NorsePlay.

The re-enactment group Andrimners Hemtagare decided to recreate Viking burials using living models. This series of photos with grave goods is beautifully stirring, and reminds us of the  Hávamál 's  stanza 76 which this entry gets its title from. Much has been posited about what's included in a grave find , whether the items actually do or do not have anything to do with the role of the interred, if the body is intentionally positioned, and  even how nearby graves may provide a greater postmortem narrative/ritual theater grouped context for Viking Era communities. Artistically, using living model s for this connects more profoundly. The viewer can sense that they are still alive, and identifies with that on a greater level than if say they were actual dead bodies, which has more the feel of an inanimate & incomplete person that one gets at a present day open casket funeral. The photos also make us question what it is we wish the objects in...

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...

Was first thinking a huge mound burial, but Ragnar's stylized boat casket 's a design worth considering/integrating. #    #    # 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 .