#edda publishing

[cookieeks-art]

Just two lovebirds vibing at a bar (probably during a less active period for said bar)

(ID in alt and under cut)

[ID:

A traditionell pencil sketch coloured digitally, of Arthur from Red shoes and the seven dwarfs and my oc Edda (A pale chubby woman, with deep eyebags, brown hair and grey eyes) sitting on two barstools in-front of a bar. They have their backs to the viewer, but are slightly turned to each other. Arthur’s carrying his sword on his back, and has his hand placed on Eddas back, smiling softly at her while faintly blushing. Edda has her hair up in a bun, is dressed in a off white poofy shirt, dark red bodice and skirt, and seems to be in the middle of talking, gesturing with her hand in the air. Half of her face is covered by her bags, but both her eyes and eyebrows are still visible through the hair. Behind the bar is a shelf with bottles and empty glasses and to the left side is a large beer barrel. They are lit in a warm orange light. The drawing has a watercolour like colouring, most pronounced in the background where there’s only faint remains of the original traditional sketch left, with a few highlights drawn in a textured pencil brush. The sketch is dated 19/11 2023, the date being faintly visible over the shelf in the background. On the bottom left is a signature reading “cookieek”.

End of ID]

[poeticnorth]

For those that are interested in my attempts to write the Poetic Edda into the so-called haiku meter, I've posted a free to read excerpt of Loki's Haiku Duel to my Ko-Fi page

If there's enough interest, I may consider (read: definitely will) post the full poem to my Ko-Fi page.

[geekynerfherder]

'Brunhild' by Justin Sweet.

Illustration from the book 'The Eddas', published by Easton Press.

[octahedral-chaos]

OCTAfan's Odd/ Obscure Characters Tournament: Round 1 Part 6

Edda and Aven (Worldless) VS the Planets (A Dance of Fire and Ice)

Quick Facts

Edda and Aven

The protagonists of Worldless, a 2D Metroidvania/ Platformer with turn based combat!

Worldless was released on the 21st of November, 2023 (Or 20th of November if you're a Steam player), and was made by Noname Studios and published by both Coatsink and Thunderful Games.

The Planets

The Protagonist (Protagonists?) Of A Dance of Fire and Ice, a one button rhythm game well known for being pretty difficult!

A Dance of Fire and Ice (Or "ADOFAI" for short) was released on the 24th of January, 2019. It was made and published by 7th Beat Games.

[ghostwithwings]

When reviewers of "The witch's heart" are like "Oh but it is not even to be considered a retelling,it is totally alike and accurate to the real story"

🤦‍♀️ Angrboda is only mentioned in a couple of lines in the Eddas and in some poem...how could even the author to write about her without using her fantasy?? Of course she HAD to!

What shocks me is that these are reviewers from famous publishing houses in my country...and they truly think all those conversations and interactions truly happened 🤡

I appreciate the novel and the idea of the author,but of course it IS a retelling and fantasy is used,as it should be with novels!

[thorraborinn]

have you ever posted your thoughts on Crawford's translation of the Poetic Edda? if you have any of course

Crawford's translation succeeds at what it sets out to do, which is to be entertainment for a widespread, popular audience. The result is that it's less suitable for coming to know what the Old Icelandic says, because source texts really are genuinely difficult, confusing, probably corrupt, and otherwise disorienting. Crawford uses quite a lot of artistic license to make it smoother, more coherent, and more entertaining. We can also compare Hollander's translation of the Edda, which translates it into poetic meter, and subordinates accuracy of translation to the goal of turning it into English-language poetry. It's a work of art, but I wouldn't use it for a deep dive into the meaning of the poems.

The example stanza I like to use is the second half of Völuspá 23/28 (the numbering is different by source). The context is that this immediately follows the mention of Gullveig/Heiðr, of her being speared and burnt in Hávi's hall and her coming back to life each time. Right after this stanza starts the description of the war between the Æsir and Vanir. OIce text from the Íslenzk fornrit edition:

hvárt skyldu æsir afráð gjalda eða skyldu goðin ǫll gildi eiga.

