"Gunnar looks back at his home" - Njáls Saga (Andreas Bloch, 1898)

The Norns: Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld, by C.E. Brock for The Heroes of Asgard by Annie and Eliza Keary (1930).

My favorite classic depictions of Yngvi-Freyr

Frey mounts the height of Hlidskjalf, Katharine Pyle (1930)

Sir Edward Cooley Burne-Jones (1881)

Freyr exchanges his sword for Gerd, Lorenz Frølich (1895)

The Lovesickness of Frey, W.G. Collingwood ( (1908)

Freyr Riding Gullinbursti, Ludwig Pietsch (1865)

Lorenz Frølich (1845)

Freyr and Skirnir, Carl Emil Doepler, Sr. (1876)

Freyr rides to the wood Barri to meet Gerda, C.E. Brock (1930)

Carl Emil Doepler (1905)

Alexander Zick (1901)

Freyr Sitting on Odin's Seat, Maria Klugh (1909)

Freyr and Gerd, Lorenz Frølich (1885)

Freyr, Ruler of Alfheim - Freyr and the Elves, C.E. Brock (1930)

Freyr seated on the throne of Odin, E. E. Speight (1903)

Freyr and Freyja, Donn T. Crane (1920)

A new favorite classic illustration: "A chorus of foxes approve Loki stealing cakes from a nearby farmhouse", C.E. Brock, 1930.

Two of my favorite poetry bits from the Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar (saga of Harald Hardrada)

"Norsemen, who stand the sword of foe

Like forest-stems unmoved by blow!

My hopes are fled, no peace is near,

— People fly here and there in fear.

On either side of Seeland's coast

A fleet appears -- a white winged host;

Magnus form Norway takes his course,

Harald from Sweden leads his force."

"Where battle-storm was ringing,

Where arrow-cloud was singing,

Harald stood there,

Of armour bare,

His deadly sword still swinging.

The foeman feel its bite;

His Norsemen rush to fight,

Danger to share,

With Harald there,

Where steel on steel was ringing."

Depictions of norse myth & folklore you may not have seen before

Dagr and Nótt (Day & Night, Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1874)

Thor Drives the Dwarves out of Scandinavia (Richard Doyle, 1878)

Håkon the Good (Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1860)

The Völva's Prophecy (Knud Baade, 1843)

Frigga's temple, flanked by runic stones in the holy grove of Uppsala (Scenery for the Opera Frigga by artist Louis-Jean Desprez, 1787)

Urnes Stave Church in Sogn (Knud Baade, 1843)

List of original research topics for nordic reconstructionism

I’m going to write down a few ideas at the top of my head, so I’m sure I’ll be leaving some stuff out. Please don’t assume that researching every one of these is mandatory, they are all personal recommendations. I’ve been identifying as norse pagan for a decent eight years now, and I find that there really is no limit to how much you can learn about nordic history and religions, which is why I’ve compiled a handful of topics I found interesting to learn about!

Now, I hope these can help people who already know a bit about heathenry, but also pagans of all paths who are interested in getting started with nordic history, norse pagan belief, practice or else, and who don’t really know how to get started!

(For those interested in getting started right away, I've directly compiled a few of my favorite sources in this previous post.)

Hoping this gave some of you a few ideas!

I’ve always been drawn to ancient Germanic art, especially when it came to depictions of the divine. Historically-speaking, the nordic Gods weren’t honored through elaborate, ornate art. Gold and other such valuable materials weren’t used in the making of their statues. I always thought the beauty of Germanic religious art lies in its simplicity. The crudeness of a home idol made with one’s own two hands, carved out of simple rock or wood, carries such powerful devotion and love.

Those chiefs gathered a great force when they heard of King Harald [Hårfagre], and came against him. They met at Solskel, and there was a great battle, which was gained by King Harald. Hornklofe tells of this battle:

"Thus did the hero known to fame,

The leader of the shields, whose name

Strikes every heart with dire dismay,

Launch forth his war-ships to the fray.

Two kings he fought; but little strife

Was needed to cut short their life.

A clang of arms by the sea-shore,—

And the shields' sound was heard no more."

