NorsePlay.

There are a lot of podcasts, so the trick is to figure out which are worth listening to, but by the time you've worked your way through one or more episodes, you've either struck gold or taken a bullet, and just with the sheer number of 'casts, it's more likely you've bet on a loser. The prevalent mediocrity of this infotaining medium is that many instead rely on the idea of obnoxious morning show radio DJ personas rather than doing justice to their episode's subject, barely giving a surface level presentation that gets lost between the weak attempts at humour and self-indulgent prattle. Given all that, I should warn you away from Blurry Photos . ⸶  Yet before you completely take my word for it, bookending their Runes episode there's an unexpectedly funny NorsePlay audiosketch where Loki gives Odin a giftcard to Starbucks at the front-end, and a pretty clever Loki on social media skit at the back. So unless you know absolutely nothing about runes , don...

While on the face of it, Draupnir's being a priceless magical treasure is obvious: It's a bracelet that generates its own wealth every ninth night by duplicating eight more of itself. Yet the Eddic narrative of Draupnir could also be read as a measure of gifting & worth. Odin sacrifices Draupnir into the burning boat of Hringhorni with his dead son because that is what this person he loves was worth to him in his life -- Baldr was an endless treasure that had an unexpectedly premature end. The infinite wealth of that sacrifice doesn't matter to him, only the possible return of that priceless person does. In Odin's act of gifting there is an attached value, the intention of sentiment, a moment bonded to a physical object on a supernatural level. The force of those feelings are an act of energy sacrifice, and once made that energy flows down into the well of the past, waters the great tree that holds the very worlds, coming back up through the branches to feed the pr...

My bestie sent me this picture of ScandiKitchen 's NorsePlay'd cup. But does a  Star Wars pun from this renowned London eatery actually have anything real to do with Norse Lore? Yes, actually. Aside from the day launching resilience one gets from their cuppas of morning & afternoon  black tips   tea,  that Norse Force is Megin. Megin is the force of intent gathered in the horn ritual , the spiritual energy you're gifting the Gods when you blót. If performed in a pleasing fashion, and if the Gods do accept your gift of Megin, then this exchange ensures that the Norse Gods Be With You in the force of those intentions. [photo by Justin Beltran .] #    #    # 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, passionat...