This means something like the following. I'm doing a super close, literal translation, guided by the Íslenzk fornrit edition of the Poetic Edda, and I'm linking to dictionary entries for key words:

'whether should (the) æsir pay afráð [either 'tribute' or 'compensation for damages'] or should the gods all have [tribute; (rarely) compensation]'

I think it's worth emphasizing that this actually is confusing. It's not clear whether the word goð 'gods' means both the Æsir and the Vanir, it's not clear who is providing the gildi that that "all the gods" are having. It's often interpreted to be something about whether human worshipers should make offerings to both Æsir and Vanir, but human worshipers are not mentioned here anywhere. I don't mind telling you that my personal interpretation is that the Æsir are debating which of two forms of reciprocation-based relationship is better: violence or kinship. But I wouldn't put that into a translation.

Here's Crawford's translation:

about whether they should endure Gullveig’s depradations or whether they should seek revenge.

As far as telling a story goes, this is much more sensible and coherent than what the Old Norse text actually says, but again, it's not what it says. Most of Crawford's translation doesn't go this far in defying the source text, but this stanza in particular is better described as a retelling than a translation.

Here's Larrington's 2014 translation (the one I've been recommending since it was published, and which is much better than her first edition):

'whether the Æsir should yield the tribute or whether all the gods should share sacrificial feasts.'

This is far and away closer to the source text than Crawford's. In my opinion it does border on editorializing that she translates gildi to 'sacrificial feasts'; that is certainly a possible underlying intention, but it does not reflect the semantic range of the word gildi. Underlying this translation is generations of scholarly debate about the meaning; this is a common understanding of what it meant here although it isn't universal.

Here's Pettit:

'whether the Æsir must pay a great penalty, or all the gods must have offerings.'

This is probably as close as one can get to a direct, literal translation in plain English (as opposed to what I did above). It's also endnoted with a warning that the interpretation is uncertain. It leaves it about as confusing as the actual Old Icelandic text actually is.

How much all of this matters depends on the reader and what they're trying to get out of it. If someone just likes Amon Amarth and wants to read cool Norse shit then Crawford's translation is probably ideal, and Pettit's is more likely to make them think that Norse poetry sucks and isn't worth getting into. But on the other hand if someone is, say, a heathen who venerates Gullveig, they are more likely to find the nuances important.

For more opinions on Crawford's translation, see: https://www.mimisbrunnr.info/eddic-to-english-jackson-crawford-2015

[p1325]

In Honor of my Nordic Literature, History, Geography, and Linguistics exam on Thursday. Here are some of the books I read so far:

Henrik Ibsen - A Doll's House (1879) Although this is a theater play. I really loved it to be honest with you. It felt very contemporary despite being set in the 19th century. It's the definition of a humanist play/novel.

Jonas Gardell - Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves (2012-2013) This book is made up of a series called Love, Disease, and Death. It was very emotional and beautiful. It reminded me a lot of a TV show called ''It's A Sin'' or ''Pose''

Henning Mankell - Faceless Killers (1991) They say that Swedish crime fiction is the best in the world and they didn't lie. This book was very intense, sad, and well done in my opinion.

Pär Lagerkvist - The Dwarf (1946) Set in my home country, the book really analyses hate in a very deep way. It was definitely a great reading for sure

Selma Lagerlöf - The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906) This other book was another great discovery. It's really beautiful and it kinda reminded me of Pinocchio a bit. I loved it honestly

Karin Boye-Kallocaina (1940) Published at the beginning of World War II, this book really focuses on the horrors of authoritarian regimes. I guess this book was the inspiration for George Orwell's 1984

Ludvig Holberg - Niels Klim's Underground Travels (1741) This other reading was really good as well. The plot was very reminiscent of an underground Robinson Crusoe. However, I think this other book was the inspiration for Jules Verne's novel

Snorri Sturluson - Prose Edda (Early 12th Century) This one is a must. If you're interested in Scandinavian Literature and Cultures, this one is the best choice. This book has a mixture of Christian elements but mostly Norse mythology. This is the book where all the Norse myths come from.

