NorsePlay.

During Marvel's The Mighty Thor 's The War Of The Realms (2019 CE) storyline, sorcerous dark elf Malekith the Accursed creates an axis among the numerous enemies of Asgard to takeover all the realms. At a certain point in the story, this ominous map of an occupied Midgard appears ... . #    #    # 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 spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer,  do contact him .

From the hands of the director of Troll Hunter  (2010 CE) comes another foray into the fields of NorsePlay: Mortal (2020 CE). Vagrant American tourist Eric (Nat Wolff) is hiding out in the Norwegian forest, on the lam from an apparent arson fire/murder at his cross-Atlantic family's farm. Eric is apparently emotionally damaged with post-traumatic stress from whatever actually happened, and has nightmares involving fire . Another apparent murder lands him in the local Ossa jail, where rookie psychologist Christine (Iben Akerlie) is called in to speak with him before U.S. authorities are to show up and extradite him. Willing to talk to her, Eric then seems to manifest some electrokinetic powers , which she intuits are related to his volatile emotional state, and manages to talk him down. The film becomes something of a chase movie in its second act, with a final reveal of why Eric is gifted/cursed with his electrokinesis. This dynamic, however, was explored in  The New Mutant...

  While reading a collected graphic of The War of the Realms , I couldn't help but notice the well designed runic symbols placed around the title, and found this larger chart to show them off. While the Yggdrasil boardgame uses a regular elder futhark rune to represent each of The Nine Worlds, this takes it a step further, and also sort of fills a shorthand Yggdrasil diagram need, which makes me wonder at why it wasn't thought of before. And sure, this is a Marvel Thor invention, especially given the Hela 's headress and Surtur 's crown gylphs (and the whole cloth creation of lost 10th realm "Heven"), but it's not like someone couldn't run with this idea and make some working bindrunes or other Norse inspired icons to correspond to The Nine Worlds. #    #    # 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 f...

There's a recently adopted Sanskrit loan word for someone who has lost a child: "vilomah". In the Norse Lore & Sagas there are quite a few instances where in the honor/revenge cycle, or due to other unfortunate events, parents lose their offspring. Egil Skallagrímsson's immensely moving Sonatorrek poem on the loss of his sons totally comes to mind. What I'd wondered is if there was an Old Norse equivalent to "vilomah", and then even more specifically, if there's an ON word for someone grieving their dog who has departed upon the Hel-Road.   In Njal's Saga , Gunnar is gifted the Irish dog Sam, who is possessed of human intelligence, but during the planned assault on Gunnar's hall, Sam is first lured away & then killed by the attackers, and given the rapid fire course of bow-heavy events, I don't think Gunnar is given any time to self-label as a pet-mourner the sad loss of his very exceptional hound. By contrast, the regicide of Sa...

NorsePlay appreciates graphic design, and has long admired the various artistic takes on the classic London Tube Map during my visits there, so we present this Tube-based Viking Travel Map from author Max Adams' The Viking Wars  (2018 CE, p50):  Reviewer Darklinger AEld-ridge said that the above map illustrates how by navigating rivers and using landmarks & wayfinds that the Vikings travelled easily around the UK and how much of a huge problem that proved to the defending Anglo-Saxons. Oh, if only those A-S had bought their Oystercards directly from the Danelaw. #    #    # 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 spearheaded the neologi...