NorsePlay.

A sequel to our favourite boardgame  Yggdrasil has been released as Yggdrasil Chronicles , complete with a 3-D world tree! Boasting a campaign made made of separate sagas, the Gods are now actual moving pieces, and the middle platform of the tree actually revolves! We are soooo buying this! #    #    # 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 .

While not the first nor the second pinball-related NorsePlay brought to our attention, this sweet 1974 Bally produced Ro Go  machine designed by Greg Kmiec with artwork by Dave Christensen is a wonderful bit of viking kitsch. [Norseplay hails their friend Bill Dennis for sending this in for us!] #    #    # 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 .

As of a few days ago, I've successfully plotted 300 mappoints for my Map Of Midgard Project! This is the second update since the initial blog post and the first update . Serious progress. Now you're probably wondering at the points on the above screencap in North/Central/South America. While some mappoints are namesake sites for land features named after figures in the Norse Lore, and Viking exploration/settlement sites, there are other speculative and thought provoking sites we're including in the spirit of open debate/legend/scientific theory, and you have discovering them & their locations to look forward to when the map goes live. There remain 350+ locations left to attempt to map (which is a stunning 120 more than the last post) which only grows in number as more source/secondary/tertiary materials are mined for Lore-relevant sites. We suspect 500-600 mappoints by time of publication, so this may be a very exciting halfway mark, if our estimate is correct. ...

If this warrior woman showed up in our Tinder deck,  NorsePlay would totally swipe her right, starred Super Like style.  We'd form shieldwalls & sharpen our seax skills with you any night. HMU. #    #    # 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 .

It's Conan's Heathen Worldview that frames his internal vision of Bêlit. As the captain of the Argus warns him of her merciless piratical scourge, the Northman instead envisions a sea queen raider, valkyrie-esque, ideally pale , half-dressed in a scalemail made from her wealth of coins, the woman that all warriors of his stripe long to be claimed by in their final moments. The artist delivers Conan's desire's-eye view  of  Bêlit  insouciantly enthroned, with burning  eyes, and thirsting embloodied lips. [page from Conan Volume 13: Queen of the Black Coast , 2013] #    #    # 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 spearhea...

Okay, total spoiler which we dislike doing, but there's no way around it: While not the best episode of The Librarians , "And the Reunion of Evil" (season 3, 2016) includes a surprising jotun NorsePlay element where two librarians stumble from the heart of a snowstorm into a Swedish ski lodge hotel while possessing an artifact that a trucing private reunion of giant clans have gathered to consume. The jotun are presented as troublemaking descendants  of Loki, who instead revel in causing the ills of the world (disasters, plagues, insurance fleecing, etc), which is something of a downgrade as major adversaries of the Gods, but then it would explain how they've stayed under the radar for so long. The giants wear Scandinavian patterned sweaters, and some fur accent garments, while overdrinking and playing hnefatafl and k ubb in displays of oneupmanship. [watch in mirrored format here .] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something spe...

Perspective check yourself on that girl: For Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, Helga the Fair's his childhood intended, and his inability to let her go eventually costs him his life in a duel with her husband, which Gunnlaug wins but then dies from his wounds. Way before this tragedy, his father advises him: " And don't set so much store by yearning for just one woman. Behave as though you haven't noticed, and you'll never be short of women. " Yet if he'd listened to his just-play-it-cool Dad, then we might not still be reading his saga 800 years later, and one can make a case for both acceptance of his own unavoidably fatal desire-bound Wyrd and that rival poet/husband Hrafn Önundarson certainly had his own death coming by opportunistically mis-bargaining his way into his marriage. Or, to NorsePlay this, would Gunnlaug's poetically skilled tongue otherwise have gone on to weave its way into the hearts of even more becoming & worthy ladies, princ...

Odin only drinks wine but does not eat, instead giving his meals to his wolf companions Freki & Geri, which mean "the ravenous" and "the greedy one". NorsePlay's thoughts on this are that in feeding his fylgja wolves, Odin is in essence feeding himself through them by proxy. Why? The wolves are a displaced avenue of Odin's hunger & desire, so he nourishes them to nourish himself, but because this essential need of physical sustenance is outside of himself, it then allows him the mental focus on his even more insatiable quest for knowledge and the ability to metaphysically gain that knowledge through ecstatic/shamanic means without that aspect of carnal distraction. [Geri & Freki with Valknut Hooded Blanket from VikingsBrand.] #    #    # 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 f...

