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Showing posts with the label Völundarkviða

ancient viking superhero merch.

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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...

Vǫlundr gets a sequel.

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After all the turns of fate & adversity suffered by master smith  Volundr, one has to ask what happens after he fashions wings and flies away out of the  Völundarkviða 's narrative after wreaking his creative vengeance on his petty king captor? To answer this question, brilliant Columbian novelist Gabriel García Márquez wrote a short story in 1968 CE called  A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings that NorsePlays at least one episode of where a millennium aged Volundr lands much, much later. [the 10th-century CE winged figure from Uppåkra, Sweden, a copper alloy mount thought to represent Volundr in flight.] The telling is subtle in identifying Volundr, relaying with hints who he is, and at the same time misdirecting by using Latino/Catholic-based contexts that the people surrounding him have to frame him by, which is really brilliant & clever and keeps this identity secret while having it in plain sight if you know this story from the Norse Lore. It f...