This year for Christmas, I received a new set of Great Courses lectures on Norse mythology.
As I am part-Norwegian, I can safely say that my ancestors prayed to Odin, Thor, Freya, and the like.
In honor of this new Christmas gift, I would like to share with you the reason I represent Norse myths and deities the way I do (with their names written in Viking Age Scandinavian runes):
Take, for example, my representation of the Nine Realms of Norse mythology:
Asgard, the home of the Aesir gods, is depicted as a land in the sky with Viking Age buildings...complete with Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge.
Vanaheim, the home of the Vanir gods, is portrayed as a forest ruin because after the War of the Gods, the Vanir joined the Aesir as one united Norse pantheon...which would therefore have led to the decay of Vanaheim.
Alfheim, the home of the light elves, is a pristine forest where those of us who are into fantasy would expect an elf to live.
Midgard, the home of humanity, is centered on the geographic area where the Nordic countries of Europe are located.
"Midgard" has also become my term for the part of Europe that includes Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland.
Jotunheim, the home of the giants, is a wild mountain range.
I like to imagine giants peeking over the mountains.
Svartalfheim, the home of the dark elves, is an underground cavern with mushrooms because in Dungeons and Dragons, the dark elves (known in D&D as "drow") live in the Underdark and eat mushrooms.
Nidavellir, the home of the dwarves, is a mine shaft with diamonds.
This can be interpreted as a reference to either the Mines of Moria in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, or Disney's classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Niflheim, the world of ice and mist, is shown as a mysterious frozen land where you can barely even see the ice floes in the distance due to all the fog.
The region where I live happens to be a very wispy place with a lot of foggy mornings...and this was part of the inspiration.
Muspel, the world of fire and ash, is portrayed as a classic land of fire with volcanoes, lava flows, oceans of flame, and skies of red.
My depiction of Thor is meant to be as close to the original myths as possible (as opposed to the Marvel/Disney Plus version).
Hence, the Norse thunder god appears as a bearded redhead...and he has his iron gauntlets and magic belt.
In the myths, the handle of Thor's famous hammer is said to be "too short" due to Loki messing with the dwarves as they were making it.
However, I made the handle roughly mid-length because I figured it would be awkward if Thor's hammer had a small handle.
Odin has an eye patch to cover up the eye he gave up in exchange for knowledge of the runes.
He also has rings on all his fingers because his ring, Draupnir, multiplies itself by eight every 9th night.
He's gotta use all those rings for something!
Odin's two ravens are also flying beside him.
I would have the ravens sit on his shoulders...but sadly, there is no room.
Tyr, the god of war, bravely stuck his arm inside the maw of the monster wolf Fenrir...but lost his hand in the process.
In place of the hand he lost, I gave Tyr a hook hand like a pirate.
Freya has her feather cape she can use to fly, and her special necklace made by dwarves (she thanked them by..."spending the night" with them).
Her role as a goddess of love is signified by her revealing outfit.
In contrast to his visual portrayal in the Marvel/Disney Plus shows and films, I designed Loki as more of a classic deviant type.
His mustache is based on that of Waluigi from Nintendo's Mario games (also a rather sneaky character).
Heimdall, the watchman of Asgard, is described in the Icelandic Eddas as "the whitest of the gods".
Hence, Heimdall's outfit as well as his hair are not colored in.
Even his watchtower is the color of literal ivory.
As a fitting end to this post, I send off with my own representation of Ragnarok--the Apocalypse of Norse mythology.
I attempted to condense this epic end-times account into a single panel.
Indeed, all the signs are here:
The wolves Skoll and Hati eating the Sun and Moon
Heimdall blowing his horn to signal the final war
The crowing of the golden rooster to alert everyone
The fallen warriors of Valhalla on the march
Loki and his monstrous horde on the ship made of the nail clippings of the dead
Thor about ready to smite Jormungard (only to die afterwards from the serpent's poison)
Vidar attempting to rescue Odin from the jaws of Fenrir
As the war rages on, the world goes up in flames
However, Baldr's rebirth in a new world is also mentioned.
This perhaps is meant to signify that even as the world ends, a new one begins.
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