We hope your Yule tonight looks as badarse as this vintage illustration! Thanks for reading us this year! Remember, keep your gifts for a gift for those of worth, spend time with your innangard, honor the Gods with some mead & ham, and celebrate the breaking of the long night whose passing lets you know that we've all staved off Fimbulwinter with our honorable deeds to win another year! Hail to you all! [ Altnordisches Julfest (1880 CE) illustration by von Ferdinand Lindner.] #    #    # 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  inves...

We took a moment to send Eric "Word-Weaver" Sjerven of The Raven's Call YouTube Channel an appreciative postcard for his exemplary videocasting on Heathenry, which he in turn took a moment of his episode to show and and thank us for ! We picked up this postcard during our travels in Iceland and have been saving it for someone who'd truly appreciate it, and we felt Eric was that guy of worth. And for those of you unfamiliar with The Raven's Call , it's the clear inheritor to the Heathen podcasting mantle established by Raven Radio, Ravencast, and Heathen Talk, so give it a go and let us know what you think. #    #    # 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 Midgar...

While viewing the perfect film Moonrise Kingdom for probably the 30th or so time, we just noticed a few more things that relate to the Lore, and while we don't think director Wes Anderson consciously included Norse elements from his Norwegian-Swedish paternal background, we're taking a moment to point our own Heathen Worldview observations out. Suzy Bishop & Sam Shakusky finally meet in a picturesque field after much postal correspondence, emotional negotiation, and extra-personal angst from their separate situations ... much the same after Freyr & Gerðr finally meet in "The Grove of Tranquil Paths", or the field of Barri in the Poetic Edda's Skírnismál , where they get married. At the performance of Noye's Fludde (possibly a less sanguine diluvial reworking of the killing of Ymir whose flood of blood starts a new chapter of cosmic existence), Sam is not content to stay in his seat with the rest of the scouts, but transgressively gets up and strike...

"I am not sick," said Thorkel, "but this is worse than sickness."  This simple statement from Gisli Sursson's Saga in chapter 9 so hits the emotional torture of heartbreak in a timeless way, that same inconsolable voice from a thousand years past will always be relevant to those who feel the loss of love. [Ragnar Lothbrok helplessly watches Lagertha depart.] #    #    # 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 .

Some saga names just stand out, like Thora of the Embroidered Hand. While there's a twice-fold kidnapping of this girl in Egil's Saga and her marriage to her unstoppably amorous kidnapper-then-husband, Thora's name is never actually explained. Our NorsePlay on this could go one of three or two-fold, or three-fold ways which is in line with either a deed-name, or a descriptive name. [rune protection hand made by Frogs and Princes on Rebels Market.] If Thora performed embroidery at a remarkable level, making pieces of such exception that she earned a reputation for her handiwork, then it could go that way. Or second, maybe she'd received an outstanding jelling or exotic lace patterned  Mehndi-style (the latter technique of which is dated back to the Vedas, so maybe it or its style migrated over) hand tattoo that augmented her already notable beauty as a factor which set her aside from all the other girls, making her even more kidnapping worthy. [Cosme...

While there are cosmological reasons that Skaði & Njörðr don't work out, NorsePlay asks what if instead of calling it off because there wasn't an agreeable place to live together that they had given say just a Monday a week to see each other? Not her mountain hall, nor his seaside home, but somewhere between where no wolves nor seabirds would upset them, just a space for them alone? She could bring venison, and he shark, they could cook over the hearthfire, and instead of worrying over the obligations of their divine purviews, they could just fully enjoy each other, admiring & appreciating the differences, realizing that between them they ruled even more together than apart, and finding that common ground on a ... well, common ground. And they could've added BBQs & kubb, or hnefatafl  on Sundays with Freyr & Freyja, just to try it out. It's all a rather big maybe, but given the social weights & measures of Viking-period Icelandic society &...

