NorsePlay.

  Give your cat a more Wagnerian mien with this handknit breastplate & operatic horned helmet set based on the Ring Cycle 's costume for Valkyrie Brünnhilde ! Sure, this  stage-borne  Germanic Romanticism's  where the false impression of the Viking horned helmet comes from , but your cat's not going to call you on that. And if you have singing Siamese or a verbal Norwegian Forest Cat , then it'll totally Valhallidate your feline's performative prima donna tendencies.   [ knitted by Patricia of OonaPatternsEtc on Etsy. ] #    #    # 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  investiga

In Northern folklore, the water horse attracts, adheres, and drowns those who touch it, but it's never adequately explained why it's called a kelpie.  While it's not for certain, it's thought the Scots word's related to the Gaelic "calpa"  or colt, but one might instead guess it has to do with kelp. In the latter line of thinking,  God Of War: Ragnarok  shows the kelpie with a tail made from strands of kelp, and when it transforms to dive underwater, even more kelp-constructed fins emerge from its body! This visual explanation's a seriously good example of NorsePlay as it helps fill-in an obvious answer that may have never previously presented itself. Yet even if this is an etymological coincidence, it shows how some myths become even more adorned as they roll forward in time by  gathering the moss of artistic decision  ... or in this instance, gathers kelp. Safety warning: Do not be fooled by this GoW:R video -- do not touch a kelpie unless you are a

  So if the mantle of Thor can pass to Jane Foster, then that opens the multiversal door for Spider-Man 's Gwen Stacy to become Thorgwen . Her white-backed cape, it's round embossed clasp, and the golden rope braiding appear to be the distinctive costume touches that set Thorgwen apart as the Lady Of Thunder. Somewhat like Baldr, it seems that the mourning world will never, ever let Peter Parker's tragically deceased girlfriend go. And perhaps it is this same persistence of revered memory, this wishing against unthinkable loss, that allows them both to later return to us. [momoko design variant cover on Gwenverse #4.] 11/2024 Addenda: While the above multiversal design provokes the imagination, I just got through reading the Gwenverse story arc, and it was tonally far more comedic with Thorgwen being more of a personal aspect foil for Ghost-Spider than a character in her own right, which I cannot recommend. I wished they'd handled it more along the lines of Across The

  This 3D rendering of a modern longhouse was made by architecture student Eralp Erkasap. I think this concept is great, something of the pragmatics of a military Quonset hut with the pitched roof of a stave church, eliminating the turf maintenance, and combining the roof as walls at an angle where the snow will mostly slide off. Those slotted and wood-accented gables are a nice touch. I might go with some integrated solar panels, and narrow horizonal sliding shuttered windows for air, light, to keep lookout, and to use as shooting blinds for nearby game, predators, draugr  incursions, and  fire-bearing burners . [go hire Eralp for this & other livingspace designs here .] #    #    # 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, laun

As I looked up at the New Year's sky yesterday, I saw something very much like this goat trotting its way across the firmament. In the Norse Cosmology, the clouds are long-dead Ymir's giant brains, possibly post-mortem thoughts unfolding themselves into shapes, maybe still functionally reflecting things that came into being after his necessary demise to form them. Or this is us catching a glimpse of  Tanngrisnir or Tanngnjóstr out for a solo run , and if you're lucky enough to have the sight of Heathen Worldview you have to believe it to be able to see it. [photo by David McDermott, inverted & bold italicized point in the last line from Netflix's 2022 Troll .] #    #    # 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, lau