Járnviðr

The Edda's, a Heathens primary source of mythic information. Most of what we know today of the Gods, their worlds and their adventures is found in the Edda's, and lets be real we wouldn't have the works of J.R.R. Tolkien if not for them and that alone should raise the importance of this work 10 fold. I'll start by saying what this isn't. This isn't a biography on the very interesting life of famed lawmaker Snorri Sturluson (read 'Songs of the Vikings' by Nancy Marie Brown for that, it's excellent). This isn't an examination of translations we read today, the Christian influence or detailing and examining the contents of the poems themselves. It's merely an overview of  where  and  when they came from, mainly for a couple of reasons; I think there is already a healthy discussion out there about the politics of the myths and detailing all that nuance is one hell of a job, and I'm not getting paid to do this, and there seems to be a confusio...

This post is part of a bigger piece on my study of Gullveig. I have attempted to break it into smaller posts so they stand on their own; sometimes things might seem just a little out of context, but I'll do my best to keep things relevant withing each post. So here I am layout the foundation of the origins of Giants - specifically Rime Giants. So let's start with some definitions. Terms and Words - "rime" derives from old norse " hrím " which means "hoar, frost" - "thurs" derives from old norse " þurs " and means "giant" - "risi" derives from old norse " rísi " and means "giant" - "jotun" derives from old norse " jötunn " or " jǫtunn " and means "giant" - "rime-giant"  derives from old norse " hrím-þursar " or "frost giant" So.... basically everything means "giant." Yes, graphic design is my passion. Typically ...

There is a constant argument in online spaces, around the validity of worshipping certain deities (yes, I'm calling the so-called evil powers of chaos deities, its my blog), and Hel is often among the most controversial. Reddit - the internet's cesspool - is rife with posts about how "she's evil, she eats souls, why would you want that in your life" or "She's a Christian/Snorri invention," you get it. There are some... opinions out there. But as they say: opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one, and some stink more than others. So I poked around the sources to see what they say about Hel and I noticed an interesting theme which isn't discussed a whole lot: Hel's place as a final judge in the afterlife.  It makes sense to me that someone who would be responsible for the fate of the soul (or parts of the soul, anyway) would have likely been venerated in some capacity. The real question really is "Why wouldn't she have?...