In some sagas there are prized & especially wrought tunics that impart an armor-like magical invulnerability to the wearer. While the photo illustration selected here's styled more like an overstated medieval court wizard's robe, one might design a saga-period tunic using the runes integrated into the embroidery or hidden in the lining.  Within the Hávamál 's 18 runic spells enumerated in the Ljóðatal there are specific runes designed to protect one in battle, so perhaps this NorsePlay points out the operative metaphysics behind the tunics' invulnerability. Made by occult print brand Killstar, if one were to go beyond this to design a contemporary version of an enchanted tunic such as the sagas mention, there might be no need to secret away the runic elements in our modern society . [And a unisex/men's version.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy o...

This circuit of references is so unknowingly witty we had to post it. So the NorsePlay here runs thusly: The above comment on   Idris Elba's music video (yeah, we didn't know he was also a singer/ rapper either) references Elba being  Sexiest Man Alive for 2018 and casts that implication humorously into  Marvel Heimdall 's past. Thing is the comment just happens to inadvertently reference the Lay of Rig (ahem) or  Rígsþula , the Eddic poem which tells how early on in the world Heimdallr smoothly slips his way betwixt three couples and fathers the three classes of human beings. So incidentally that post is also totally correct in terms of the Norse Lore, and possibly adds to our  Bifrost  guardian a saucy modern kenning. And this all-inclusive lineage also makes Heimdallr Yo Daddy, so respect him, and remember there's a bit of his divine smoothness & perceptivity in all of us. #    #    # Guillermo M...

We loved Midsommar as a horror film, and that's its function.  While NorsePlay's all about media that uses the Norse Lore, as an incidental conveyance for Lore  Midsommer requires some explaining. [Spoilers happening now.] With the subgenre of folk horror, traditions & folklore become subverted & alienized to provoke uncertainty & fear. That's a horror film's job, and Midsommer co-opts four specific things from the Lore to help its story do this: 1. The Runes. Stitched in clothing, painted in folk art inside wall murals, handwritten in a book, and on two rather fake looking runestones, Midsommer uses the Runes as indecipherable roadsigns to sub/consciously make the viewer anxious about where the film's driving them. Aesthetically, the Runes by themselves evoke a mysterious & magical feel . In the Lore, the Hávamál explains that through Odin's self-sacrifice he gains knowledge of the Runes  as a writing system, as associative symb...

With the prevalence of fandom for Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of the God of Mischief (just search "Loki's Army" for the depth of it), Disney will be producing a dedicated series for their Disney+ channel. Most Disney TV shows are too over-the-top and the acting style is nearly always "on" in a bad way ( Descendents for a somewhat villain-centric example). Also the two Asgardian-related episodes of Agents of Shield really could've been better. Word is that the show will follow Loki through the Endgame timeline, but we feel it would be more of a hit to do the Kid Loki storyline from Journey Into Mystery . Maybe for second season, if this slated for 2021 show gets proper treatment. [Loki from the fun 1966-7 The Mighty Thor cartoon series.] #    #    # 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 b...

While the Taika Waititi Ragnarok installment was our least favourite for its divergence in overt comic tonality from the franchise 's tenor, it appears Marvel has retained Waititi for the next one and just announced that someone new will be cast as Thor in this fourth film: [Natalie Portman as Jane Foster as Thor.] The concept of Lady Thor successfully hit the comics in 2014, and with MCU's Thor gone a'viking with the Guardians of the Galaxy crew, it seems Natalie Portman's going to heft the hammer . We just hope Kat Dennings will come along as her divine intern and that the director will funnel the humour just to Darcy Lewis where it belongs. #    #    # 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 ...

My bestie sent me this picture of ScandiKitchen 's NorsePlay'd cup. But does a  Star Wars pun from this renowned London eatery actually have anything real to do with Norse Lore? Yes, actually. Aside from the day launching resilience one gets from their cuppas of morning & afternoon  black tips   tea,  that Norse Force is Megin. Megin is the force of intent gathered in the horn ritual , the spiritual energy you're gifting the Gods when you blót. If performed in a pleasing fashion, and if the Gods do accept your gift of Megin, then this exchange ensures that the Norse Gods Be With You in the force of those intentions. [photo by Justin Beltran .] #    #    # 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, passionat...

The short art video Æ'siala ià Skjugge by Danish Heathen  runecrafter  Ræveðis . We love how creepy cryptic this is, with the videography feel of a 1990s industrial music video on VHS, married to Trollhunter /The Blair Witch Project/Marble Hornets horror film aesthetics. #    #    # 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 .