NorsePlay.

  Illustrator David Wyatt's Asgard from his otherworldly exploration  Nine Worlds in Nine Nights  book by "Hiawyn Oram" ( Walker Books, 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 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 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...

When you depict the cosmos, you map it, you are performing the ritual of sacred geography , taking abstract invisible concepts and stickpinning them into a fixed place where they're suddenly more concrete, in a real position , around the corner, or over that mountain range, or under that hill, and even if that place's time & space doesn't match nor measure nor visibly scale as ours does, you've given or found it a physical connection point attached to our own. It felt real enough to begin with, enough to record it in mythological lore and make a story of it, but in assigning it a location , it gets that much more real and perhaps accessible. After every rain, Bifröst is a two-way street , and there's a point where the land we walk meets the trunk of Yggdrasil and connects all the points of the Norse Cosmos to us. Mostly we see more general depictions of Yggdrasil , and the above world tree map diagram re-titles some of the otherworlds, possibly to be more lin...

After acquiring a blue pocket 1930 CE hardback copy of In The Days Of Giants  by Abbie Farwell Brown, I ran across this brilliant interior illustration by Elmer Boyd Smith of  Iðunn : " He flapped away with her, magic apples and all " (originally 1902 CE) Look at that jerkface Loki , clown-haired and so pleased with himself. And even though she's being abducted,  Iðunn has this statuesque elegance about her, the dress falling just so to show off its floral pattern, her back with just enough romanticist swoon to indicate the not-rightness of the moment, her ornate cask of apples, and the nice detail of that runescript embroidered gown hem . We have to presume Heimdallr 's posted on the other side of Ásgarðr in the background, or eagle form jötunn Þjazi  would so not be getting away with this. The implied NorsePlay of the narrative's situation would be that only  Iðunn can tend, coax, & then pick the apples of youth, since  Þjazi has arranged to ta...

Alan Lee's Beowulf in Heorot from David Day's  Castles (1984 CE, illustration is verso half of the double page spread). #    #    # 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 .

Bifrost arcs from Midgard to Asgard. [illustration by Steele Savage (1898–1970), from Adventures with the Giants (1950) by Catharine F. Sellew.] #    #    # 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 .

Jötunn Skrýmir (actually Útgarða-Loki in disguise) nonchalantly rubs his forehead after Thor gives it his best shot with Mjölnir, much to the Thunder God's exasperation. [ (The) Giant Skrymir and Thor by Louis Huard (c. 1891).] #    #    # 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 r esearch, or product development to offer,  do contact him .

Johan Egerkrans ' stirring interpretation of Thor from his amazing Nordiska Gudar artbook! We love that the God of Thunder appears to be taking a post-accomplishment moment for himself atop a mountain peak as the wind lifts his fur upwards against a Wagner ianly atmospheric background. And here's detail on this version Mjölnir : #    #    # 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 .

Double-truck illustration of the Aesir in D'Aulaires' Norse Gods & Giants (1967, later titled Book of Norse Myths ), from our favourite collected adaptation of Norse Mythology. This for-all-ages retelling of Norse Lore sings so true and brims with wonderfully inspired art, it's priceless. Their take on Mjölnir as a meteoric-looking burly lump of iron always intrigued us, which clues in with the unfinished aspect of the hammer in its origin story. #    #    # 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, o...