NorsePlay.

The question we're confronted with is: Is The Northman the best Viking visual media yet made? Despite all the previous internet objections (for whatever that noise is worth), the bar for this is History Channel's inarguably successful  Vikings (2013-2020 CE). Director Robert Eggers mixes the supernatural moments of magical realism from  Vikings with the pastoral setting from  Prince Of Jutland (1994 CE), while screenwriter Sjón pulls from the Icelandic tropes of When the Raven Flies (1984 CE), using Saxo Grammaticus' Amleth legend from  Gesta Danorum: Deeds of the Danes as a baseline point and The Sagas of Icelanders as building blocks, all which make for a  necessarily brutal & beautiful film. [model Ineta Sliuzaite rages through the sky as a  valkyrie  with her line-filed teeth!] [Note: Spoilers are about to occur ... but you read Hamlet in high school like everyone else, right?] For Heathens coming to this film, there...

Some would argue Walter Simonson's story & art delivery in Marvel's early 1980s run of The Mighty Thor was the comic's most epic. In 2014, Simonson again turned his hand toward a very different Thunder God for IDW Publishing in 12 issues of  Ragnarök , with Thor as an undead  jawless   draugr in a post-doomsday world were the Gods still not only lost, but the adversaries actually win, divvying up the wreckage of the Norse Cosmos amongst themselves, which was an amazingly grim NorsePlay. Simonson returned in 2019 to the same dark world for six more issues with  Ragnarök: The Breaking Of Helheim , where he answers further questions of how exactly the Æsir lost so much worse than they anticipated, what allowed Thor to "survive", and if Baldr was prophesied to return then where exactly is he, among others. From Simonson's afterword in issue #6: Consequently, the Norse myths are a goldmine for a storyteller. There's so much room for new stories which stil...

Examine this NorsePlay with me: Black Metal's signature look is corpsepaint. Black Metal hails from Norway and, if we watch the documentaries about the subgenre's roots, has nothing to do with the press' sensationalistic misconstruals of Satanism, but with reconnecting to a Nordic pre-Christian past. The  often-malign  foraying corpses of Norse Lore are the Draugr. Since Black Metal bands & their followers' ritualistic near-necroshamanic painting practice at least partly stems from a willful feeling for a lost past, this mirrors the Draugr's protectiveness of its valued artifacts, and a postmortem renascence of ancient ideas from within the mound waiting to emerge once again. [photo from Daughters Of Darkness  book by Jeremy Saffer, Draugr logo from Hertfordshire, England band.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse...

This undead love NorsePlay'd by Bill & Brittany Doran of Punished Props Academy. #    #    # 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 .

This design raises the question: If Odin re-animates Mimir's head, does the enchantment also carry a quantum effect to his body? If so, do the Vanir, who've kept the body, make the headless draugr a gourd-bearing seasonal figure? [Design by Douglas Cavanaugh/Celtic Hammer Club.] #    #    # 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 .

As if the Norse Cosmos wasn't grim enough, IDW's Ragnarök (2014) presents us with a post-apocalyptic Nine Worlds where Thor himself is an undead draugr and wakes to find things far worse off. Known for his awesome run on Marvel's Thor , artist/writer Walt Simonson presents his own version of Asgard's hero making sense of the ruins among the adversarial powers and dark elf assassins. [Read issues here: http://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Ragnarok ] #    #    # 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...

Vidar & Lena of the Nordic Coven, also known as the Var Dohr, from Underworld: Blood Wars . This mysterious group of vampires lies isolated in the far North (Norway or Sweden; it's undisclosed), and practices a cocooning ritual, or "Valissa", that grants them otherworldly powers. Note Lena's shieldmaiden -esque armor & pauldron. #    #    # 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 .