NorsePlay.

For a long time, I've admired this series of Norse Goddess memes (though not all of them are goddess figures, nor on the Aesir side of the Innagard fence), and here's the first: Freyja . The choice of high-resolution modern photography and makes these feel contemporary and thus more connective to the here & now. The golden eyeshadow & glitter applique for the golden tears over her missing husband is a rather clever touch. [Found on a VK Wall. If anyone knows who originally designed these, do let me know. (And if it's from a known meme generator, do let me know which as I'd love to make some in the same style.)] #    #    # 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 pr...

[ Goddess Skadi illustration by BleedingHeartworks.] Given all the classical & romantic re-interpretations of figures in the beautiful Art Nouveau style, the famous Jötunndaughter Skaði makes a great subject. The naked feet seem to be a clever and intentional artistic decision to reference Skadi having to select her husband by the appearance of his bare feet alone. #    #    # 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 then 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 employment/opportunities in investigative mythology, field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.

Yggdrasil gameboard, from Ludonautes! The lighting throughout Pierô's illustrations alone makes this, and the cards are equally winning. The game is phenomenal for devotees of the Norse Lore, as you cooperatively each play one of the Aesir trying to stop the group of Ragnarok's monsters from advancing into Asgard and taking over The Nine Worlds. It's really, really challenging, and with an enemy moving forward every turn, you'll feel like you're up against the unfolding of the Völva's prophecy of doom! #FavouriteBoardgame #    #    # 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...

After watching Civil War a most-important question was raised: Where's Thor during all this "oh-no-it's-a-phone-book-sized-ream-of-paper-from-the-UN" business? He's off actually doing something important, like saving worlds from frost giants. [textless cover art from Ages of Thunder by Marko Djurdjevic.] #    #    # 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 .

Georges Dumézil's  Gods of the Ancient Northmen  surpasses the  academic into the realm of poetic & enlightening, like a good professor when he's got love behind his lecture. And of these eight chapters, some actually are taken from Dumézil's lectures. Published in 1959, this  post-doctoral thesis level work of  comparative mythology  shows French professor  Dumézil's thoughtful expansion of the study of Norse lore from the mostly associative philology it was into a functionalist sociology, which invites easier comparisons with the Hindu gods and thus  backtracks their migration to the Indo-European. [Spanish edition cover featuring  Icelandic  Thor.] Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis posits that the functions of the gods reflect a society's factional roles, with Odin, Thor, & Frey being the major triumvirate and thus classifying that society's members into rulers, warriors, or farmers, respectively. Also if modern ...

The hard truth is that at the end of the post-conversion night, what we mostly have left of the Norse Gods are the  Edda s. And the fact is  you want more NorsePlay . We know from the  Edda s' passing references there were tons more stories. And from within an oral tradition, all these tales were surely told & retold in many differing versions with emphasis placed or displaced depending on the audiences' points of interest or the skald's creative leanings. So when Norse Lore believers/followers/fans get bent that so-and-so told it "wrong" or added/subtracted things, there's an ancient & liberal precedent being celebrated with these differences. In this vein of expansive storytelling license, there's obviously  Marvel's 1962 to now superhero take , but during that period Norse lore has been remixed by other daring authors, which we will survey here: Dennis Schmidt's  Twilight of the Gods  (1985-1987) trilogy as prequel/re-interpretive,...

Silkeborg Museum's impressive room-sized  Yggdrasil model. [photo by Esben Horn.] #    #    # 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.

For the record, this is the aggregate post I wrote to the Asatru Lore, Asatru & Heathen, and Norse Mythology communities on GooglePlus in January of 2016: Have posted this Map of Midgard idea to my three Norse-related communities, and while it's garnered some plus one support, haven't really gotten needed response/s, and thought to re-post this as public in case the previously plus-tagged can't reply within those groups, or if anyone else circled but outside of those groups can offer some assistance. If so, do let me know. W ondering if anyone's ever constructed a Norse Midgard map with lore-relevant sites on it, like Asbyrgi canyon stamped by Sleipnir's horseshoe and other such locations? It would make an inspiring source for trip itineraries. If not, I want to commission this as a hand drawn map from an old style cartographer I met, which I'd have a different digital version shared online for everyone's use, but aside from the aforemen...

When Professor Mark Mirabello published  The Odin Brotherhood  (1992) surely many dismissed the idea of a surviving secret society of religious Norse practitioners as an attractive fantasy, or thought the dialog in the book only an Edda-like delivery system for a revival. Understandably any sort of unearthed esoteric knowledge revealed after hundreds of years using unconfirmable sources opens itself up to scrutiny & examination, especially by reconstructionists who've had to weed out and re-plant structures in their religion, and we leave it up for those better versed in the archaeology & attestations in Asatru Lore to do so. What can't be argued is that Mirabello serves up some interesting ideas & perspectives onto the Asatruar's table, which we will present & ourselves extrapolate on here from the 5th edition (we don't have the current 6th edition [but if the publisher wished to send us one, we'd be happy to examine & revise this survey in ...

Day -1 : Deplaned! ... and it begins with me sprinting full out from one end of Phoenix's mile-long Sky Harbor Airport to the very last concourse, which of course looks very action film terrorist red flag-like. The plane (if you can call the wee Red Bull can with wings an actual plane) from Tucson was 45 minutes late getting in due to confidence inspiring "maintenance issues", which left me with less than 10 minutes to make my connection to Denver. "The door is closed." I can see the plane through the window, still connected to the jetway. "But the plane is  right there ." "The door is closed. You'll have to go talk to customer service," she states in flat disciplinarian tones with barely veiled punitive relish. By contrast the sweet great aunt US Airways desk agent's deeply apologetic about me losing a whole day in Iceland, and I simply can't get pissed at a nice old lady who's doing her best to get me out as early as ...