Hearthside

On Canada Day, the city of Winnipeg put on a drone show instead of fireworks this year. This was a great idea for many reasons. First of all, it is less loud for pets and people with sensory issues. Secondly, Canada is having a particularly bad wildfire year and it is not a good idea to poke the bear. The last reason is that the drone show allowed a unique opportunity to tell a story, and the story chosen was a retelling of Indigenous star lore. Everyone was captivated as the stories of the stars came to life in 3D in the sky above them. There were people exclaiming and tearing up. When the show was done people lay, stunned, on the grass, not willing to shake off the spell of the remarkable storytelling. Whoever wrote the story for the drone show, pieced together lots of different stories from Indigenous Star Lore expert, Wilfred Buck, and paired it with the broader Western understanding of the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The result was a multi-layered story that broug...

I have trees on my mind at the moment, so I want to unpack a bit of the symbolism of the tree Barnstokk. If you have ever read the Saga of the Völsungs you will recognize that Barnstokk is the name of the tree that grows in King Völsung’s hall. There is a lot of symbolism that the modern reader may overlook to do with trees that could be relevant to the story. First of all, it is an old custom for a family to plant a tree outside their home that is their tuntre, or guardian tree. The tree, if nurtured well, holds the family’s luck. If something happens to the tree then the luck of the family will also fail, usually resulting in the family perishing. It is unusual for the tree to be protected inside the hall, as is the case with Barnstokk.  There are a few other strange things to do with this particular tree. Odin, disguised as an old man, appears and thrusts a sword into Barnstokk, declaring that whoever can pull the sword out of the tree will have it. King Siggeir tries to pull it...

I was recently watching a video by Arith Härger entitled “Animism: The Trickster Spirit.” In it Arith is talking about what the purpose of Trickster spirits are in lore from around the world. Of course he is using Loki as an example in this context. However, it had me revisiting one of my recurring thoughts about Odin and how he sometimes also plays a Trickster role in the lore.  Odin is able to shapeshift into animals, but also disguise his own appearance to men, and the Jotunn, and even his own son, Thor. It is always through a mix of wile and charm that he gets his way. Odin disguises himself as Gagnráðr to challenge Vafþrúðnir, wisest of the Jotunn in a battle of wits. In another story Odin disguises himself as Grimnir to check his foster-son Geirroth’s hospitality in a wager with Frigg. Further on in the Poetic Edda, Odin disguises himself as Greybeard, a ferryman, and taunts Thor. In the Prose Edda Odin takes on the persona of Bölverkr to gain access to the mead of poetry. T...