Daily Archives: January 9, 2013

Art and Culture, Great Wheel, Great Work, Writing

A Sabbatical

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Winter                                                                    Moon of the Winter Solstice

Winding down.  Last two days of tours.  A vast stretch of mornings between next Monday and July 1st.  I’m excited.  Rewriting.  Writing.  Marketing.  Lots to do.

One outdoor to do over the next few months.  Get out in Anoka county.  Hike.  Take pictures.  Make some phenological observation.  Maybe take a week plus somewhere, hiking from a cabin or perhaps, if I can find one, a trail going from inn to inn.  I’m feeling the need for some natural rejuvenation.  Not cities.  Not books.  Not movies.  Not art.

Mostly though I want to lean into the writing.  Make it as full time as I can.

Myth and Story, Writing

A Good Lay (sorry, couldn’t help it)

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Winter                                                                       Moon of the Winter Solstice

The Lay of Thrym.  It recounts how Loki convinced Thor to visit jotunheim (home of the giants) in drag.  Thor woke up one day and his hammer, the famed mjollnir, had gone missing.  He complained to Loki and Loki agreed to set off on a quest to find it.

(detail from Marten Winge’s Thor’s Battle with the Giants)

Find it he did.  Thrym had it.  “Eight rasts below the surface of the midgard.”  A rast, according to one website, was a bit more than a mile.  Too far to dig, in other words.

Thrym offered Loki a deal.  He wanted Freyja, a goddess among the Aesir famed for her attractiveness to giants.

Loki agreed, returned to Asgard, told Thor and then went to see Freyja who rejected the idea.  A lot.

Loki had another idea.  He convinced Thor to wear Freyja’s bridal wear, including her famed Brisinga necklace.  Thrym was so taken with her appearance at jotunheim that he ordered mjollnir brought in and placed on her knees.

The lay then says, “Laughed Thor’s soul in his breast…”  And in the very next sentence:  “He first slew Thrym…and the jotun’s race all crushed…”

“So got Odin’s son his hammer back.”