Járnviðr

Isn't it funny how you can live in a space for years and forget to explain why you chose the name on the door? A good friend asked me the other day about my feelings on Jarnviðr and it hit me that I have never actually written a dedicated post about the namesake of this blog. I’ve touched on the "Iron Wood" in bits and pieces, but I’ve never sat down to articulate why this specific, dark corner of the cosmology holds such importance for my praxis. The academic lens usually views Jarnviðr (The Iron Wood) through the narrow window of the Völuspá because as most things very cool and dark, there is not too much written about it other than a backdrop to the villains of the myths. It is portrayed as a dark, eastern nursery for the forces of destruction, a place where the monsters are bred to facilitate the end of the world. "Austr sat in aldna í Járnviði ok fæddi þar Fenris kindir..." (In the east sat the old one, in Ironwood, and bred there Fenrir’s offspring...)   V...