The exam will be on Thursday. I hope it goes well !!

[heatwa-ves]

Ty for opening your askbox bestie <3 anyways something which I think about a lot is the complete absence of cautionary tales in the poetic and prose eddas. In pretty much every mythology to have ever graced planet earth, there has always been a few myths with the moral of "do not disrespect the gods or do these things or they'll come down from the sky and smite you and your family". However, Norse mythology is completely devoid of any such myth. In fact, the aesir are just clowned upon pretty much the entire time. Instead of stuff like Greek mythology's Narcissus who gets cursed to fall in love with himself and turned into a flower, arachne proclaiming proudly she's better than Athena and getting turned into a spider, etcetera etcetera, Norse mythology is ONLY the more mocking ones (the Thor in a wedding dress debacle, Odin's terrible no-good barbecue which ended in almost the entirety of Asgard dying of old age, Utgard-Loki and the most awful weekend Thor has ever been through, etc). Now, these kinds of myths absolutely existed, especially surrounding Odin and his wild hunt (ghost tornado flying through the sky, hunting, don't mimic the cry of the hunt unless you want them to take you too, lock your doors in winter), they're just completely omitted from the eddas. Since we have basically no other sources, that means they've pretty much lost for good. This was absolutely intentional. Both authors of the eddas were presumably Christian, and in a very religiously policed state, you wouldn't want to publish anything against the Christian God, and you definitely didn't want to make the public fear any other gods. These myths are funny because they were DESIGNED to be that way. Their intention was, to an extent, to humiliate the old religion. But that also gives them their charm. Norse mythology is so widely adapted because of how HUMAN they feel, making it easy to put these fully formed characters in any setting you want (e.g. superhero movie (MCU), sci-fi audio drama (the bifrost incident), the United States (American Gods, Magnus Chase)).

So yea tldr I think that the main appeal of Norse mythology and why it's so popular today has to do with how it has been intentionally modified to make the gods more human, accidentally prepping them to become marketable plushies thank you for coming to my Ted talk

omg this is really interesting??!! i love your point about gods feeling human

[cookieek]

So, like many others I sat down to watch the recent hbomberguy video, and watching it has made me think back to about how I’ve handled my folklore inspiration for wayward.

Notably that I ended up taking heavily inspiration from the illustrations by Katarina Strömgård in Per Gustavssons (2006) ”Sägenresan” when it came to the designs for the skogsrå, Snurra, and the sjörå. (Pictured bellow, Strömgårds illustrations to the left, my sketches to the right)

I did not do this with the intent of plagiarism, I know that I mentioned getting inspired by illustrations from a folk lore book in one of my authors notes for Wayward and that I did share Strömgårds illustrations of the troll drawing that inspired snurra and the sjörå on the red shoes discord and mentioning that I used them as inspiration (I could only find me mentioning the illustration for the skogsrå on the discord server when I went looking, I had to find the actual picture from the dms with another person in the server). However I do feel that I might not have been clear enough about this inspiration, and that looking back I, possibly out of some form of laziness, did at the very least not do enough with the characters in my sketches to visually distinguish them from the designs pictured in Strömgårds work, especially when it comes to the Skogsrå.

I doubt that Strömgård will ever see this, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad about it, and I’m planning to edit the posts that features the characters to link to this post in order to give proper credits to the artist who was at the heart of those designs. Sägenresan and it’s illustrations has been with me since I was a child, it’s hard not to feel disappointed in myself, and I am sorry.

