NorsePlay.

While we've explored Conan here & there for NorsePlay, one cannot speak of the Cimmerian of the North without referencing the artist most responsible for visually depicting him: Frank Frazetta. Given Frazetta's standing as a giant of fantasy art , and as the fantasy genre draws upon the bottomless wellsprings of Norse Lore & the Icelandic Sagas for its material , we would present Frazetta's Kane On the Golden Sea as his most outstanding manifestation of NorsePlay : [First published as a book cover on  Darkness Weaves in 1978 CE.] Vikings on a longship looking for targets to raid, Kane boldly shirtless, Berserker -style. Of course some of this composition, like the Wagner ian horned helmet s, and D&D double-bladed battle- axe , plus the fur barbarian breechclout are visual tropes from later Germanic Romanticism, derivative medieval art, and other sources, but the spirit of this & his other famous works are Norse inspired. [this official print & o...

  While we've mentioned the first chronological Conan story  The Frost-Giant's Daughter (1934 CE), which was later altered & published as Gods of the North (1953 CE), there is something in Howard's Northmen 's lore that evokes an interesting NorsePlay when we find Conan as part of a skirmish in the Æsir - Vanir War. Howard's fiction suggests that Ymir is regarded as the God of the Jotuns , who is still sacrificed to and called upon, and if we NorsePlay this idea into the Norse Lore, the Gods versus Giants rift gains an even more sensible irreparability. If the creation story encounter had gone the other way with Ymir killing the divine grandsons of Búri instead, it may have been the Aesir seeking an exile-like home on the outskirts of the worlds, and been as equally unforgiving in their relations with their ascendant giant rulers . One also shudders to think that humanity might have become a thrall race to the giants, or worse, livestock . #    #...

It's Conan's Heathen Worldview that frames his internal vision of Bêlit. As the captain of the Argus warns him of her merciless piratical scourge, the Northman instead envisions a sea queen raider, valkyrie-esque, ideally pale , half-dressed in a scalemail made from her wealth of coins, the woman that all warriors of his stripe long to be claimed by in their final moments. The artist delivers Conan's desire's-eye view  of  Bêlit  insouciantly enthroned, with burning  eyes, and thirsting embloodied lips. [page from Conan Volume 13: Queen of the Black Coast , 2013] #    #    # 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 spearhea...

In the Hyborian Age of Conan , Asgard & Vanaheim are NorsePlay'd as neighbors in Nordheim at the Northwest of this ancient Pangaean megacontinent. [from Marvel Entertainment, cartographed by Tony Edwards.] #    #    # 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 .

Conan waxes poetic about the incomparable beauty of the frost giant's daughter! Now the weak-kneed barbarian knows why the Aesir covet them so . We also see a strong resemblance to Deborah Ann Woll. [From Dark Horse Comics' 2004 adaptation of Howard's The Frost Giant's Daughter . Art by Cary Nord.] #    #    # 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 .