"Ingimund felt at home nowhere; therefore Harald the King urged him to seek his fortune in Iceland. Ingimund said that that was what he had never set his mind upon, but he sent there two Finns on a wizard's journey in hamforum to Iceland after his talisman, which was the image of Frey and made of silver.

[...]

The Icelandic term for talisman here is hlutir, a little image or images which people used to wear about their persons [...]."

"In this temple [at Uppsala], entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three Gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor, occupies a throne in the middle of the chamber; Woden and Frikko have places on either side. The significance of these gods is as follows: Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and lightning, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops. The other, Woden—that is, the Furious—carries on war and imparts to man strength against his enemies. The third is Frikko, who bestows peace and pleasure on mortals. His likeness, too, they fashion with an immense phallus."

Before we dive into the oh-so-diverse topic of holy spaces, let me first specify a few practical tips!

Now, what makes a holy space sacred? Not necessarily "holy" per say, but simply sacred.

The very first factor to consider is, what is sacredness? Lots and lots of pagans engage mostly in solitary practice, so much is true. Which is why lots of us find ourselves gravitating towards spaces others may not necessarily find any sense of "sacredness" in. The corner of your room where you tend to pray the most? Sacred. Or the spot in your garden where you perform your harvest ritual every year! It’s the connection we feel to the space that makes it sacred in the first place. But a space being holy depends on whether or not we choose to anoint it in such a way.

When something is sacred to me, I tend to feel a sort of spiritual pull. A swelling of the heart, if you will, like the feeling I get when faced with a breathtaking landscape. The feeling of spiritual connection to a particular spot is the first intuition one needs to tune into when choosing a holy space. After all, staying in tune with one's intuition might be one of the most important aspect of any spiritual practice.

Within nordic practice, a holy space is often called vé, a sacred enclosure. Vé's are attested in numerous toponyms as well as ancient texts, such as Beowulf, or the Skáldskaparmál. Their omnipresence in Scandinavian toponyms might, when considered through a pagan lense, signify something quite interesting: the holiness of a space depends on the space itself, its location, rather than what's inside it— or rather, how grand and ornate it is. When building a holy space for oneself, one does not need lavish decoration, or an elaborate shrine with the gold foil and the statues.

However, there are a few steps one can follow in order to anoint a space as holy, if one wants to reconstruct a few practices from pre-Christian Scandinavia. Although I'll specify that as always, no rule is set in stone when it comes to neopaganism. The choice to abide by them or not is entirely up to the practitioner. And in any case, even as I was gathering these few ideas, it was clear that, as always, pre-Christian practices centered around holy spaces vastly differed depending on the place and the time. Regardless, I think it's fun to do some research on the topic in order to reconstruct on our own terms a holy space in the nordic tradition.

As attested in the Landnámabók - The Book of Settlements, the Helgafell mountain (Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland) was declared a holy site of Thórr by the very first man to settle in the area. Thórólfr Mostrarskegg, whose biography is detailed in the Eyrbyggja saga, had a shrine built to his God on the site. According to the Laxdæla saga, the hero Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir was buried at the foot of the Helgafell mountain.

Folk tradition has it if one climbs the mountain without saying a word or looking back once, one will be granted three wishes.

“You can make three wishes at the top of the mountain if you follow these exact rules:

Located in Denmark, Lake Tissø (Týr’s Lake) was probably one of the most prominent Týr cult sites of pre-Christian times. More than 12 000 objects have been excavated in this major holy site, many of which were gold or silver. It was customary to sacrifice weapons, tools or jewelry by throwing them into the waters of the lake, most likely as an offering to Týr or to ancestors. It was home to a large hall, a ritual hörgr and a handful of minor houses (ca. 550 – 650).

Some of the most famous artifacts excavated on the site include the Goats of Thórr brooch (late Iron Age), the 1.8 kg of gold neck ring (10th century), and the Valkyries (2nd is possibly Freyja) of Tissø.

Lejre (outdoor museum near Roskilde in Denmark)

Statue of legendary Danish knight Holger Danske ("Ogier the Dane"), currently located in the casemates of castle Kronborg.