If you’re curious about Strömgårds work, then I recommend looking at her website (where she’s got coloured versions of some of the books illustrations for a recent web project under the same name as the book by Gustavsson!):

She also has an instagram under the handle strmgrd!

I should at this point also note that unless I was taking inspiration from stories told by my mom or just general ideas of folklore that I’ve heard while growing up, a big source for the folklore bits in wayward which I talk about in the authors notes for the chapters is Per Gustavssons (2006) “Sägenresan”, though I did not always reread the stories from it in question. And though I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that the herbal magic in wayward was inspired by stories from a childrens flora book, I figure I should be more clear and reference to it as Bissa Falk och Lena Kallenbergs ”Barnens flora” and ”Barnens flora 2” (both of my copies of these books are missing their copyright page so I can’t say their specific release date for sure, but I do know the original editions seemed to have been published 1982 and 1983 as those are the dates given to the first editions of the work on Libris, Alex.se and worldcat (though worldcat only seemed to have the first book of the two and the edition which collects the books into one)). When I get the time I’ll try to go through the authors notes for Wayward to make sure these are given their proper credit, and I’m sorry for not doing that before. Also, when I’m already on the topic, please don’t take Edda using real life herbs in for the healing magic as health advice, and if you decide to get into herbal medicine then I beg you to be safe about it, understand it’s limits and just go to the doctor of you’re dealing with something serious. There are many quacks out there, many dangerous ideas and ‘cure-alls’ that at best doesn’t work and at worst are actively harmful. Saint john’s wort will not cure your cancer.

Finally, when I’m already here I should also mention that an notable inspiration for even considering the regency au that eventually became “A Lord and Lace” was sboochi’s Bridgerton inspired Regency au drawings. I realised I was never really open about that and that made me feel a bit scummy, I’m sorry.

I’m sorry that this isn’t the fun superhero au synopsis, but when this landed in my mind I really felt like I had to say something about it. I’ll try to get the synopsis out soon, I am still sick, but it seems to be on it’s way out, I hope, either way I hopefully will have that post out sometime next week. And again, I’m sorry for my sloppy work.

I hope everyone nonetheless have a good day.

[poeticnorth]

will you publish the edda haikus anywhere when they're done? i would really like to read them

Absolutely, that's the plan! The Völva’s Haikus (Vóluspa but haikus) is definitely going in a book once I decide what I'm doing with it (it's 135 haikus, so I could theoretically do it as a standalone publication but I hate standalone poems as a book)

I have Odin's Quest For The Mead Of Poetry section of The Haikus of the High One (Hávamal but haikus) published to my WordPress blog, if you want to read that:

https://layofthenorthsea.wordpress.com/2024/01/04/haikus-of-the-high-one-odins-quest-for-the-mead-of-poetry/

But yeah, once I decide what I'm doing with these poems, because I'm doubtful I'll ever get the entire Poetic Edda written into haiku meter in this lifetime, I'll be posting about it on here (unless the whole project drives me up the wall because Hávamal as haikus really drained my motivation 😅)

[eirikrjs]

Why are you mad that any god of war game is mythologically inaccurate? Do you think the god of war series was created with the intent to be an accurate representation of mythology?

The newer games still bill themselves as mythology games merely by presenting a loosely, um, canonical (?) arrangement of the Norse gods and their cosmos and they will sell dozens of millions of copies.

This large mainstream audience is not going to be interested in reading the Edda afterwards; they are going to be informed by what the games say (much of the details of which are totally fabricated, to put it kindly, lol).

Imagine for a moment that Goldilocks and the Three Bears was an obscure story (but not entirely unknown; people would be familiar with things like "porridge too hot" or "the bed was too soft") and a major publisher wanted to make a AAA game about it for a "mature" audience. Let's assume Kratos is still in the game and they need to somehow justify why he needs to slaughter them all. In doing so, they make Papa Bear a pedophile, Mama Bear suicidal, Baby Bear a chronic "throat-fucker" of severed cat heads, and Goldilocks a severe split personality disorder ("cocksucker" "motherfucker" "fucking cockfucker"). It's a pretty severe reinterpretation (or, to coin a term, disinterpretation?) of the material.

