NorsePlay.

NorsePlay would just like to put it out into the subcultural water that if someone were to make a music video of Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight  with scenes from The Northman  instead, I'd be rather pleased. [fan art print by user Pasan-hpmm, which feels like some sort of situation specific Father's Day card.] And if someone were to cover the song in an Old Norse version for said video, well, that would be above & beyond. [Amleth's rowing song oath.] A notable amount of the sagas are driven by vengeance . And if we look at Odin, right after the death of Baldr, the All-Father pointedly sires both Váli, to avenge his dead son, and Víðarr , to avenge himself against Fenrir . So thematically having what is arguably the best revenge song ever made scoring one of the best Viking films yet made would be a desirable NorsePlay retrofit. [because Amleth definitely feels it in the Icelandic air tonight.] And on that rather grim drum breaking note, Happy (All-)Father's...

When the Raven Flies/Hrafninn Flýgur  (1984 CE) is considered by some to be the best Icelandic film of all time. After viewing it, we can totally see why. Though said to be cinematically styled after samurai film Yojimbo (1961 CE) and the Spaghetti Westerns of the mid-1960s ( WtRF is also classified into a group of films derivatively called Cod Westerns [heh!]), it is distinctly of the Icelandic Saga tradition, which historically & artistically precedes both those classifications by nearly 800 years in writing and 1,000 years orally. The first part of the Raven Trilogy (also known as the Viking Trilogy ), acclaimed director & Icelandic national personality Hrafn Gunnlaugsson weaves a solid story of Viking brutality, vengeance, mistrust, and consequences that recalls some aspects of both Njal's Saga & Gisli's Saga in the telling. The subsequent two films are only loosely connected in story, but are thematically bonded. And we recommend them to all those who m...

Flipping through Andrew Lang's The Crimson Fairy Book (1903 CE), I read  a pretty brilliant NorsePlay  remix in the story of  The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnföder . This story is full of loans & borrowings from across the lore, the large ones being the hero named Sigurd (from The Saga of the Volsungs ), the horse Gullfaxi (from the race in  Skáldskaparmál ) which one is forbidden to ride (this rule from  Hrafnkels saga applied to his horse Freyfaxi), and a weather effecting magic item that summons hail (from The Story of Thorstein Mansion-Might ). There are a couple other lesser parallels to be divined, but the above are the most certain & definitely present. [story illustration by Henry Justice Ford.] Even without being well-versed enough in the Norse Lore to identify any of the above, the story in itself stands alone as a fun tale. Sourcewise, Lang adapts the story from an 1884 CE German translation by Viennese politician & Scandinav...

  I've successfully plotted 600 mappoints for my Map Of Midgard Project! This is the fifth update since  the initial blog post ,  the first update ,  the second update , the third update , and the fourth update . As of now, I've finished reading & researching the last of the included book sources,  The Sagas of Fridthjof the Bold .  Fridthjof proved far more time consuming in terms of mapping. While fornaldarsögur (legendary sagas) are our favourites, they then  require a lot of extrapolation & speculative assignment depending how inexact/exotic/otherworldly locational they get, but when dealing in the currency of legends and applying that to mythic cartography, it's sometimes all you have to go on short of actually confirming through fieldwork and digging up a magic sword . †  You're given pieces and then have to search past the boundaries of those pieces to find those mappoints. [runic map puzzle piece from Ultima: Shroud of the Av...

I've successfully plotted 500 mappoints for my Map Of Midgard Project! This is the fourth update since  the initial blog post ,  the first update , the second update , and the third update . Currently I'm finishing up post-reading mappoints from the  Landnámabók  (the Icelandic Book of Settlements ), which features an exhaustive survey of 3,000 people and their 1,400 settlements, initially listing 435 men as the first settlers and then moving temporally & spatially forward with the usually genealogies that all Icelandic sources are self-documented with. While the historical importance of the Landnámabók is inarguable, I realize that the above numbers could sound instead like using a boring phone book to make a boring land survey, so I totally want to reassure you the project is category specific, and within that I'm very discerning in terms of using only the really fascinating locations for the Map Of Midgard , of which Landnámabók actually has many amazing nut...

