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Showing posts from April, 2023

Odin & Phoenix make out sesh!

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  Yes, this splash page flashback scene from The Mighty Thor #22 has Marvel Odin wistfully remembering his hottest date ever with the fiery Phoenix Force herself! Perhaps the Phoenix's flavour of ice cream's one-eyed leaders? In terms of prestige, it's All-Father Odin over Blue Team X-Men leader Cyclops in any epoch of the Marvel Universe, but if a girl feeds her emotions with whole planets of sentient beings, perhaps that dark dinner bill's more than even a Norse God can afford. This surprising panel evokes what stories could be suggested about a more nascent Odin in the Norse Lore. If his forefathers married frost giantesses, then perhaps the idea of a dating a hot Eldjötunness isn't outside the Nine Realms of possibility. Many of the hard-won dating lessons in the Hávamál implies stories attached to them, and Odin's shouting match with Thor in the Hárbarðsljóð has them both relating & bragging on experiences that came from their pasts. It makes one w...

a consequence of Ymir's cosmic deluge.

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While reading volume one of P. Craig Russell's graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology , the immediate result from the death of primordial Ymir is shown in a panel as a giant wave of blood being released. This is so enormous that the flood kills all but two of the jötnar, which implies that Ymir's sanguine deluge also drowns the giantess wives of Buri & Bor, and collaterally their grandfather & father as well if such a flood is on so large of a cosmically uncontrollable scale. Such a consequence would then explain why after the waves settle it is the third generation of Odin, Vili, & Ve that are left to craft & rule the Níu Heimar, while Buri & Bor are unmentioned after that, and maybe settle why such a cosmic creature as Auðumbla is absent as well. This isn't necessarily the answer: There could just be missing stories, or the death of Ymir & universal creation passes forward ruler-worthy powers or status or both to the three ...

skulls of the jotnar.

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  Given the Norse Lore, one might think this is possibly Thor's trophy room of jötnar skull s at Bilskirnir, or perhaps his gathered material for a borderland hunting lodge/nithing pile, and maybe that's Þjálfi at right trying to figure out how to organize his master's giant ossuary. Well, that's what my Heathen Worldview saw anyway, and one can sometimes argue a case for what personal contexts a viewer brings to a piece over artist's intent . This evocative art installation is Mass by Ron Mueck from  2016-2017 CE , detail (!), media of synthetic polymer paint on fiberglass. [thanks to Sofie Vanherpen (go read her scholarship on Aud the Deep-Minded here ) for incidentally bringing this to my attention.] #    #    # 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...

Loki's lost hammer?!?

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Possibly inspired by the idea of  Disney's multiversal Boastful Loki 's hammer, this 1lb 8 3⁄4 oz wooden mallet is Såssnir the Lost, Loki's lost War Hammer! This one-of-a-kind creation made of ancient reclaimed oak, white ash, & purpleheart is an Etsy offering from OutlawArtbyJAMES, who invented this flavor text lore for it: "Såssnir the Lost is the prized war hammer of the God of Sass - Loki! Who knew Loki had a war hammer with the same power as Thor's Mjölnir? Whomever owns Såssnir is granted the power of the Sassy Asgard"! And it even comes with a Pokémon-style item card: Whatever this other hammer 's provenance or special powers, it wouldn't hurt to have this in the car or carried on your person , just in case of giant problems that require such a solution. [go get Såssnir here , or maybe get a custom NorsePlay'd commission from them and let us know about it.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Nors...