An this is done... for Kratos.

[octahedral-chaos]

OCTAfan's Odd/ Obscure Characters Tournament: Round 3 Part 2

Edda and Aven (Worldless) VS Fantoccio (Billie Bust Up)

Quick Facts

Edda and Aven

The protagonists of Worldless, a 2D Metroidvania/ Platformer with turn based combat!

Worldless was released on the 21st of November, 2023 (Or 20th of November if you're a Steam player), and was made by Noname Studios and published by both Coatsink and Thunderful Games.

Fantoccio

One of the Antagonist of Bille Bust Up, a 3D musical platformer (?) Inspired by musicals.

Billie Bust Up is being made by Giddy Goat Games and is going to be published by Humble Bundle. It is still in development at the time this poll is being made.

[fur-teeth-bones-earth]

On Names

And How I Have Encountered Them in the Craft

There’s a special power in names. They represent something about us beyond just a word we answer to. Names that say something about who we are, who we love, who loves us. They can give a voice to hearts and souls. Or, as is sometimes necessary, they’re designed to hide who we are. When you call upon a deity or a spirit, the name you use can honor them or speak to their different aspects.

Names can christen a tool and ensure it remains loyal to us. They can acknowledge the spirit of the tool and awaken it. They can be used to summon and honor spirits—or to bind and banish them. A name alone can define a context and a space to interact with a spirit with. When you use a formal title to call upon an entity, by name alone you’re establishing a sacred space. When you call upon a named aspect of an entity, you’re establishing purpose and intent with them.

Kennings, or poetic epithets, feature prominently in Norse mythology. In Skaldskaparmal, the narrator bestows kennings upon numerous figures based on their traits, their deeds, and their relationships. Tyr is hailed as the “One-handed God” and the “Fosterer of the Wolf”, both referring to his role in the story of Fenrir (where, as you may have guessed, he loses a hand to a wolf that he helped raise). Loki receives the name “Benchmate” of Odin” but also the “thief of the Giants, of the Goat, of Brísinga-men, and of Idunn's Apples” (1). It reflects the complex role Loki plays as both the blood-brother of Odin and the mischievous trickster.

Pagan practices often place special emphasis on names from their tradition. Many choose a name for themselves or, depending on their path, may receive a name. Anyone who’s perused a list of witchy authors will be familiar with this. Author Clio Ajana shares her experience with names in a religious context in “Column: How Do You Get Your Name?” She describes how she settled on the name the article is published under, which took years to decide on and happened by accident at first. (4)

If you have a Catholic background like I do, you may also have experience with confirmation names. Those being confirmed select a patron saint and take on their name. While exact requirements and rationales vary by location and tradition, many choose saints whose virtues they wish to embody or who they want to work closely with (3).

Names can be precious and worth protecting. Many people hold their most sacred names close to themselves. Pagan initiatory traditions often gift a name to their participants that they keep private (4). Additionally, I think of queer people who keep their chosen names close and share them only with a trusted few (either as a temporary measure before sharing it widely or in the long-term). While this is often for safety more than anything else, there is a sacredness in that community.

Not all names are designed to identify. When a person wants to remain anonymous they often choose a pseudonym, which might be devoid of personality or might present a certain mask. Think of donors to a conservation charity who identify themselves as “Anonymous” or “Hawk lover”. Usernames are another example of protecting your identity with a name while still expressing something of yourself. These anonymous names carry a liminal quality with them. You’re there, but no one knows you are. They’re fleeting, only existing for a brief moment before fading away, or only appearing under the right circumstance.

