NorsePlay.

The above is a reconstruction of a tapestry fragment found in the Oseberg ship burial made from this: This lacuna-ridden ~12" long by ~8" wide weaving might've escaped notice on many digs, maybe been accidentally dug through or pushed aside as random gauze to get at some shinier sword fittings or silver treasures, but when we look very, very carefully at it, we can make out some of the details. Found during the excavation in 1903 CE, the Oseberg Tapestry makes its way to us after more than a millennium from a prestigious funeral in ~834 CE. That survival's something beyond magic, and the reconstruction by Stig Saxegaard of Storm Studios from 2018 CE (note the not-present colours in the artifact are an artistic choice in the visual reconstruction), revealing what are probably hung men sacrificed to Odin is grimly amazing. This process could be seen as a metaphor for the reconstruction of Ásatrú, for archaeology's restoration of a picture of the past, and of the a...

Artist Mirosław Kuźma does some terrific illustrations of archaeological grave finds : The above depicts a find from Birka in the 9th/10th century CE, known as "the lady with a pig's jaw". Much speculation has been projected onto this beheaded woman's jaw being shorn off and a pig's jaw being placed on her chest. From a grimly simple object lesson in silencing her in life by beheading and taking her jaw to ensure she stays silent in Hel with the pig jaw as a shaming/disabling replacement, to the living keeping her jaw as useful totem object that would continue to aid prophecy after her death with her head cut off as a ritual of mythic parity to the disembodied head of wise Mímir and the pig jaw associated with the Vanir who brought knowledge of the Volvas' seidr prophecy magic to the Aesir (though there are no volvic artifacts in this picture like the expected wand, like the one next to the body's arm in the next illustration). Note the hors...

Ran across an illustration of the middle Bear Cult with "house of the dead" (probably Valhalla ) designed hogback-style V iking tombstone in Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick 's A History of Pagan Europe (p132), and found this neat line up of three bear-themed gravestones that are kept at St. Thomas' Church, Brompton, Northallerton, Yorkshire, near where they were originally found. It'd be sweet if we could reconstruct these as a burial marker and/or cremains container option. #    #    # 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 m...