We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands...
Valhalla, I am coming
And now we come to a mythology that is one of the best known, even outside its European continent - arguably one of the most hardcore mythologies, with imagery worthy of a metal album cover
I mean, what else can you say of a mythology that features a ship made entirely of fingernails and toenails (of the dead)? Or its creation myth, in which the world was created from the corpse of a giant. No fluffy let there be light here
Or that the gods are essentially locked into a perpetual cold war (heh) against the giants - complicated by the trickster Loki in their presence, who alternates between getting them into compromising or difficult situations before getting them out of those situations
And like the historical cold war, the gods are planning for mutually assured destruction - famously gathering slain warriors in Valhalla - when the war turns hot at the end of the world. Or rather, when it turns ice cold at Ragnarok - or Gotterdamerung, the twilight of the gods
Of course, Norse is something of a misnomer, as it was a Germanic mythology that extended throughout much of northern Europe - although it is most identified with Scandinavia and Iceland (and Vikings!), also the source of its surviving texts, so hence the epithet Norse
"The source texts mention numerous gods, such as the hammer-wielding, humanity-protecting thunder-god Thor, who relentlessly fights his foes; the one-eyed, raven-flanked god Odin, who craftily pursues knowledge throughout the worlds and bestowed among humanity the runic alphabet"
"The beautiful, seer-working, feathered cloak-clad goddess Freyja who rides to battle to choose among the slain; the vengeful, skiing goddess Skadi, who prefers the wolf howls of the winter mountains to the seashore"
"The powerful god Njord, who may calm both sea and fire and grant wealth and land; the god Freyr, whose weather and farming associations bring peace and pleasure to humanity; the goddess Idunn who keeps apples that grant eternal youthfulness"
"The mysterious god Heimdall, who is born of nine mothers, can hear grass grow, has gold teeth, and possesses a resounding horn" and of course "Loki, who brings tragedy to the gods by engineering the death of the goddess Frigg's beautiful son Baldur"
Norse mythology is distinctive in that its gods are not only fallible, but also all mortal. They can and do die. And die aplently on its version of the apocalypse. No fore-ordained triumph of the gods here - on this day, all gods die, taking their enemies down with them
Yes I know not all of them - just the biggest players, as there are some key survivors to renew the world, but on this day all gods die just has a good ring to it
That doesn't stop the Norse gods from being hardcore - from plucking one's eye out as Odin did for wisdom, or losing one's hand as security deposit as Tyr did, putting his hand in the mouth of the Fenris Wolf
Which brings me to their fearsome adversaries at the end of the world - not just frost and fire giants, led by Loki, but also the dead led by the goddess Hel, as well as the Fenris Wolf (and other monstrous wolves) and the World-Serpent or Midgard Serpent
Hardcore
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Where to start with this genre-crossing author, spanning fantasy, horror and SF?
There's where where it all started – with his 1986 World Fantasy Award winning novel The Song of Kali, a psychological horror about a journalist encountering a latter day cult of Kali
Or his other horror themed works - or perhaps his dark fantasy or horror Summer of Night, reminiscent of Stephen King with its group of adolescent boys facing a supernatural terror with a long history behind it, or his take on psychic vampires in Carrion Comfort
Revising my Top 10 Girls of Comics, Video Games & Anime - the silver medal spot
Top 10 Girls of Comics (2) Vampirella
Top 10 Girls of Video Games (2) Tifa Lockhart - Final Fantasy
Top 10 Girls of Anime (2) Nami - One Piece
My Top 10 Girls of Comics sees Vampirella in second place - the third of my holy trinity or big three for art and cosplay in comics (Vampirella, Red Sonja & Lady Death). Of course, all three miss out on the top spot for which there can only be one choice...
For my Top 10 Girls of Video Games, Final Fantasy's Tifa Lockhart takes the second top spot, as she continues to be the subject of prolific art and cosplay. But again, she misses out on the top spot, as there could only be one choice
(4) KATHERINE BRIGGS -
A DICTIONARY OF FAIRIES (1972)
A classic book, alternatively titled An Encyclopedia of Fairies, which now seems sadly out of print, by THE classic British folklorist
And as it says on the tin, the definitive guide to that classic subject of British folklore - fairies. Of course, the term fairies now conjures up images of cute little gossamer-winged pixies like Tinkerbell
In British folklore, fairies were much different, most aptly styled as the Fair Folk, itself a euphemism for things that would flay you and walk around in your skin
One of my favorite sub-genres of science fiction - time slip science fiction
What might be dubbed Connecticut Yankee or Lest Darkness Fall time travel on an individual scale - or Axis of Time, Island in the Sea of Time, Assiti Shards or just pure alien space bats time travel on a larger scale
Time slip science fiction involves time travel to the past, almost always unintentionally and often by unknown means. And because the time travellers typically transform the historical past, it tends to involve alternate history
Revising my Top 10 Girls of Comics, Video Games & Anime - the bronze medal spot
Top 10 Girls of Comics (3) Red Sonja
Top 10 Girls of Video Games (3) Atago - Azur Lane
Top 10 Girls of Anime (3) Nezuko Kamado - Demon Slayer
My Top 10 Girls of Comics sees the second of my big three in art and cosplay, Red Sonja, rise to third place or my bronze medal spot
For my Top 10 Girls of Video Games, Azur Lane's Atago gets the bronze medal or third place. Although Azur Lane was released in 2017, her art and cosplay just keeps coming. Of course, her Race Queen design helps
Essentially a prehistoric Celtic Conan (although so too is Conan). "He did not think it too many" is his catchphrase for body count. "Kiss my axe" is another