Category Archives: Myth & Legend

The Weird of the Worm

Reading Snorri’s account of Ragnarǫkr this noon over blunch, and I was struck by this poetic phrase in Snorri’s prose: Þórr berr banaorð af Miðgarðsormi “Thor bears the baneword from Midgard’s Serpent”. Old Norse orð is cognate with English word, … Continue reading

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Swords in the Mistletoe

I was reading Snorri’s Edda today, trying to sort out the story-differences between Snorri’s version and the poems in the Elder Edda. For instance, the famous story where Thor goes fishing and catches Jormungandir, Midgard’s Serpent, plays out differently in … Continue reading

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Goa, Going, Gone

I was scrolling through an electronic edition of a venerable Latin dictionary, which is a totally normal thing to do, and I was brought up short by the entry for superstitio: “excessive fear of the goas; unreasonable religious belief.” I … Continue reading

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The Strife of Camlann

Mordred vs. Arthur (by Arthur Rackham).

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Get the Hnakkr!

I’m rereading Snorri’s Edda and Tacitus’ Historiae in tandem, and it’s an interesting experience. With Snorri, this involves a lot of adventures in the dictionary, as the vocabulary of Old Icelandic is definitely less familiar to me than the vocabulary … Continue reading

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Forever Blowing Bubbles

Frank Kelly Freas, “The Piper”–a WEIRD TALES cover in 1950 and 1990. (See Deuce Richardson’s writeup at the DMR Books site.)

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“Look Up, Not Down!”

Κύκλοψ: βλέπετ᾽ ἄνω καὶ μὴ κάτω. Χορός: ἰδού: πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν Δί᾽ ἀνακεκύφαμεντά τ᾽ ἄστρα, καὶ τὸν Ὠρίωνα δέρκομαι. —Euripides, Cyclops Cyclops: Look up, not down. Chorus: I am looking up! I’m looking ‘way up!

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Coca þola

I was looking up þola in Cleasby & Vigfusson this afternoon even though I was pretty sure I knew what it meant, which is a totally normal thing to do. They said it meant “endure”, as I expected, and connected … Continue reading

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Looking Forward

Gearing up to teach one of my favorite courses, “Medieval Legends”.

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