Infinite Natures

Did I Mention That I’m Doing a Thing?

Last year, I attended the annual Toronto Pagan Pride Day festival, where I did a reading from Black Wolf and met some pretty cool people. I’ll be joining them again this year, but since there’s a pox on all our houses, the festivities will be online, with presentations on the first Saturday of every month from October 2020 to March 2021.

Book Review: Forged by Iron

Forged by Iron is based on Olaf Trygvason’s saga, which appears in Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla, among other sources. Fortunately for modern storytellers, the sagas tend to focus on the big picture, which leaves plenty of room for literary license, and Schumacher’s retelling modifies some aspects of the story for narrative purposes.

Link Roundup #5: Trade in the Viking Age

The stereotype of the raping, pillaging Norseman has its roots in the very earliest days of Viking raids. The plundering of Lindisfarne in 793 CE was one of the earliest recorded raids, and the target—a church—made the act all the more heinous in the eyes of the Anglo-Saxons, who wrote terrifying reports of the event. However, most Old Norse people were more interested in trading. (More taxes, fewer axes.)

In With the New

This year has been a blazing furnace of insanity. The world is burning, but this time we did start the trashfire—or at least we insisted on fanning the flames. Fortunately, the world hasn’t ended quite yet, and while we are facing a time of great change, there is also tremendous potential and hope.

Character Sketch: Thor

Thor is one of Norse mythology’s most prominent gods and perhaps the ultimate representative of the Old Norse conception of masculinity. He’s not exactly the sharpest sword in the armoury, but his sheer strength and courage combined with a general lack of guile makes him more honest and forthright than the average man. He doesn’t mince words, only enemies.