Sources & Further Reading

Skaldskaparmal section of the Prose Edda, available for free online: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre05.htm

Predictors and Mental Health Benefits of Chosen Name Use among Transgender Youth. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7678041/

Various papers on guidelines for choosing confirmation saints

https://stmaryoldtown.org/wp-content/uploads/Guidelines-for-Choosing-a-Saint.pdf

https://www.olqoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Choosing-a-confirmation-saint-name-.pdf

https://www.stpatricks.org/documents/confirmation-saint-paper

How Do You Get Your Name? by Clio Ahana https://wildhunt.org/2022/09/column-how-do-you-get-your-name.html

[thorraborinn]

Hey there, I was curious if you had any recommendations for what English translation to read in regards to the "Hallfreðar saga vandræðaskálds". The bigger focus on religious dilemma/turbulence of the skald instead of the more typical romantic parts seems very interesting to me.

This is quite a niche ask I think and no worries if it is outside of your wheelhouse. I've seen quite a lot of icelandic stuff in your tumblr and just figured I could ask. Thanks in advance!

I haven't read that one, but there's a translation by Diana Whaley who is a reputable and accomplished scholar. It looks like it's been published twice, once as part of a massive project to translate all the sagas into English, and separately in a smaller collection called Sagas of Warrior-Poets.

Any time anyone is looking for a translation of a saga (or related stuff, like the Eddas, or individual skaldic poems), into any language, they can check https://sagas.landsbokasafn.is/sagas. It's a database of saga translations maintained by the National Library of Iceland.

It's very often the case that the whatever the most recent one is is best, especially in a case where there's like, a saga has two translations, one from 1880 and one from 1999.

[langevandreren]

Lokean Parables

The parables themselves can be found here:

Loki Ruins Everything (Voluspa, Rígsþula)

Let Baldr Be the Best (Baldrs Draumar)

What follows below is my general disclaimer about what they are and are not.

The Lokean parables are not ‘real’ myths, whatever that means in a world where all of our stories were passed down in a malleable oral tradition and ultimately rewritten by Christian intermediaries. I suppose you could call them UPG, though I would argue that they are largely based on widely accepted heathen stories, just through a different filter.

I am assuming that the reader is already pretty familiar with the Eddas, particularly the Poetic Edda (Edward Pettit publishes an excellent and free version at Mimisbrunnr.info). The Lokean parables are a retelling of and commentary on these stories, in the vein of some of the more approachable midrash (like ‘Does God Have a Big Toe?’). You could think of them as Lokean midrash, but I went with the more neutral ‘parable’ to avoid appropriating a term from a closed practice (and, I am not a rabbi). In the long run, I’ll probably write more serious analyses of some of the source material. But we often absorb narrative more readily than exegesis, so I wanted to start there.

My intent with them is to provide a slightly different perspective on these stories. Most people who summarize the myths for a general audience parrot Snorri’s heavily Christianized interpretation of what happens and why. I have chosen to do something else. Hopefully other Lokeans will find them useful and interesting. They are not written to annoy or offend more orthodox heathens, but it would be disingenuous of me to apologize for any offense taken. Conflict is central to the old stories, or any story. In retelling that conflict from the other side, things are going to look a little different than they would in the standard Dictionary of Mythology.

Make of that what you will.

[wiltking]

i was devastated by hexslinger on your recommendation, thank you! are there any other books you’ve read that scratch a similar itch?

GOOD LORD. you're welcome and it's good to see you're still alive! there's nothing i know of that hits on that same level but you might find it worth your while to check out the Edda of Burdens trilogy by elizabeth bear. that's another one that i have a really hard time reccing to people because it's generally miserable and the gays are both tortured mercilessly / can't be together / are generally fucked up. but it also features tasty (poetic) writing, and mythology (vaguely norse flavored this time), and i liked it. devastation and all :']

i would recommend reading in chronological order (by the mountain bound -> all the windwracked stars -> the sea thy mistress) instead of published order, but do as you will. and good luck out there o7