Baldr's Magic
Baldr's Magic

Author: Nicholas E. Brink

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-03-03

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1591437644

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A guide to using ecstatic trance to connect with your ancestors, rediscover your extrasensory powers, and reclaim the peaceful nature of humanity • Illustrates ecstatic trance postures to connect with the ancient Nordic people, to journey to exact points in time, and to access powers such as seeing into our future • Explains how the coming new age of peace and veneration for Mother Earth was predicted in Norse mythology as the rebirth of the compassionate god Baldr • Expands on the stories of the early Nordic gods and goddesses from the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda Connecting Norse mythology, ecstatic trance, the Universal Mind, and the dawn of a new age of peace and veneration for Mother Earth, Nicholas Brink reveals how we can use ecstatic and hypnotic trance to learn more directly and deeply from our distant ancestors, rediscover our extrasensory powers, and reclaim the original magical nature of humanity. The imminent rebirth of a peaceful, balanced, connected world was predicted in Norse mythology as the return of Baldr, the gentle and compassionate Nordic god of truth, healing, and rune work. Illustrating ecstatic trance postures to connect with the ancient Nordic people and their beliefs, to journey to exact points in time, and to access specific powers, such as seeing into our future, Brink explores humanity’s evolving cycle of consciousness from the era when the Great Mother goddess was the center of life through the transition to the worship of power and physical strength in the Bronze Age and the world of the Vikings. He explores the coming return of Baldr and the imminent new age of peace and respect for the earth. Through hypnotic divination, the author expands the stories of the early Nordic gods and goddesses from the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, in particular the fertility deities of the Vanir, such as Freyr, Freyja, and Idunn, who came before the warrior deities of the Æsir, such as Odin, Thor, and Loki. He details the epic battle of Ragnarǫk and the birth, life, death, and rebirth of Baldr. Brink shows how these ancient stories happen outside of time, in the past, present, and future, thus Baldr’s return is replayed in our death-rebirth experiences of life, in each dawn, with each spring, and now with the birth of a new age that we see happening all around us. Through the power of trance at this time of rebirth, we move full circle to reclaim the magic of the earliest times, the times of the Garden of Idunn.

The Poetic Edda
The Poetic Edda

Author: Paul Acker

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-02-08

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1136601368

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This unique collection of essays applies significant critical approaches to the mythological poetry of the Poetic Edda, a principal source for Old Norse cosmography and the legends of Odin, Loki, and Thor. The volume also provides very useful introductions that sketch the critical history of the Eddas. By applying new theoretical approaches (feminist, structuralist, post-structuralist) to each of the major poems, this book yields a variety of powerful and convincing readings. Contributors to the collection are both young scholars and senior figures in the discipline, and are of varying nationalities (American, British, Australian, Scandinavian, and Icelandic), thus ensuring a range of interpretations from different corners of the scholarly community. The new translations included here make available for the first time to English speaking students the intriguing methodologies that are currently developing in Scandinavia. An essential collection of scholarship for any Old Norse course, The Poetic Edda will also be of interest to scholars of Indo-European myth, as well as those who study the theory of myth.

Old Norse Folklore
Old Norse Folklore

Author: Stephen A. Mitchell

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2023-12-15

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1501773488

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The medieval northern world consisted of a vast and culturally diverse region both geographically, from roughly Greenland to Novgorod and culturally, as one of the last areas of Europe to be converted to Christianity. Old Norse Folklore explores the complexities of thisfascinating world in case studies and theoretical essays that connect orality and performance theory to memory studies, and myths relating to pre-Christian Nordic religion to innovations within late medieval pilgrimage song culture. Old Norse Folklore provides critical new perspectives on the Old Norse world, some of which appear in this volume for the first time in English. Stephen A. Mitchell presents emerging methodologies by analyzing Old Norse materials to offer a better understandings ofunderstanding of Old Norse materials. He examines, interprets, and re-interprets the medieval data bequeathed to us by posterity—myths, legends, riddles, charms, court culture, conversion narratives, landscapes, and mindscapes—targeting largely overlooked, yet important sources of cultural insights.

Valkyrie Lost
Valkyrie Lost

Author: Shannon Pemrick

Publisher: Shannon Pemrick

Published: 2023-01-17

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1950128288

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As the god of war and bringer of order and justice I can have anything. Except one mortal woman. I came to Astrid’s prayer for justice. Why, I didn’t know. I should have left after that, but I didn’t. Something about the mortal woman lured me like no other had. It was wrong, I knew that. I should have allowed her to live out her short years as they were intended. Yet, not even I am a match for a yearning heart. From shared drinking horns to unforgettable nights, I am determined to bring her the honor she deserves, just as she has sworn to shield me from the horrors of the world. But when trouble amongst the gods stirs, Astrid may just pay the price for my transgressions. And the price for spilling the blood of my Valkyrie, is one too steep for any god. Valkyrie Lost is an MF fantasy romance prequel to the a slow-build #WhyChoose story told through paranormal romances Valkyrie Renewed and Valkyrie Freed. Valkyries Rising is a #WhyChoose series where the heroine doesn’t have to pick just one mate. In these pages you’ll find strong heroines who don’t back down, and the shifters, gods, dragons, and other immortals who love them and fight by their sides. --- Valkyries Rising Valkyrie Destined (#1) Valkyrie Lost (#2) Valkyrie Renewed (#3) Valkyrie Restored (#4) Valkyrie Confused (#5) Valkyrie Condemned (#6) Valkyrie Condemned pt 2 (#7) Valkyrie Freed (#8) Valkyrie Shattered (#9)

