NorsePlay.

  There is an intimate quality in this depiction of Týr & Fenrir with Týr encapsulated in the wolf's embrace. Some retellings of this story instead cast Týr as Fenrir's caretaker & friend, with the god playing and (over-)feeding him, which may make this rendition of their fateful but necessary moment together here more of that variant narrative. Yet this art might also be visually read as Týr uncomfortably trapped by the wolf into the obligation of his oath. Storytelling accents aside, this moment also foreshadows Týr's end in the jaws of helhound Garmr, who is probably one of Fenrir's get , and whom  Týr  mutually slays come  Ragnarök, and depending how their bodies lay upon Vígríðr field, may mirror this in a more final & deadly embrace. [limited edition linocut handprinted by artist Kevin Cain who vends on Etsy as LiterateGriffin. Find this item here .]  #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something spe...

  There's a certain misguided amount of people who read The Binding of Fenrir story and feel sorry for the wolf. What they don't realize in their anthropomorphizing the animal is that he's by literal & figurative scale a huge problem, a monster of unchangeable nature, and not even close to human or divine at all. To NorsePlay, Fenrir is hunger unbound, a force so large it's cosmically unfair to begin with. If the Gods had come at him on his own brutally honest terms, there's no one strong enough to outstrip this creature, and he'd have won. Just like Thor wrestling Old Age, no one can beat Hunger itself. And so the wolf must be tricked before he eats them, and he would've eventually eaten all the material of the Nine Worlds. Fenrir is a devourer . In focusing Fenrir's appetite on Odin alone, this diverts him and saves us. And so Odin wins the rest of this cycle to figure out how to save everything including himself. Unless another strategy is inv...

Extreme NorsePlay: Overthinking It 's essay's extrapolation's that the genre transcending anime Cowboy Bebop has a subtext implying that cyber-eye'd Spike is Odin, and one-handed Jet is Tyr.  We'd blow that off as a ridiculous overlay ... except the author namebombs Georges Dumézil's writings in his first paragraph , and we love that  Dumézil , so we were in for the mental ride just to see where author Stokes decided to bounty hunt this weaving of ideas. Read it here . Carrying this association forward, we would also additionally posit: That greedy grifting free spirit Faye's gold lustful Gullveig. If it were just Jet & Spike, the post-cop (Tyr's justice), post-criminal (Odin's Bölverk) pair would understand each other and quest harmoniously, but throw Faye into the Bebop and suddenly the values & reasons get messy. And our Solar System is made of Nine Worlds. And Jet could be pruning a small bonsai Yggdrasil in an Odinic micromode...

Eastern-European woodcarving style meets Lewis Chessmen-esque in this set of Norse Gods made by Triumpho . At 13 cm each, one could imagine that these are the golden gamepieces found in the grass after Ragnarök. [Found 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 .