I've successfully plotted 400 mappoints for my Map Of Midgard Project! This is the third update since  the initial blog post ,  the first update , and the second update . Instead of flashing another map teaser screenshot, this update I'm going to reveal how in-depth my research is in terms of my stacks of reading material. As I read sources, I use many, many, many metal page points to bookmark specific lines with references to possible places for Map Of Midgard  inclusion. For instance, my pictured copy of Njal's Saga upon finished reading has 77 page points in it, so for a book of 375 pages, (if it were spaced evenly) that's a citation that needs researching more frequently than every five pages! [with my spine-curved & spider-creased deluxe The Sagas of Icelanders .] I'm currently reading Orkneyinga Saga , to be followed up by Guta Saga , Jómsvíkinga Saga , and Landnámabók for the last, though if those readings lead us to more super must-have so...

" My heart was raging When I left Njal's house Against my will, While the timbers sweated smoke And while the warriors Burned to their deaths. Listen to my words: I am telling my grief. " ~ Kari Solumndarson relates his anger & his sadness in Njal's Saga ch 135. There's a possible shade of haunted PTSD, and definite survivor's guilt in this verse. More largely there's the inextricable ball of anger & sadness of loss. Kari is propelled by these feelings, killing many not only for the reputational duty & obligation of vengeance, but because he hurts so very deeply inside at everything he's lost, can't help but think about, and will think about for the rest of his life. The feelings are inescapable, and in turn his vengeance becomes that inescapability. [screencap from The Last Kingdom .] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aula...

Surely you must be asking what does Norse Lore have to do with the tōge racing installment of The Fast & the Furious movie franchise. It's the surprising appearance of the actual F&F phrase in chapter nine from The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey's Godi : ...  but then Thorkel rushed into the booth and said to Thorgeir, his brother, "Don't be so fast and furious about this kinsman."   This could just be an expressive choice by translator Terry Gunnell, and while the expression only first gets noticed in  Scottish poet Robert Burns'  Tam o’ Shanter  in 1791, instead the above excerpt's saga was w ritten in about ~1280-1350 CE, and if directly quoted, spoken around ~925-950 CE. The connection could liminally be a carry-forward of Indo-European charioteering, or Icelandic horse racing, or reflective of Norse Mythology's attestation of the race between Odin's Sleipnir and jötunn Hrungnir's Gullfaxi from  Skáldskaparmál . Odds are the timele...

Perspective check yourself on that girl: For Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, Helga the Fair's his childhood intended, and his inability to let her go eventually costs him his life in a duel with her husband, which Gunnlaug wins but then dies from his wounds. Way before this tragedy, his father advises him: " And don't set so much store by yearning for just one woman. Behave as though you haven't noticed, and you'll never be short of women. " Yet if he'd listened to his just-play-it-cool Dad, then we might not still be reading his saga 800 years later, and one can make a case for both acceptance of his own unavoidably fatal desire-bound Wyrd and that rival poet/husband Hrafn Önundarson certainly had his own death coming by opportunistically mis-bargaining his way into his marriage. Or, to NorsePlay this, would Gunnlaug's poetically skilled tongue otherwise have gone on to weave its way into the hearts of even more becoming & worthy ladies, princ...

"I am not sick," said Thorkel, "but this is worse than sickness."  This simple statement from Gisli Sursson's Saga in chapter 9 so hits the emotional torture of heartbreak in a timeless way, that same inconsolable voice from a thousand years past will always be relevant to those who feel the loss of love. [Ragnar Lothbrok helplessly watches Lagertha depart.] #    #    # 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 .

Some saga names just stand out, like Thora of the Embroidered Hand. While there's a twice-fold kidnapping of this girl in Egil's Saga and her marriage to her unstoppably amorous kidnapper-then-husband, Thora's name is never actually explained. Our NorsePlay on this could go one of three or two-fold, or three-fold ways which is in line with either a deed-name, or a descriptive name. [rune protection hand made by Frogs and Princes on Rebels Market.] If Thora performed embroidery at a remarkable level, making pieces of such exception that she earned a reputation for her handiwork, then it could go that way. Or second, maybe she'd received an outstanding jelling or exotic lace patterned  Mehndi-style (the latter technique of which is dated back to the Vedas, so maybe it or its style migrated over) hand tattoo that augmented her already notable beauty as a factor which set her aside from all the other girls, making her even more kidnapping worthy. [Cosme...

Take Conan , Icelandic Sagas, the cartoon styling of Bone , shading of Mignola , and you have Barbarian Lord . We just read this, and if you like anything in the above list, the cross-pollinated tropes of berserker s, trolls , witches, farmstead neighbor feuds, and Viking poetry will totally win you. And like a saga, there's a no-nonsense plot point-to-point presentation that keeps the pace lean and satisfying at the same time. Go read this. It rules. #    #    # 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 rese...