rowan

Posting this from my instagram because that’s where I saw this go down, but here’s just a heads up for people who like that kind of content.

It’s disappointing, but often times the people in these spaces who get really popular (especially quickly) do so because they lace every post with far right dog whistles and pander to Nazis.

This rock now travels with me in my pocket until it tells me to give him to someone else.

Systems of power and abuse are fracturing and eating themselves alive. (Maddow's "it's getting brighter every day now", anyone?) Environmental awareness is coming back to the forefront. People are trying to break their phone addictions in lieu of crafting and gardening and reading and creating *something*. Paganism & witchcraft is gaining exponential interest and awareness and at bare minimum, acceptance.

Finished just in time for the solstice. A little unbalanced in composition because frankly I had just been fucking around and hadn’t planned to turn it into an official project. Oops.

From Susan Cooper’s poem, “The Shortest Day”:

Like yes absolutely, Aphrodite can be a goddess of self-love. Dionysus is definitely a god of mental health and Athena can definitely help with schoolwork. Osiris can even help you garden

I just finished uploading some of my old academic coursework to my academia.edu page. I use my ‘real’ name over there, of course, so don’t be thrown off by that boring thing. But anyway…

For those interested in reading 7 papers from my graduate-school days (with the exception of 1 paper from undergrad), here’s what I just put up:

“Seeking Salvation: Christianity and Conflict in Thirteenth-Century Iceland” (2017)

“‘Governour and of Oure Tales Juge': Storytelling, Meditation, and the Behavior of the Host in The Canterbury Tales” (2017)

“Social Commentary in Njal's Saga: Law in the Presence of Feud” (2017)

“Cheese, Women, and Social Anxieties in Thirteenth-Century Iceland” (2018)

“Rewriting Romance: Honor and Reputation in Ívens saga” (2018)

“A Hilt in Violent Hands: Swords, Bonds, and the Monstrous in Beowulf” (2018)

“Ordinary Clothes in Unordinary Places: Gender, Cross-dressing, and Performing Masculinity in Medieval Iceland” (2019)

And, of course, there’s also my Master’s thesis.

I should emphasize one thing, though: these are simply class papers—‘mere’ coursework, if you will. They are not academic articles, for they never underwent the scrutiny of peer review required for such a ‘lofty’ status. As such, they cannot be used as sources in ‘proper’ academic work. So…don’t cite them in your papers, if you happen to write one. You can mention them, I suppose…but they won’t have much weight, I fear.

I’m only sharing them because they’ve done nothing but collect dust since I turned them in for grading and, to be quite honest, are still insightful probably? Regardless of their ‘lowly status,’ I think people may—may—be able to learn something from them and, most importantly, think more deeply about certain topics. I want them to engage people’s minds, help people view certain passages or historical ‘truths’ differently.

If that happens for even one of you, I’d be a happy skáld indeed.

So, with far too much said, I hope someone enjoys my past academic toils.

With the death of Charlie Kirk, FBI Director Kash Patel had this to say: “Rest now, brother. We have the watch, and I will see you in Valhalla.” I felt I needed to speak out as an antifascist Heathen who cares about how his religion is seen, and how it is misused in modern discourse. The amount of goofy bullshit I have seen over the years regarding Valhǫll would, and in some cases has, filled…

I re-read the section of the Hávamál where Odin talks about carving, coloring, reading, and “sending” the runes, and I understand he’s probably not talking about the rune-tokens we use for runic divination today (especially since those were invented in the 70’s). But that got me wondering what he is actually referring to, so I must ask:

Is he talking about carving runes on wooden sticks or poles instead?

Right now I’m thinking about an episode I saw of Hilda. In one scene, she walks into a graveyard carrying a stick covered in runes. She rolls it against the ground, evoking the dead, in order to raise them from their graves.

I remember something similar from the Norse myths as well: When Freyr falls in love with the giantess Gerdr, he sends his man Skirnir to Jötunheim to bring her to him. But Gerdr refuses to accompany him back to Asgard, so Skirnir pulls out a stick, carves runes it, and uses it to curse Gerdr to never find love unless it’s with ugly giants or Freyr himself.

I did a little digging just now and discovered there’s archaeological evidence for rune-poles: The “Bryggen inscriptions,” which are a collection of medieval-era poles found in Bergen, many of which have runic charms carved on them.

If making rune-poles is what the Hávamál is actually referring to, then do we know how they work and how they’re used? Is there any folklore about it? I’m guessing there must be something, given the scene in Hilda.

I also have some additional thoughts that I don't know where to put but relate to my general inquiry: What I know about runes leaves me with the impression that ancient Scandinavians thought about very differently. Today we use it as a medium for storing and transmitting stories (interpret this word in the broadest possible sense here; I'm talking about things ranging from fantasy narratives, to personal anecdotes, to factual reporting). But I’m wondering—and this is just me hypothesizing—if people used runic writing more like musical notation or computer code, in which it represented something that was supposed to be played. This would make “knowing how to read the runes” more analogous to “knowing how to read sheet music” or “knowing how to read JavaScript.” It would also make the concept of “sending runes” similar to the concepts of “playing music” or “running software.” This makes perfect sense in principle...but if this were all true, then the questions remain: How were they sent, for what purpose were they sent, and through what kind of framework were they sent? How does it all work?