmund & love interest Princess Siglinde as committed to protect the secret of the forest and its mound of treasure. Unfortunately a hostile Viking king figures out from a defecting jealous sister what that secret is and battle amongst the glitterbombed stucco trees ensues. There's definite fantasy roots here, and more build on the antagonist, but if you're looking for Norse Lore served Spaghetti Viking style , this delivers with some fun narra...

Somewhere within a long & very, very speculative post I found, there was a supposition about Ask & Embla being made from Ash & Elm . Given the prehistorical scale of mythic time the NorsePlay was that they're the two types of wood that get paired up as the two Mesolithic hunter choices to make a bow & arrow. Ash grows straight and so is ideal for arrows. Elm is flexible and is used for bows. While I haven't seen this association repeated anywhere else, it does address the why behind the choices of those specific trees, why they compliment each other, and why the specific gender assignations are applied to types of trees via their uses. This attractive speculation aside it could just  more simply   be a verbally alliterative reason, or a localized growth factor of those trees being complimentarily  found together in a certain area, but perhaps it could be all three of the above. [the Hedeby/Haithabu (825~850 CE) bow illustration above and actual...