New Feature: Godshapes
Later this month, Mimisbrunnr.info will publish the first entry in an exciting new feature: Godshapes, a tool for artists, writers, and other creative types interested in Norse mythology and, more broadly, Germanic mythology as a whole.
Happy Birthday, Jacob Grimm
On this day in 1785, Jacob Grimm was born in Hanau, Germany. While today Jacob and his brother Wilhelm are best known for the highly successful—and widely varying—editions of their folktale retellings, their work played a crucial role in the development of a variety of academic fields, ranging from folkloristics to philology and well beyond.
Six Questions X: Lindy-Fay Hella
The tenth subject of Mimisbrunnr.info's Six Question series is Norwegian singer and musician Lindy-Fay Hella. Best known for her work as female vocalist for the popular musical project Wardruna, Hella has appeared throughout the group's discography and has performed, for example, on the Norwegian government-owned NRK1 television network and in front to the Gokstad ship at the Oslo Viking Ship Museum (Norwegian Vikingskipshuset på Bygdøy). Additionally, her voice can be heard throughout the extremely popular television show Vikings (2013-ongoing), which prominently employs tracks from the Wardruna discography.
Six Questions IX: Runahild
In Norse cosmology, the Élivágar (Old Norse 'stormy waves, icy waves') are primordial, venomous rivers. Remote in time and place, these rivers play a crucial role in Norse cosmogony: they produced the proto-being Ymir, who in turn bore the ancestors of many beings that populate the narratives that together form Norse mythology. In time, Ymir's body was dissected by a trio of gods to create the world as we know it, a sort of North Germanic myth of succession.
Borrowed into modern German, Élivágar readily becomes Eliwagar, a name under which Runahild, a musician from Lorraine, France (a city bordering Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg), has released nine albums of what she calls "Hyperborean Heathen Folk". Today Runahild lives in Norway.
POPULAR RESONANCES: JULY AND AUGUST 2016
This marks the third installment of JH Roberts's regular column Popular Resonances. Popular Resonances examines references to ancient Germanic culture and Germanic mythology in modern popular culture as it happens. For more information on the feature, please see Roberts's introductory post here. This installment includes Thor: Ragnarok, Jotun: Valhalla Edition, Great Whale Road game, The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo, and much more.
Six Questions VIII: Audun Refsahl
Our eighth Six Questions subject is Audun Refsahl, a Norwegian video game developer and Viking Age re-enactor. Refsahl serves as co-writer and history consultant for Grimnir, a small independent studio based in Drammen, Norway and published via Snow Cannon Games.
Six Questions VII: Odinson
In the seventh interview of Mimisbrunnr.info's Six Questions series, we interview Odinson, an American strength athlete and professional wrestler inspired by Germanic and Norse mythology. Odinson's character is a mixture of traditional, Marvel, and Mad Max: Fury Road Norse elements.
Six Questions VI: Kim Larsen
The subject of our sixth interview in Mimisbrunnr.info's Six Questions series is Danish artist Kim Larsen. Larsen is best known for his musical work, particularly as founder and sole constant member of musical project Of The Wand And The Moon (OTWATM).
Since OTWATM's first album in 1999, Nighttime Nightrhymes, a steady stream of singles, EPs, and albums has cemented the project as one of the most well known groups in a musical genre widely known as neofolk. Like some of his collaborators, Larsen has frequently employed symbolism and motifs from Germanic mythology in both his musical and visual output, perhaps most prominently in the 2005 album Sonnenheim.
Six Questions V: Vigdís Sveinsdóttir
In the fifth interview of Mimisbrunnr.info's Six Questions series, we interview Vigdís Sveinsdóttir, an Icelandic-Norwegian psychology PhD candidate and Viking Age reenactor living and studying in Bergen, Norway. Vigdís operates the site valkyrja.com, where she regularly posts her thoughts, photography, and research on Viking Age-related topics.
Articles and Artifacts: June 2016
Articles and Artifacts (AA) is a new column here at Mimisbrunnr.info dedicated to covering academic developments in ancient Germanic studies—recent publications, archaeological finds, new translations, and the like. AA is authored by Joseph S. Hopkins.
In AA's first installment:
* Design Selected for Oslo Viking Ship Museum Expansion
* Danish Police and Archaeologists Examine Possible Viking Age Arson
* A Newly Found Grave Offers Clues to Heathen Female Social Status
* Team Rainbow Power Finds Huge Viking Age Gold Hoard in Denmark
* Sverris Saga Detail Confirmed by Archaeologists
* Amateur Archaeologist to Receive Anglo-Saxon Coin Find Share
* Winter 2015-2016 Issue of RMN Newsletter Now Available