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Showing posts from September, 2022

a Torslunda-styled Marvel Thor map of Yggdrasil.

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During Marvel Thor 's The War of the Realms (2019 CE) comic book run, this neat cosmological map of Yggdrasil tapped into the figural stylings of the Torslunda helmet plates (6th~8th c. CE). Seeing that Vendel Period context with the modern skyscrapers of current-day Midgard and the added figure of Spider-Man hanging from one of the branches thrown in is a superclever archaeological borrowing that we wouldn't mind seeing NorsePlay'd more in any medium. #    #    # 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

NorsePlay Reviews: Coursera's Old Norse Mythology in the Sources.

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While NorsePlay has no doubts about its expertise in the Norse Lore and its research & expository credentials by holding & applying its double degree in Journalism & Creative Writing here weekly, we felt it wouldn't hurt to add to our CV by swooping up a certification from Coursera's course on  Old Norse Mythology in the Sources as taught by the celebrated Dr Mathias Nordvig, Nordic Studies Professor at University Colorado Boulder. That, and we wanted to review it. Mathias and I have traded a few emails regarding my Map Of Midgard Project, and I consider him an online acquaintance. Mathias is unquestionably stellar as a public disseminator of information via YouTube, co-host of the irascibly fun Nordic Mythology Podcast , his own blog, and as a leading academic contributor to the new Pre-Christian Religions of the North  (2020 CE) reference set , so I'm much less reviewing him as opposed to the Coursera format. We're lucky to have someone of Mathias' c

the Iron All-Father.

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  In a strange turn of mash-up elements, Marvel Odin becomes the literal deus ex machina in The Mighty Thor 's The War Of The Realms when Iron Man Tony Stark, Shuri, and dwarf Screwbeard craft together this badarse battle Iron All-Father suit so he can go rescue his wife from her possible last stand at the enemy's Black Bifrost! The Norse Lore has a more than fair amount of technological solutions in terms of enchanted weapons ( Gungnir ,  Mjölnir ), objects imparting invisibility (two Tarnhelms, Gnipa's Ring), shirts of invulnerability (Katla's tunic, Bui The Dog's shirt), and many more, so this construction of tech-armor for an Asgardian only continues this storytelling motif. [quarter-splash panel from  War of the Realms #4  (2019 CE)] #    #    # 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 truthf

Jarnsaxa rises up in your podcast queue.

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Jarnsaxa Rising 's a NorsePlay'd sci-fi/fantasy 18-episode audiodrama cut from the format of classic 1920s radio shows, mixed with much of the higher-consciousness imbued binaural panache of ZBS' productions from the 1970s/80s where galactic cyborg gumshoe Ruby would have to unexpectedly deal with ancient Mesopotamian death goddess Ereshkigal, or spiritual traveler Jack Flanders had to brave a metaphysical landscape that was both within & without himself, except here the tropes & structure are from an expanded re-characterization of Norse Mythology. For Jarnsaxa the jötunness, her axe to grind is with Thor, her ex-lover, and her opportunity for vengeance happens in the corpocratic dystopian future of 2094 CE via possession. In noir backstory style, we're introduced to a pair of company employees sent to investigate why a wind turbine on a Baltic island is generating power when it shouldn't be on at all, and that's the hook the story unfolds on, crossing