Cat mind. Pup heart.

‘Wotan placed a hard heart in my breast,’ says an old Scandinavian Saga: it is rightly expressed from the soul of a proud Viking. Such a type of man is even proud of not being made for sympathy; the hero of the Saga therefore adds warningly: ‘He who has not a hard heart when young, will never have one.’

The Dog Star Sirius. Aratus's poem Phaenomena by Germanicus Caesar, 9th century, Leiden University Library (Netherlands)

"Such a guardian, the Dog, will be present with a fearsome mouth; From its mouth it vomits flame, its limbs defying the fire. The Greeks call this one 'Sirion' by its own name; When it touches the rays of the sun, the summer heat is kindled."

“Achilles was closing on him now like the god of war, the fighter's helmet flashing, over his right shoulder shaking the Pelian ash spear, that terror, and the bronze around his body flared like a raging fire or the rising, blazing sun.”

In the book “Wärend och Wirdarne” (1863) author Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius wrote of Swedish farmers at the time would "sacrifice" to the horse of Odin. It was said that after mowing a meadow, a person would leave blades of grass untouched stating “This is for the horse of Othin”. If this “sacrifice” was not done, the farmer would be punished the following year with poor crops.

Occasionally, folk tales of the Brothers Grimm contain echoes of archaic themes that are interwoven throughout. In the case of “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” (Des Teufels Rußiger Bruder) and “Bearskin” (Der Bärenhäuter), German scholar Lily Weiser in her pioneering work “Altgermanische Jünglingsweihen und Männerbünde” (1927) describes the symbolic nature of these Grimm tales. She states that underlying themes in these stories (soldier, not cutting hair or beard, pact with otherworldly figure, bear skin) correspond to ancient Germanic customs. For instance, the Roman historian Tacitus in his “Germania” (98 AD) illustrated the warrior customs of the ancient Germanic tribe called the Chatti:

“Upon reaching adulthood, they allow their hair and beard to grow long, and only clear their faces of this covering, which has been pledged and promised to valour, when they have slain an enemy (…) The timid and the unwarlike remain unkempt. The bravest also wear an iron ring” (section 31)

Another instance is Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla, specifically the story of King Harald.

In this saga, Harald vows not to cut or comb his hair until he has become sole king of Norway.

The passage states: “I solemnly pledge this vow, and I take God to witness, who created me and governs over all things, that I shall never clip or comb my hair until I have subdued the entire realm of Norway, with scat, and duties, and domains; or if not, have perished in the attempt.”

The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation by James C. Russell (Oxford Press, 1996)

Chess piece depicting a frenzied warrior biting into his shield

Found in Uig - Scotland