NorsePlay.

There's a lot going on in this vintage David Andersen made Norwegian Sterling Silver Viking Brooch 1960s Saga Series piece. Looking at the details, we have a Torslunda-patterned figure wearing what appears to be a winged cloak, crescent moons & spirals adorning the upper lining, a square chestplate, a crosspiece binding the figure's feet, and some seemingly aerodynamic fins coming off the sides of its head. As stated in the reverse's engraving below, this figure was recast & reinterpreted from an artifact by famous Norwegian Silversmith David Andersen and released in a limited run. Given the visual cues this could be many things: Freyja in her falcon cloak with the huge chest placard as  Brísingamen  and the side headknotworks as an up-do , Loki in Freyja's borrowed cloak (in  Þrymskviða ) if we look closer at the encircled lips that could be a round scar from their having once been sewn shut (in  Skáldskaparmál ), perhaps even  Baldr as the ches...

A  National Geographic article on the Brothers Grimm exploring the motives & origins of their fairy tale collection uses a photo of a field of barley at dawn covered in golden light catching dew to accent this lift quote from Rumpelstiltskin : If by to-morrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die. The article's photo caption poetically reads, " The alchemy of dawn turns barley into gold. " This evoked an insightful NorsePlay: Jacob Grimm in his  Teutonic Mythology linguistically associated Sif's hair with a golden moss plant, and later scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson agreed that her hair was the golden wheat. Such interpretations link the  Skáldskaparmál   story of the theft & replacement of Sif's Golden Hair as a fertility analog for the harvesting & annual re-growth of wheat, barley, and other crops, which makes Sif associated with grain. I n terms of cosmology, Thor's lightning strikes the field and...

The Norse Lore has assigned hall names for many of the Gods' residences, but an omission I've always been curious about is where Bragi dwells. While Bragi, in a very Baldr-like way, is always welcome everywhere thanks to his storytelling abilities and the potential to glorify his host in poetry, it's never mentioned where he actually goes home to. Functionally Bragi's partly described as a meet-and-greeter for the honoured warriors who come into Valhalla. One could suppose that maybe he heralds them upon entry, perhaps naming & enumerating their martial deeds for those already in the hall. But this MC duty still doesn't actually place Bragi as living in Valhalla. There's also the possibly that he perhaps instead moved in with  Iðunn . One attestation from  Hrafnagaldr Óðins places Iðunn as descending from elves, as one of "Ivaldi's elder children", and as a dís who dwells in dales. Those descriptors would make Iðunn at least part elf and poss...

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...

A small altar-worthy bronze of Gullinbursti, the "Golden Mane" boar forged by dwarven craftsbrothers Eitri & Brokkr that became Freyr's mount . [made by bespoke sculptor Alec Lawton/GraiMatter on Etsy.] #    #    # 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 .

We love that smith Joshua Branson has done a NorsePlay of Brokkr's knife , straight out of Skáldskaparmál! [hit him up at  hammershoppe@gmail.com, he makes swords, hammers, and axes, along with knives.] #    #    # 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 .

Bolverk, secretly Odin, runs serious game on Gunnlöd to score some quality time with her & win the ultimate in free drinks -- the Mead of Poetry. Note the huge Óðrerir vessel in the foreground from which we can infer where Thor gets his drinking skills from, since Odin is supposed to empty that in a single draught. [ Odin and Gunnlöd by Emil Doepler , 1900 CE] #    #    # 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 .