The Magic of Yggdrasill
The Magic of Yggdrasill

Author: Yves Kodratoff

Publisher: Universal-Publishers

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1627342907

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book took its start with the author’s realization that what Old Norse calls 'magic' can be understood as 'unconscious', as stated by C. G. Jung: (we find) "magical means everything where unconscious influences are at work." This book reveals the existence of several Norse words specifically dedicated to magic, as are 'sköp', for instance, and it details the magic they carry with them. In our modern civilization these "skop" still exist but their magical nature is no longer obvious, though this point can be disputed. Once this magic is discovered and acknowledged, it becomes possible to infer from Norse poetry the existence and handling of unconscious archetypes within its associated myths. A few of them have been analyzed in detail and this enabled us to better understand some surprising traits of this mythology... up to detecting 'magical spells' imbedded within Norse poetry (they are usually dubbed as 'Galdralag"). The book ends by sending to the readers a positive of such 'spells' by which "Odinn" self-increased his thoughts and deeds, as given in Havamal. The book aims at four logically connected targets: 1) spotting Poetic Edda stanzas using a vocabulary calling upon magic for improving our knowledge of ancient Norse magic, 2) checking that no convincing proof of "Christian influences" on Poetic Edda had been provided by the academic community, 3) spotting a few images of Old Norse unconscious archetypes, and 4) finding a few typical instances of the Eddaic meter called Galdralag ("incantation meter").

Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages
Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages

Author: Stephen A. Mitchell

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2011-06-06

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0812203712

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Stephen A. Mitchell here offers the fullest examination available of witchcraft in late medieval Scandinavia. He focuses on those people believed to be able—and who in some instances thought themselves able—to manipulate the world around them through magical practices, and on the responses to these beliefs in the legal, literary, and popular cultures of the Nordic Middle Ages. His sources range from the Icelandic sagas to cultural monuments much less familiar to the nonspecialist, including legal cases, church art, law codes, ecclesiastical records, and runic spells. Mitchell's starting point is the year 1100, by which time Christianity was well established in elite circles throughout Scandinavia, even as some pre-Christian practices and beliefs persisted in various forms. The book's endpoint coincides with the coming of the Reformation and the onset of the early modern Scandinavian witch hunts. The terrain covered is complex, home to the Germanic Scandinavians as well as their non-Indo-European neighbors, the Sámi and Finns, and it encompasses such diverse areas as the important trade cities of Copenhagen, Bergen, and Stockholm, with their large foreign populations; the rural hinterlands; and the insular outposts of Iceland and Greenland. By examining witches, wizards, and seeresses in literature, lore, and law, as well as surviving charm magic directed toward love, prophecy, health, and weather, Mitchell provides a portrait of both the practitioners of medieval Nordic magic and its performance. With an understanding of mythology as a living system of cultural signs (not just ancient sacred narratives), this study also focuses on such powerful evolving myths as those of "the milk-stealing witch," the diabolical pact, and the witches' journey to Blåkulla. Court cases involving witchcraft, charm magic, and apostasy demonstrate that witchcraft ideologies played a key role in conceptualizing gender and were themselves an important means of exercising social control.

The Poetic Edda
The Poetic Edda

Author: Carolyne Larrington

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-09-11

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0191662941

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

She sees, coming up a second time, earth from the ocean, eternally green; the waterfalls plunge, an eagle soars above them, over the mountain hunting fish. After the terrible conflagration of Ragnarok, the earth rises serenely again from the ocean, and life is renewed. The Poetic Edda begins with The Seeress's Prophecy which recounts the creation of the world, and looks forward to its destruction and rebirth. In this great collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry, the exploits of gods and humans are related. The one-eyed Odin, red-bearded Thor, Loki the trickster, the lovely goddesses, and the giants who are their enemies walk beside the heroic Helgi, Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer, Brynhild the shield-maiden, and the implacable Gudrun. This translation also features the quest-poem The Lay of Svipdag and The Waking of Angantyr, in which a girl faces down her dead father to retrieve his sword. Comic, tragic, instructive, grandiose, witty, and profound, the poems of the Edda have influenced artists from Wagner to Tolkien and speak to us as freely as when they were first written down seven hundred and fifty years ago.

Norse Mythology
Norse Mythology

Author: John Lindow

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2002-10-17

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 0198034997

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Norse Mythology explores the magical myths and legends of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Viking-Age Greenland and outlines the way the prehistoric tales and beliefs from these regions that have remained embedded in the imagination of the world. The book begins with an Introduction that helps put Scandinavian mythology in place in history, followed by a chapter that explains the meaning of mythic time, and a third section that presents in-depth explanations of each mythological term. These fascinating entries identify particular deities and giants, as well as the places where they dwell and the varied and wily means by which they forge their existence and battle one another. We meet Thor, one of the most powerful gods, who specializes in killing giants using a hammer made for him by dwarfs, not to mention myriad trolls, ogres, humans and strange animals. We learn of the ongoing struggle between the gods, who create the cosmos, and the jötnar, or giants, who aim to destroy it. In the enchanted world where this mythology takes place, we encounter turbulent rivers, majestic mountains, dense forests, storms, fierce winters, eagles, ravens, salmon and snakes in a landscape closely resembling Scandinavia. Beings travel on ships and on horseback; they eat slaughtered meat and drink mead. Spanning from the inception of the universe and the birth of human beings to the universe's destruction and the mythic future, these sparkling tales of creation and destruction, death and rebirth, gods and heroes will entertain readers and offer insight into the relationship between Scandinavian myth, history, and culture.